DIY Life

Earlier this week, I wrote a post with some ideas for planning every family staycation. As I was browsing the Internet today, I found that lots of other people have great ideas, too, but that the most unique ones came from Better Homes and Gardens.

BHG put together a gallery of their 25 best staycation ideas. Some of their more unique activities include:

• turning your home into a spa -- Make some spa-quality products at home and let the pampering begin: for your face, your hands and body, and your feet.
  
• going on a family bike ride
• flying a kite
• having a field day for the kids -- Or, create your own summer camp.
  
• organizing a block party -- You coulc choose to do this in a Mexican or Hawaiian theme, some of BHG's other party ideas.

Whatever you decide to do on your staycation, it seems that the common themes are relaxing and enjoying the people in your life. What's your favorite staycation activity?

Batman kicks butt in his latest movie, The Dark Knight, a gloomy yet action-packed flick that scored big at the box office this weekend. A summer blockbuster has been born, to be sure. The stunningly cool vehicles used in the movie are attracting interest all on their own, especially the sleekly menacing Bat-Pod motorcycle.

It turns out the bike was a bit of a DIY job on the part of the film's creators. According to an article in Popular Mechanics, the 'Pod is actually a motorcycle-ATV hybrid, all wrapped up with plumbing parts and some creative duct-work. The entire exhaust frame was custom built especially for the movie, while those massive wheels suffered blow-out after blow-out until the steering was just right. Another cool little factoid: the footrests disguise the bike's radiator.

Speaking of The Dark Knight, the movie's star, Christian Bale, seems to have gotten himself into a spot of bother with the police. Read all about it at our sister site, Cinematical.

Tandem biking has grown in popularity over the last few years. Far from being the quaint "bicycle built for two" of the past, tandem biking is all about serious fitness these days. The larger, stronger person sits in the front, steering the bike and controlling it, while the "stoker" is the person who powers from behind.

Tandem biking has several benefits. It's a great activity for two people with different fitness levels. It also offers a mental challenge along with the physical workout -- partners must team up to find a rhythm that works for them. But most of all, it's just a whole lot of fun.

The drawback, of course, is the price. Low-end models go for about $500, while top of the line bikes can reach around $2500.

You can make your own tandem for a lot less than that, however. Find a couple of used bicycles, then make your way over to Instructables, where they'll teach you how to build your own tandem bike. You'll need to be at least a little knowledgeable about the parts of a bicycle and how they work, but if you are, this is a fairly simple hack.

[via Make.]

Bikes. They're everywhere. Mountain bikes and road bike sales started trending up about a decade ago (thanks, Lance), and recently sales got an additional bump because of rising gas prices. Do you own one? If so, you're familiar with the expensive pricing structure at the bike shop.

You really should get a complete tune-up on a yearly basis. And if you do the work yourself, you can save bucks big time. This used to be a case of reading confusing manuals with substandard illustrations. But no more! At this excellent bike repair online resource, you can do it all.

The instructions are clearly written and the photos are well-done and informative. So get out the tool box, surf over there, and get started! This is a great time to replace a freewheel, adjust your brake calipers, or adjust a headset!

[via Lifehacker]

I was surprised when, after gifting my husband with a new bike for his birthday, he hung on to his old one. He explained he kept it around for days when he had to park his bike outside, because he didn't want the new one to get stolen.

It's a problem that bicycle commuters and bike enthusiasts everywhere have to deal with. Bikes are easy to steal and hard to track.

So what do you do when you have a nice ride that you risk losing every time you park it? According to MAKE, you ugly it. A little paint, some faux techniques to make it look rusty... suddenly you have a junker bike that still rides like a dream. Tear out the seat, replace the screws, and even the most savvy of bike thieves might not know that that beast is really a beauty underneath.

After a long off-season of rainy weather, my boys were restless to get riding again. My oldest took off his training wheels last summer and was eager to get back on the bike and practice his new skills. My husband is riding again too, and we're all excited for an active summer.

As the parents, it's our responsibility to make sure that our children are safe. Gone are the days where kids set up ramps on the dead-end road and fly over them without a thought to the dangers, and without a helmet. Now, many states and provinces, including my own, have laws requiring helmet use. First and foremost, the best way to encourage bike safety is to practice it yourself.

Are you sure you know how to best use a helmet, minimizing the potential for injury should something happen?

Follow me through the break for an important checklist, so that you and your family stay safe while riding.

Road biking and mountain biking are as different in style as they are in culture.

Road biking requires cyclists working together in order to maximize their performance through drafting and other strategies. In my experience, the drawback is that in contrast to working together to get a better time, road biking can be very "every man for himself" when it comes to helping others with mechanical issues.

Mountain biking, on the other hand, seems to have a culture of assisting anyone who looks like they are struggling, in spite of the need for individual talent and achievement in order to excel at the sport.

There is no drafting on an intense section of single track. I have been lent tools, tubes, chain parts, tech tips, and encouragement during various rides when things have definitely not been going well. Many of these offers came entirely unsolicited from complete strangers who just happened to pass me and my friends when we had stopped to deal with a situation.

After the break I will, in the true spirit of mountain biking, share a few of the more unusual repairs I have encountered when either parts or tools have not been present to do the needed repairs properly.

Spring is nearly here, and for many of us that means hauling out our bicycles. Whether you're riding for fun, or commuting to work, a bike in good repair is essential to your safety and comfort.

Experts recommend a bike tune-up every year. Done professionally, this will cost you about $40, but you can easily do it yourself.

Here are 8 important things to do before heading out on your first ride. You'll find details about each step in these tips for tuning up your green-machine.

