Good friend of Recycle This and The Really Good Life, Su, has got a question for us:

Bicycle panniers – mine have a really useful stretchy mesh pocket on the outside, unfortunately now more hole than mesh. Any ideas on repairing them? The actual pannier part is absolutely fine.

The summer before last, I bought some mens’ shorts for myself and since I don’t have things down there in need of containment, I removed the “netting” layer – that wouldn’t have been pretty but would have fit the bill perfectly – stretchy white mesh. (I ended up using it in the greenhouse to store bulbs.) Can anyone think of anything else in the same vein to reuse instead? Heavy (so they won’t run) nylon tights maybe?

Another idea which is less reusing/recycling but still repairing: could you crochet a flat mesh from a plastic twine using a variant on a string bag patten? I used to make a version of this bag from all sorts of different yarns when we were short of shopping bags – makes up very quickly because it’s so much hole :)

Any other ideas?

(Photo by arifm)

The wonderful Alice in Blogland sent me an email last week:

Thought of another recycle that I could use some help with!

I’ve taken some waterproof trousers, jackets and cycling gear from someone who didn’t want to just dump them in landfill. I thought there would be
loads of things I could make with them – my ideas so far are a pair of rainlegs, a pair of gaiters made from the bottom of some waterproof trousers, a rucksack cover like this, a waterproof bike saddle cover and maybe a waterproof hat.

Can anyone come up with any more ideas? And does anyone know how I can seal the seams for things which need to be really watertight?

I think we’ve talked about the watertight seam question before – but if anyone has any new suggestions, please do feel free to add them.

As for things to make out of them, if I still used my bike, I’d probably want a waterproof hat/helmet cover – with a peak at the front to protect my glasses a bit. I also like the idea of gaiters as my trousers always puddle-soak.

As it is though, I rarely have to leave the house in the rain so if the waterproofs were made from a neoprene type material, I’d probably use some of it, along with a bit of expanded polystyrene foam, to make a bath pillow – much more my speed now ;)

Other ideas?

We’ve had an email from Jenny (who makes cool stuff out of old bottlecaps), asking about saddles:

i got a nice new soft bike saddle to replace my old hard one so i can cycle in comfort. but i was trying to think of what i could do with the old one.

any ideas? i’d love to turn it into something funky and cool or useful.

I have a feeling I’ve seen some cool bike seat repurposing but can’t think where or what it was (although a lamp springs to mind for some crazy reason).

Ideas?

(Oh, and recycling cyclists may also be interested in our posts on wonky wheels rims and inner tubes.)

(Photo by cribbe)

We’ve already covered the wheel rims but Erika has emailed asking:

I was wondering if there were any ideas about old bike tubes….

I’m presuming we’re talking inner tubes anyway – it’s quite possible there is another type of bike tube since I’m not a terribly keen cyclist – I live at the top of a steep hill and prefer to tackle it on foot. If there is some other ‘bike tube’, please feel free to answer about both ;)

(Photo by kikashi)