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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Sun, 06 Nov 2005
Ok, so this is pretty cool. I had recommended to me, a while ago, I was thinking about putting offroad-style brushguards on my handlebars, but couldn't really find anything that fit. I thought about heated grips, but then there's the electrical draw, and they only heat the palm-side of your hands (which sounds nice until you experience your palm nearly burning while the back of your hand feels like it's getting frostbite). Electric gloves also came highly recommended, but again there's the current drain, and they're expensive, over $120 for a pair. So hippo hands were on my mind when the weather turned cold again in the last month or so. I had this crazy idea in my head -- a pair of these things which could be transferred between the Z and the Goldwing. It didn't seem like it'd be that hard; they both have barend mirrors, and are both laid out about the same, handlebar-wise. I contacted the guy behind hippohands.com, to see if he had anything that would work. He very quickly responded saying he didn't have anything that would work with barend mirrors. When I asked if he had any pointers on building my own (which seemed like the logical choice), he responded with the discouraging words that a prototype, when you have the bike in front of you, typically takes 20 hours to finish. 20 hours! Yikes! I got some fabric anyway, a yard of heavy ballistic nylon, and a yard of on-sale midweight fleece ($25 total in materials). I knew it was too much fabric, but at least I'd have extra if I messed up the first time. I got myself into the garage tonight, with some newspaper, scissors, tape, and a stapler. I figured I'd make a few prototypes in paper first, to see if I could find a shape that'd work for both bikes. I set to work, and quickly discovered that it didn't take much imagination to come up with a functional shape. In fact... I got out the tape measure, and measured the controls and handgrips on both bikes. Yep, a piece of fabric 11 inches long at the fold would work just fine, and... Indeed, it could just be made square, and should be quite functional. I tried to figure out what was wrong with my thinking. Nothing I could find. I cut out a piece of lightweight scrap fabric, 11" x 28", and tried folding it over the handlebars. Looked like it'd work perfectly. So, I steeled myself, and cut into my relatively expensive ballistic nylon. At $15.50 a yard, you wouldn't want to make anything too big out of it, but that amount will probably make 3-4 complete sets of hippo hands, if I felt so inclined. As I proceeded, at each step, I tried to figure out what could be wrong with what I was doing. Nothing ever occurred to me, so I kept going. It ended up taking about 2 hours, but by the end of the evening, I had one nearly finished hippo hand, which gave every appearance that it would work perfectly. It fits on the bike, either side, without trouble. Without gloves on, I didn't notice any interference with controls. There was plenty of room, so fitting gloves in there should be no problem. Even in the few seconds of having my hand inside the handlebar muff on each side, it got noticeably warmer. The one problem I foresee with this design is that the opening is very wide, and could conceivably allow swirling air in, chilling my hands. I already have a stop-gap solution, though, in the form of binder clips, those ubiquitous office accessories. I'll just clip the opening down to whatever size allows me to get my hand in and out, but doesn't leave more room than that. That also solves the problem of how to keep the muffs on the bars, in case the velcro fails, or the wind catches them strangely (which I'm not actually very worried about). Putting my first muff on either side was pretty quick, and taking it off was very quick, just a matter of undoing the velcro strips down each side. The ballistic nylon is supposed to be waterproof, but I'll probably help it along with a nice coat of Scotch Gard before I make any real tests, just so I don't have to worry too much about the whole thing getting waterlogged if it starts raining. Now I just have to get some more thread, put the finishing touches on number one, and make number two. I think I have a winner. Posted at 23:54 permanent link category: /motorcycle Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |