Sunday, March 22, 2009

Fancy Water Bottle Holders

I decided to do a little arts and crafts on the bike this weekend. I love the Retro Cage from VO and always thought it would be nice to put some leather on it, especially when I'm using my Kleen Kanteens. (Advance apologies to the vegans and vegetarians right now).



So, I took some Toe Clip Leathers (also from VO) and stitched them on to the Retro Cages. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to stitch them on pretty quick. The toe leather kit comes with a pair of needles and some thick waxed thread (black). The pieces of leather themselves were just the right length and come pre-perforated (no awl necessary.. though it takes some poking sometimes to get the needle through)



The finished product, I think, looks great. It certainly stops the rattling and that irksome metallic scratching sound that sometimes happens when I pull my KK out.

10 comments:

JPTwins said...

Looks fantastic! I was thinking of doing something similar with felt. I haven't used my sigg bottles i recently bought due to the rattling!

Geoff

Gavin said...

I like that idea, I just rode 26 miles listening to the KKs rattling in the holders, wondering how I would hear anything bad with my bike over the rattle of the water bottle.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful Russ. Nice looking addition.

RussRoca said...

It's a neat little fix...not too hard (trust me, I have two left thumbs). The Toe Leather Kit, comes with instructions...I just followed those (even though I wasn't sewing onto a toe clip).

GhostRider said...

Oooh wee! That's sharp-looking! Very classy, indeed, and a great idea on top of that.

Raiyn said...

Very nice!

Yehuda Moon said...

Beautiful!

Joel said...

Kind of the opposite of something I think they used to have up at VO - the stainless thermos bottles with a leather wrapper. Very nice.

djdau@walnutel.net said...

Saw this and had to do it for my Rambouillet...look here:

http://myrambouilletbuild.blogspot.com/2009/04/accessorization-frustration-and-bike.html

Michael Meiser said...

I saw the VO retro cage at the NAHBS in Indianapolis this year, probably one of my favorite products of the show, though I haven't ordered any yet.

http://mmeiser.com/blog/2009/03/random-bits-from-nahbs.html

It was almost as cool as the Signal Cycles wine rack but a whole lot more practical.

http://mmeiser.com/blog/2009/03/signal-cycles-wine-rack.html

Great old school and still very practical touring cage. Your leather mod is brilliant.

I've also recently started using a single Klean Kanteen... and I have tried out the Trangia. I like it though I found it uses to much fuel for winter use (melting snow / boiling water), but it may be perfect for summer use.

There's no such thing as the perfect stove... there is only the perfect stove for an individual for a specific trip.

There are as many stoves as personalities. A stove for everyone.

That said, I have an MSR dragonfly I like... it's light, but bulky... though I've moded it to make it pack smaller. It is very efficient with fuel and boils water extremely fast. It's prefered in cold weather use or when I will have to boil water alot.