Make: Bicycle Projects: Upgrade, Accessorize, and Customize with Electronics, Mechanics, and Metalwork

by John Baichtal

What is a bicycle? The answer is a little trickier than you might think. More than just a form of transportation, your bike is a framework on which you can explore and display your own inventiveness.With a full history of the bicycle and information about commercial mods such as adding baby seats and fenders--as well as instruction on wheels, tires, and regular maintenance--this book gives you the tools and ideas to hack your ride your own way.

You'll not only find out how to strip down your bike so that you can actually put it back together again, but you'll create a complete bike hacker's workbench, ready for any idea you might have!

In Make: Bicycle Projects, you'll learn to:


Add EL wire, LEDs, and NEOPixels for cool nighttime travel
Install a SpokePOV kit to see things only your bike sees
Add a DIY Smartphone Rig that keeps you connected
Paint your bike so that it stays painted
Turn your geared steed into a fixie
Weld and braze your frame
Make a rad chopper
Let the sun power your projects
Give an audio component to your frame for alarms, horns, and just making noise
Haul cargo in a basket or mini-trailer
Turn your ride into a veritable party trailer replete with color organ!

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction

133 pages, Paperback

First published August 6, 2015

About the author

John Baichtal has written or edited over a dozen books, including the award-winning Cult of Lego (2011 No Starch Press), LEGO hacker bible Make: LEGO and Arduino Projects (2012 Maker Media) with Adam Wolf and Matthew Beckler, Robot Builder (Que 2014) and Basic Robot Building with LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (Que 2012), as well as Maker Pro (Maker Media 2014), a collection of essays and interviews describing life as a professional maker. John lives in Minneapolis with his wife and three children.

Reviews

[Matt Heavner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun idea read. A few sloppy errors, but overall, high level good ideas.