1. Pump it up!
2. Check for wear and damage
3. Check break lever and caliper action
4. Check break-pads
5. Check cables
6. Lube the chain
7. Tighten lose bolts and screws
8. Clean the bike

Once you've completed the tune up, you're ready to hit the road. Hopefully everything runs smoothly, but if you do encounter problems, this DIY bike repair site is a great resource for diagnosing and fixing common issues.

To me, this looks more like a dancer's pole than a bike rack, but regardless of the kind of rack this pole is supporting, it's an impressive hack. Bike storage is an issue for many people with small spaces. This sleek design allows you to stack two bikes on top of each other, taking up very little room.

This innovative solution is just another example of the tremendous flexibility of IKEA parts and products. Here's what you need to put the bike rack together:

• One Stolmen post
• Two brackets
• Two hooks
• Screws
• Aluminum 20X20 pipe
• Rubber foam

IKEA hacker has all the assembly instructions. The whole thing will cost about $40. Pick up these few things from IKEA, spend a bit of time assembling the rack and stop tripping over your bikes for good.

[via: Lifehacker]

So you pulled out all the stops, put on your cape, and played Super Mom/ Dad for Christmas by getting the little one(s) a new bicycle with dual overhead thingys, quad turbo whatsits, and a unified theory of squidgybo. Congratulations on making their little dreams come true! Now that the bow is off and they have figured out that maybe deep winter isn't always the best time to go riding, where do you store the dang thing until the spring thaw where it won't get stolen, snowed/ rained on, or treated like a fire hydrant by every K-9 in a 10 block radius?

If you aren't lucky enough to have an out building or storage shed, and you garage is already full of either stuff or cars, what are you going to do? Do the kids park it where ever they can find room in the garage and hope it doesn't get run over or hit by one of the cars? Do you wind up like a contestant in the hammer throw and lob it on top of the junk pile and hope to not start an avalanche? Do you cover it up with a tarp outside hoping spiders and condensation don't reduce it to a small pile of rust before it gets ridden again?

PVC pipe. It's affordable, easy to work with, durable. Not, it's not very pretty, but let me say again: it's affordable! PVC is sort of a wonder-plastic and can be used creatively in many a DIY project. (That is, if you're willing to overlook the fact that it's highly toxic and, therefore, not exactly a green choice.) Like this one, for example: build a bike rack using PVC pipe. I found this one on Instructables, offered up for public consumption by user "imarunner2."

This is a nice 'n' easy little project. If you have a halfway decent saw, you can make this. You will need a length of three-quarter-inch PVC pipe and a bunch of connecting joints -- six t-joints and six elbow joints. All the pieces are glued together using PVC cement. One Instructables reader tried it out and found himself out-of-pocket by a mere $5. Peanuts!

Interested in bigger, more elaborate models? Take a look at some of the pics people have uploaded to Flickr. You've got your king-size garage versions, and then you've got your mondo versions, too. That last one must've been a fun weekend project. Not.

Liking the DIY-with-PVC concept? Check out Gary's post on a DIY vehicle shelter made from PVC pipes.

Ever wonder what to do with all those bicycle parts that you know you can't throw away because someday they will have a use? Ever wonder what to do with those crutches that you hope you'll never need again?

Wonder no more, as I have found a great instructable on how to make a stool from spare bike parts and crutches. Ryan McFarland, aka zieak, went to the thrift store and purchased some old crutches. He took those old crutches, along with some bike wheels and inner tubes, a few bolts, a piece of plywood, and some insulation, and made an adjustable height stool with all those parts. Talk about ingenuity!

The complete instructions for the "bike-crutch stool" can be found at instructables.com. I don't know about you, but the inner tube seat doesn't appeal to me. I would certainly have to cover the insulation and plywood with something a little more feminine. For all you guys out there, this is probably the most manly thing though, right?

I used to have the coolest tire caps for my old bike. They were just a pair of dice, but at least 95% more awesome than the standard caps that came on the bike (the bike store also had similarly cool skull-shaped caps, but those seemed like they'd be tempting fate). If I hadn't lost the dice caps in a move, I'd definitely be using them on my new bike: a pearl-pink retro cruiser with white pinstriping!

So, I know that you can buy dice tire caps from some bike shops, if they carry them.

But if you have dice and some common equipment around, why not try making your own dice tire valve caps with this tutorial by Instructables user Supersaddy? It's a very simple procedure, even easier if you own a drill press: clamp down a die, drill a hole in it that's big enough to allow for insertion of the valve cap, glue the valve cap into the hole, let them dry... and ride off into the sunset with your rockin' new tire caps. You've got style, my friend.

However, be aware that there are two nearly identical tutorials for dice tire caps on Instructables. The other one recommends using Gorilla Glue, but Gorilla Glue may be inappropriate for the project, because it expands as it dries. That means that it can push the valve cap out of the hole that was drilled for it.

When I was a kid, my brother had a bicycle that had the seat cover ripped off. Let me tell ya, that was not a fun experience. I liked to ride into town, which is a 5 mile trip. By the time I rode those 10 miles, my entire bottom was crying out in agony.

You can keep your own bottom happy with this bike seat cover made by Lenore. She has made a cushioned bike seat cover out of fabric and foam. With her step by step instructions and pictures illustrating the procedure, you too can have a happy bum and finally ride those extra country miles that you just couldn't ride before when you had that crappy seat cover. Not only that, you'll have the coolest seat cover ever!

Now that you have a new iPod Nano, you will want to keep that bad boy safe. Considering how small they are, you are bound to lose it or even break it. They are not designed to withstand much torture. I do not have an iPod, but if I did, it would probably end up broken or even in the toilet. It is not that I don't take care of my things, it is just that I can get forgetful sometimes, especially when my attention is focused on my 2 year old.