Creative things to do with old bike parts

Give a car recently got in touch asking if they could guest post on London Cyclist. Normally I refuse offers like this but as it’s a charity (They raised £50,000 for cancer research) and it’s about scrapping cars – I thought – why not!

Give a Car is a scrap car charity organisation that donates its proceeds to charities around the world. Ditch the old banger in favour of a more ethical mode of transport… such as biking.

Have you recently gone out and bought yourself a new bike and have your old monstrosity cluttering the hallway? Or perhaps you have loads of spare bike parts that you don’t know what to do with? Here are some creative ideas..

1) A new form of transport

Simply, logical and, yes, awesomely cool, creating a new mode of transport from your bikes parts is a great way to start. So your friends might say it’s a bit weird, but you know they’re just jealous of your ingenuity and intimidating powers of creation.

Here’s a great example of something practical:

Image by barb.howe

Something cool:

Image by pagedesign

And something, which, err, doesn’t fit comfortably within either of those categories:

Image by charkesw

2) A chic door or gate

Another way to make the most of you old bike is to spruce up your dwelling with a funky new door or gate. This is a great method to let anyone entering your house know that you’re bike crazy and gives them enough time to prepare themselves accordingly.

Here are a couple of inspired examples:

Image by thekirbster

Image by tibchris

3) Jewellery

Once you’ve constructed your new vehicle, door, or gate, creating some jewellery is a fantastic way to use up all the small and fiddly parts. If your mad skills are not just confined to the cycle path you may even find yourself with a profitable new enterprise.

 

Image by E. Bartholomew

4) A work of modern art

For those of you with an artistic temperament this enables you to show off of your twin passions for aesthetic beauty and cycling. The sky’s the limit with this one and the possibilities endless.

Here are some examples to get your creative juices flowing:

Image by Rob Young

Image by ednl

5) A dinosaur

Why? I hear you ask. Well, because everybody loves a dinosaur. Old or young, these prehistoric behemoths appeal to everyone’s sense of fascination. Even if you have been roundly mocked for your bike-cum-submarine, your impractical front door, your dangerous-looking earrings and your work of ‘modern’ art, you are bound to receive high praise for a towering T-Rex.

Now this is what I’m talking about:

Image by exfordy