It's supposed to hold whatever lock I wanna drop in it . . .
You probably wonder why the slot is so long. Thinking is, if you shorten it up like this, so that the ends of the lock bar ride on the tubing, it can move back and forth in the slot . . .
. . . whereas if you make the slot long, the lock bar will seat like this and can't really go anywhere . . .
I brazed a wire loop onto the bottom of the stay and then wired one end of a mini-bungee to the loop, so that it can't come loose.
The other end of the bungee wraps around the lock and stay and hooks back into the same wire loop. For me, wrapping and hooking the bungee is an acceptable amount of hassle, if it results in a secure u-lock that doesn't rattle around.
Unfortunately, I think it's gonna be okay but not great. The bungee does a great job of keeping the lock tight to the stay, but not such a great job of putting enough downward force on it to keep it tightly seated in the slot.
Supposedly you learn way more from your failures than your successes, so I'm going with that. Not that it's a total failure, but it could and will be better. I'll say this though: When I started building racks I thought I was gonna totally nail every design the first time through and now I'm at the point where I seriously question if I know which end is up and I'm currently working with this rack that started out as a rush-job POS and which therefore I feel free to hack the piss out of. Turns out that it's teaching me a lot and the damn thing is actually starting to grow on me.
5 comments:
Great! Now, if you could just make a holster for Brandy.
Looks good, Pat. What about putting a curved piece on the rack at the bottom point of the lock? Then you could lock the lock in place.
Instead of a bungee, what about one of the thick rubber straps on some hitch-mounted bike racks? The strap is usually 8 to 10 inches long, thick, and has square holes in it for attaching it.
Hmmm. Bungee. No duct tape?
Less than elegant. But better than not.
Interested to see Holster v1.2
--GTT
For years I carried around my U-lock in my rack sort of like you show. To secure it though, I put one of those thick "broccoli rubber bands" around the lock's shackle so that one end loops _through_ the other. The rubber band totally stays put on the shackle. You just stretch it around a "prong" on the rack. Works like a charm -- try it out.
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