ReCYCLE Bicycle Lamp

I love bicycles and do most of my own repairs. For some reason, I tend to hang on to old parts, even things that are worn out and / or I don't have a foreseeable need for. I'm glad I hung on to a few odds and ends over the years, thus creating my upCYCLE lamp!

The supplies are unique to my project: old bike parts and accessories and an old lamp base. The pieces that I purchased new were limited to the bulb sockets, some shrink-wrap tubing and some plastic pieces to mount the sockets. Read on to learn more!

This lamp needed a stable base and I had one on hand. The base alone weighs about five pounds.

For simple decoration, I used an old chain ring (front sprocket). I then stacked on a worn-out cassette (rear sprockets, or cogs) and wrapped a chain around it. You can see the plastic zip tie that holds the chain in place. And for further decoration, I wrapped an old tire around the base. None of this is functional.

In the middle of the lamp post, I attached a stem. (For non-cyclists, this is the part that normally attaches a handle bar to the bike.) The clamp size turned out to be perfect!

Just above the stem is a bracket that normally holds a bicycle lock onto the frame of the bike. I used this to guide the electrical cord. The bracket pivots freely.

To add functionality, I attached a seat post via the stem. (A seat post is the part that attaches a bicycle seat to the frame of the bike.) The post hold accessories that make the lamp more than a lamp:

One side has a bottle cage, to hold your favourite beverage.

The other side holds a pedal. More on the pedal's use in the next step.

The pedal is perhaps the weak part of my contraption. The pedal is simply friction fit into the seat post, so there is risk that it gets bumped out. Also, pedals are meant to spin freely on bearings. This is an old pedal, the bearings don't spin so freely, but still... I used some hot melt glue to stabilize things.

The pedal now supports a magnetic parts bowl. While the pedal is mostly resin, there is just enough metal in it for the magnet to have something to hang onto.

The purpose of the parts bowl, you ask? To hold the bowl of cheddar-jalapeno chips of course! Because of the risk of the pedal turning in the seat post, I would not use this to hold a bowl of salsa or chilli or anything heavier than peanuts or chips. After all, I don't want to have to do another "Trash to Treasure" submission because of a stained carpet!

On the other side, the bicycle water bottle cage can hold your favourite beverage. In this case, the cage is mounted securely in the seat post clamp, so it can easily handle a full bottle. Cans might be a bit trickier, however, as the bottle cage clamps tightly and initially crushed the can. You can see in some photos that I used a cut-off, plastic water bottle as an insert, to protect the can from being crushed.

The lamp post originally had an electrical fixture at the top. As this was the part that was broken, I simply unscrewed it.

The lamp assembly has two primary pieces:

* An old "quill" stem. These older style stems have an expander wedge bolt that normally fits into the fork of a bicycle. As you tighten a bolt, the wedge gets tighter and tighter against the inside of the fork's steerer tube, or, in this case, inside the lamp post. It makes for a very secure connection.

* The handlebar attaches to the stem in the normal fashion; I simply adjusted the direction to point the ends up.

The electrical work was the trickiest.

I had to purchase two, new ceramic sockets (bulb holders) and figure out how to attach them to the handlebars. In the end, it wasn't really that difficult. I used two plastic plugs from the electrical aisle, with a hole drilled into the middle so that I could bolt the socket to the plugs. The plugs were then just wedged into the ends of the handle bars. I had initially tried bicycle bar-end plugs, but they did not have enough grip to hold the weight of the assemble.

Two old lampshades were then used, simply held in place with the bulbs, as designed.

The electrical cord and switch were from the original donor floor lamp.

All electrical connections were soldered and covered with heat-shrink tubing.

You can build your base out of almost anything, but I really like how things were topped off, consistent with the theme of the base.

On one side, a Louis Garneau helmet that was long past is safe service life.

(SAFETY warning: In case you were not aware, sunlight will degrade helmets over time. Even if they do not suffer any impacts, their ability to protect you will be reduced. Check with the helmet manufacturer for how long your helmet was designed to last.)

The other side is a beer box. Because the bulbs are LED and thus create very little heat, they are safe to use here. I would never use halogen or incandescent this close to cardboard.

So that's my recycled bicycle upCYCLE lamp, complete with snack and beverage holder!

I hope it inspires you in some small way.

Andre