A bike lock holder I've been dreaming about for YEARS

 Sometimes even simple, needed projects take a long time to happen. Thats just how it works. Activation energy in the workshop is some mysterious and unknowable force not constraigned by actual complexity or necessity. I broke the little holder for my folding lock perhaps  3 years ago, though it could be pushing 4 if I'm being honest. Since then I've been strapping the lock to my porteur rack which has worked just fine. The project formed, however, when I became aware of these aluminum cans:

They're leftover containers from shipping delicate vials of some reagent or another at work, and before I came along to hoard them,  any which were not reused as pen holders were just thrown away. Not recycled mind you, we do not actually recycle at work. As with most places in Rhode Island we may put things into recycling bins, but they are dumped into the regular rubbish as a matter of routine. The only thing that is actually recycled at work is paper and cardbord, and that is only occasional. 

Anyway back to the aluminum cans. I have been preoccupied with imagining uses for these things. Besides pen holders. And one of the very first ideas in my head was a holder for my folding lock. I've had the whole thing planned, every aspect, for at least a couple years. And yet... 

First operation: drilling 8 1/8 in holes to accept rivets for mounting a strap. I could not find my 1/8in drill bit so I sized up slightly. This will come back to haunt me.

The can will be held to the bike frame using two of these "project savers" hose clamp pitons I acquired a while back. The intended purpose is to tighten them onto a downtube or fork to add brazons where needed, but I am reversing the design, screwing the studs into existing brazons to use the whole amanchure as a mounting bracket. 

Two into the bottle cage brazons and we've got ourselves a mount!

A quick tightening with my favorite automatic screwdriver. What a tool.

Finally, it is time to mount the strap. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the strap making but it was a simple bit of leather work. Nothing too exciting. Here is where my oversized holes come back to bite me though: the rivets slide right out. I have washers to deal with exactly this! Very handy for using pop rivets in fabric (for quick or lazy rivet work), but unfortunately there was simply no way I was going to reach the bottom holes to add washers with my rather large hands.

A quick trip to the tackle box however and some suitable foreceps were in hand. An extra access hole was necessary but I've rationalized this sufficiently as a drainage hole or something. It was tricky by all means but I managed.

Eight rivets later and we're done! Everything fits and it looks great! Well... if your aestetics are such that raw aluminum, leather, and pipe clamps look great at least. Mine certainly are. The strap is purposefully long to cover the excess pipe clamp hanging out. These things are razor sharp and my ankles would be bleeding in no time without the protection.

So there we have it,  many years in the making and barely an hour to actually do it. Next on the list for this bike are DIY fenders (excited about this, very experimental), a frame bag or two or three,  and some kind of rear rack setup. I'm planning a bikepacking trip to the very tip of Cape Cod in a few months and this bike needs to be ready to carry STUFF. I am not and ultralight backpacker.

The winter has not been kind to my workbench. I never really finished organizing it last summer.

Perhaps the potting bench fared even worse though, and it was clear and organized last summer.

Glad you're here. Until next time, Gassho.