Submitted by: dunno source via Submit a Kludge!
Favorite Comment: Fixer Fanboy Wife says, “Now I want to see the contraption used to keep bugs out of the biker’s teeth.”
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If you look up photos from the winter bike meeting “Elefantentreffen” you will find many similar “kludges”. These actually are very effective when riding in temperatures far below zero and when snow is falling. Have kludged my bike similarly for this years Elefantentreffen myself. A cheaper way are two tetra paks from juice or milk
Now I want to see the contraption used to keep bugs out of the biker’s teeth.
A couple of combs, duct-taped to one of those wire clotheshangers.
they are called lips you just close them while riding….lol..
Try yelling “yee-haa” with your mouth shut.
It’s called a helmet…
What teeth?
I believe called a helmet, normally a full face one.
I want those!
What? Buy some gloves?! No! No, that’s crazy talk!
Actually, keeping rain/sleet/snow, wind and road spray off your gloves is a good thing. And this is one way to do so.
After I put new handguards on my allroad bike (BMW R100GS) I moved its factory handguards to my commuter bike (BMW K75), as they have the same handlebar fittings. It makes a worthwhile improvement in keeping your hands warm
Absolutely agree. Letaher/goretex gloves are a good way to keep your hands warm, but these sort of “blasters” quite effectively keep the salty water/snow/dirt mixture from the gloves, which actually suffer when in contact with this stuff. Another thing is protection from direct wind and/or rain snow. As i do a lot of riding all year on my bikes, I can only approve of these. Yes, they are not the nicest looking and they are not the state-of-the-art 250 dollars stuff you can buy, but they are a solution. Once again, try to look up Elefantentreffen photos on the web and you will see many rather “strange” conversions for winter traveller bikes. Just for info, this year, we had about 1,2 – 1,5 metres of snow and about -15 Celsius on this meeting and on our way (400 km) we have had serious snowfall and actually did have to “park” the bikes in a ditch about 7 km from the meet itself
. And on top of all, if you have heated grips, these create a really comfortable environment for your hands on travells of 8+ hours in sub-zero temperatures and snowfall
and smelling like sour milk?
There’s nothing stopping you from, you know, *cleaning* them.
Agreed, and once your gloves get soaked through from being in the rain on the back of a bike for a few hours, the chill is horrible!
Not mention the safety factor of trying to work the clutch and front brake with numb hands. This would be great for my BSA, which is an all-around klunker, being a couple decades older than I am. I would try something I could paint to match, and no, I would not attach it with zip-ties. Gloves only do so much.
Nice set of Jugs.
The next step in this mod will be fitting the halves of one of those ’50′s rocket cone bras to the jugs to improve the, errhm, the aerodynamics, yes.
So if the wind catches these jugs just right, do things start spinning?
This is actually a great frigging idea, if you ride a cheapo Chinese scooter to save money commuting and don’t give a damn what people think about how it looks. Scuse me, gotta go buy two $1 half-gallons of grape drink at the corner store.
The driver greatly benefits from the aftermarket DOHC modification to his motorcycle. Oh no…I am not talking about the engine. I am referring to the Double OverHand Containers.
This is a brilliant mod! I ride in cold weather and there are no (*) gloves that keep your hands warm if they’re out in the wind. I cannot find after market wind blockers for my bike so this mod makes total sense to me. Thanks for posting!
(*) I do actually have a pair of electric gloves and they work great, when they’re working. The wires hang all over my tank so even they’re a bit of a kludge.
* When the gloves don’t work, try putting the wires in the tank. I bet that will get you warmer.
Electric GLOVES? Wired to the bike?! Sounds like a harrowing accident just waiting to happen. Get hotgrips instead and tie the wires up properly
Sod hotgrips, they heat your hands from the wrong side. Also, they are bugger-all effective when it’s below freezing and you’re wearing winter gloves anyway to keep the unheated parts of your hands in a state where you can still operate the controls.
I have a set of electric inner gloves somewhere. The cabling goes up through the sleeves of my jacket, then join at a connector at waist level, and from there to the battery. The connector is just stiff, not locked, and will come loose in case of sudden bike-rider separation.
It’s just that I don’t use them much, the handguards do their job well.
Hippo Hands dude; http://www.hippohands.com/
a) Hippos don’t have hands.
b) whatever part of hippo anatomy it is you’re using to make those “Hippo Hands”, I doubt the hippos and/or the WWF will approve. And it’ll be back to milk jugs anyway once the hippos have run out.
You get better mileage if you use 2%.
And that’s just skimming the surface.
I’ve done this, and it’s quite common where I used to live for late season dirt bike riding.
The basic mod works great until you get going fast enough for the air pressure to force them against your hands the whole ride. But even that is still better than having sleet blown through your gloves and up your sleeve.
After that, you find a way to brace them in place, or pony up the bucks for real handguards. But this is a very real, useful cheapskate option.
I was told the bigger problem was they can push against the clutch and brake levers with enough force to wear and overheat the respective components. Just need to make sure you put enough of a shim/brace on to compensate for their floppiness though. The “real deal” look made out of plastic anyway so probably need some adjustment.
Do the cokebottle ones maybe – I have a feeling the stiffer neck (milk bottles have very weak necks) may help keep them in check.
Whenever I had my kludged handguards on, I rode with the levers covered.
(For those unfamiliar with the term, that means riding with fingers over the brake and clutch levers so you can engage them quicker.)
I’ve seen this sort of thing recommended as a cheap alternative to the commercial handlebar wind deflectors you can buy (ain’t nothing like 2′c wind at 50mph to make you wonder if your fingers are still attached, even with good bike gloves wedged on over the top of a regular pair of winter woolies), though the general idea was more to use a 2 or 3 litre coke bottle cut in half. Been considering doing it myself – the weather continues awful and readymade ones are surprisingly expensive.
(Plus, it could well give you a little extra speed – every bit of aero counts, especially on a low powered bike)
If you DO use milk bottles it’d probably be wise to cut them back a bit further – I don’t fancy seeing the accident that would result of your gloves’ knuckle protectors getting stuck on the lips that have been left, here.
On the other hand I can one-up this, if I can find the picture I took on my phone. Someone took a bright yellow 2-gallon bucket and cut THAT in half, attaching it to the bars. Same model as my own, too, but rustier – I’d be surprised to see it moving at any speed with that set-up in place! (Comes a point where the aero turns back into an air brake) — be very deserving of a TIFI entry
I’m disappointed this isn’t a Kawasaki.
Okay, I’ll bite. Whyyyyyy?
I think the Great Dono1 is making a crack at how, oh never mind. Tell us dammit!
Kaw-asaki – COW-asaki – cow – milk, get it?
I rode a long distance once without the right gloves and I felt like sticking my hands onto the engine to warm them, not caring about the consequences. I shivered just looking at this picture.
This is actually a very good idea. I just bought a pair of Givi TM418 hand protectors for my bike, but they cost me €50 and only thing preventing the first casual thief from stealing them is good thoughts. They’re the best for taking trips in the cold season, but for simple city riding you can’t beat these – effective enough for short city distances, and so inexpensive that even if someone does bother stealing them you can just shrug and replace them for another, what, €2?
i drive my K100/EML sidecar rig all winter here in New England. i have OEM heated grips, which are marginal in colder weather cuz the heavier gloves also insulate your hands from the heat source. installing enclosed covers over the handlebars and controls eliminates the cooling from the wind, and allows me to wear lighter gloves. my hands are now alot warmer.