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In my car-centric city (southeast USA, population ~125k) when I visit private property with no bicycle parking, I try to find the owner and offer to install one
by blamazon 4y ago
In my car-centric city (southeast USA, population ~125k) when I visit private property with no bicycle parking, I try to find the owner and offer to install one of these just for the cost of materials. The idea being, they can put in another one when they see more than one customer on a bicycle at the same time. It's very cheap, less than 100 bucks typically as I have the requisite tools in my garage to make them from scratch out of metal tubing. There's a variety of materials, finishing, and mounting options the property owner can choose from. I've done about a dozen of them, it makes biking around my city much more pleasant and my day is brighter when I see someone else using one.
- foobiekr 4y agoIf I was an owner, I'd have a lot of problems with this just because I'd be worried there'd be some regulation I was violating that would get me fined.
- woodruffw 4y agoIf it's on the owner's property, it's probably kosher. Many cities have rules about the proximity of bike racks/stands to fire hydrants, parking meters, etc., but those generally concern public sidewalks. I say probably because, knowing this country, I am positive someone can find a municipality that bans storeowners from putting bike stands on their property.
- aidenn0 4y agoOne example from Twitter thread: Might need a tapping bar for accessibility to blind people.
- idontpost 4y agoBlind people that need to attach their bikes to a rack?
- Rebelgecko 4y agoPresumably blind people that don't want to bruise their shins walking into one
- mgdlbp 4y agoSo much for search engine NLP. I couldn't find anything other than pages with Sheffield stands for sale using the term "tapping bar". Had to read the tweet[1] to get the term "tapping rail", which successfully turns up civil engineering documents. Maybe creating a Wikidata item with both terms as labels would give search engines a better idea. [1] https://twitter.com/LikeEngineer/status/1493321090470486023 https://twitter.com/LikeEngineer/status/1493321090470486023
- HWR_14 4y agoIf the city is installing them (via subcontractor) are you worried about the city then claiming you broke a city building code?
- foobiekr 4y ago“Probably kosher” is kind of my point. Are you offering to indemnify them?
- Angostura 4y agoIf the city is paying for them and installing them, I think you have to try quite hard to be worried.
- aaronblohowiak 4y agoall you need is a pipe bender, right?
- ghostly_s 4y agoI didn't know pipe benders capable of bending 3" dia steel tubing were accessible to a garage shop. you also need to weld mounting flanges.
- blamazon 4y agoI have a pipe bender that looks kinda like this but sideways and yellow and mounted on a tripod. I bought it from a guy who does water-suppression system installs for warehouses. https://www.harborfreight.com/16-ton-hydraulic-pipe-bender-62669.html https://www.harborfreight.com/16-ton-hydraulic-pipe-bender-6...
- throwaway0a5e 4y agoThe 10/12/14/16-ton pipe benders you get from China go up to 3" nominal (3.5" OD) depending on which one you get. The smallest cheapest ones do 2" nominal pipe (2.5" OD) which is fine for a bike rack.
- blamazon 4y agoFor the simplest case yes, a way of bending big pipe and some way to make two big holes in the ground to then cement the thing in. (Or similar) But it quickly gets complicated - making smaller holes in concrete type surfaces is easier, less intrusive, less permanent than making bigger holes, which can lead to the flange method, but then you need some way to make or buy flanges, and then stick them onto the pipe. I make my own flanges out of plate and weld them on but you could go with threaded flanges, I think Home Depot (or similar) can thread high diameter pipe for you. You can also skip the pipe bender by mitering two pipes together with a welder or doing like a pie cut thing. I do that kind of thing for pipe that's harder to bend - bend it to 45deg, miter cut and weld to 90 is a common technique for me. If you look up how DIY car exhausts are fabricated there's a lot of relevant tricks there. With a grinder and some elbow grease you can make it look like it was never welded. For the finishing touch it's nice to have a friend with a galvanizing and powder coating shop :)
- soared 4y agoMany cities will install these in front of businesses for free! The business owner just has to submit an application, and local bike lobby is paid to install it!
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agoTo be appropriately secure, these really need installing in concrete as shown in the initial tweet. Still, better to have one less secure sheffield installed than zero.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- egypturnash 4y agoYou are doing good work. Thank you.
- el_benhameen 4y agoThis is really cool. I’m sure this helps you develop a relationship with the business owners, too, which I would think helps foster more of a sense of community for everyone. Very neat.
- bambax 4y agoFor bike owners: a wheel lock [1] is not very high security but it's usually enough for a 3-minutes stop and it's extremely fast to lock and unlock, unlike chains. [1] https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/abus-wheel-lock-5650l-nr https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/abus-wheel-lock-5650l...
- rob74 4y agoI have used these (preinstalled or installed them myself) on several bicycles for years now, and none of them have been stolen yet. Mind you, that might also have something to do with the bicycles not looking very desirable (while being technically sound of course). For some added safety, there is also a version where you can attach a chain or cable which you can thread around a bike stand (https://www.amazon.de/Abus-11263-8-Fahrradschloss-St4850-schwarz/dp/B00IYAZDY6/ https://www.amazon.de/Abus-11263-8-Fahrradschloss-St4850-sch...)
- bambax 4y agoSame for me!