DIY Otherthings Cage

[Lentamentalisk]

The anything cage has a bottom, which won't let me strap my overly long tent (~20") to my fork. I'm making an Anything inspired cage to hose clamp to my fork with no top or bottom.

3/8" stainless steel tubing, bent with a hand tube bender. I'll be silver brazing it together and adding some cross pieces along the length for added rigidity and strength. I've never brazed before, so wish me luck!

I suppose for the amount I've paid for materials and tools I could have purchased a bunch of the new anything cages and just cut the bottoms off, but where would be the fun in that?

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[Adam Alphabet]

Awesome!! Can't wait to see this in action. Keep posting the process pics and the finished product. Good Luck!

[taprider]

like the "otherthings" name

[UtahGuy]

I'm chewing on something similar.  How'd this turn out?

[Lentamentalisk]

Heh. Crushing failure. I can't braze stainless to save my life. Someone with actual skills I'm sure could do this no problem. You might be able to get King Cage to make you something special. Who knows.

Now that my main bikepacking bike has a carbon fork with no mounts, my dreams have all turned to a fork mount specifically designed around either electrical tape or soft mounted hardware like the SKS Anywhere Mount.

[UtahGuy]

I dunno if I trust zip ties or soft straps like the SKS Anywhere to be sturdy/rigid enough down there on the forks.  I was thinking hose clamps (I'm not cool enough for carbon), but I literally just now ran across an old set of Quickfists in my garage, and now instead of cleaning the garage I'm screwing around with the bike again.

What size are your fork legs?  The lowers on my suspension fork are just about 1.5" so the original Quickfist fits perfectly.

[jeremy11]

Nice concept, I've never tried brazing either.

As for mounts, I've tried a lot of things over the years:
- P clamps are OK but are diameter specific and offset the bag, plus they're a bit floppy.
- For a while I made a hose clamp mount from a thin strip of aluminum with three M5 holes in it, and it worked great, but took some fabrication time.
- Then I tried the SKS Anywhere Mount, it worked much better than I expected, but still rotated and slipped a little after a while.
- Finally I designed a new improved version of the hose clamp mount, and had a local CNC shop make me a batch. Functionally it is the same as the earlier hose clamp mount, but I added recesses so the hose clamp body could be tucked in, out of the way. The test one on my commuter bike is working great, install and forget it.

At the risk of squishing your DIY spirit, here's a link to the CNC mount (note this is my own side business).
http://cleavelandmountaineering.com/product/fork-clamp-mount/

Or, if you're going DIY on the entire cage, just integrate a hose clamp mount into the cage itself, for a lower profile finished product.

[Lentamentalisk]

Yup, I'm actually half way through making something identical to your fork clamp mount. I don't have CNC tools, so dremeling out the spots between screw holes is slow going. For the CF fork, my plan was to electrical tape it, instead of hose clamps.

Part of the important thing to me is being able to easily install and remove the items. The base mount could be a more involved install (like your fork clamp mount) but when I'm traveling, I don't want to be sitting in my hotel room, swearing at the hose clamps as they slide around and such. 3 M5 screws is all I'll put up with.