bike wrench

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A place to ask bicycle repair questions, and for bike shop monkeys to share advanced non commercial wrenching resources (no YouTube self promotion). This is only for repair related topics.

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diy bike front or rear racks materials (self.bikewrench)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by evasync to c/bikewrench

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I had no idea that cromoly tubes were so expensive so Im now looking for alternatives..

a generic question I have is, does it really matter on what I use of its not for a competition setup?

I mean I dnt care if its relatively heavy.. my initial thoughts was using stainless steel tubes or even construction rods but everyone online seem to recommend only using cromoly..

edit: ordered 5x25mm wtainless steel tubes for 15eur (1.5m) the same in cromoly couldnt find them under 70eur..

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[–] evasync 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

in my experience going to the store almost always costs more (but then again I only make simple single material stuff that dont require crazy equipment) To give this rack as an example, steel front racks are going for 100eur++ (check those surlys lol) and for what I want (which needs someone that mades custom racks) will easily go above 200eur.. (the plan is to make it with at least half)

for me its not just the fun.. the reasons are mainly ideological. (making, repurposing, reusing over consuming)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

This gave me an idea. Have you considered buying a used higher quality rack and modifying it? Might save some time and get you what you want with less new material, and sort out some of the harder parts to fabricate because they'd be done already, possibly only requiring a little bending to align with your eyelets. Plus you'd be saving something from someone else's scrap pile.

Around me there are a few community run used bike part shops. They typically have lots of racks and other parts kindof organized into piles or boxes by type. I can usually find something close to what I need if it's not too specific.