Bicycle Parking Brake.

by biciconex.com

7.6K77

Intro: Bicycle Parking Brake.

Hair tie or rubber band around the brake lever is all you need to make a bike parking brake.

STEP 1: Apply the Brake

Close the brake lever with one hand while looping the hair tie or heavy duty rubber starting at the end of the brake lever and then around the handle bars.  

STEP 2: Secure Brake With Hair Tie.

Loop the hair tie around the handle bar while keeping the other hand on the brake.

STEP 3: The Bike Is Now Stable.

That is it, now your bike is stable and will be less likely to fall down when it is leaned against a pole and will make it easier to install panniers or buckets.  Check out my other instructables to carry more cargo on your bike!

7 Comments

BtheBike 12 years ago

nice One . this avoids coming back and finding your bike on the ground ,with the grips and pedals scratched up .

Hycro 13 years ago

I even use a 1/8" (I think that's the thickness, haven't actually measured it) to place under the kickstand so it won't sink into the ground if I park it on grass, or sink into soft shale-type gravel (similar to beach gravel...and I don't mean sand either...), or even push down between pieces of the larger road-type gravel...(an 80lb bicycle using a small-footprint kickstand...lolz...)

Hycro 13 years ago

I did something like this too, and I had gotten the idea from a 4-wheeler a buddy of mine owned, the factory built parking brake just locked the front brakes on, that's it...and so, I used a pipe clamp to lock my front brakes on. It certainly adds to the number of locations I could park my bike...even with the kickstand, it would roll forward and fall over if I were to park it facing even slightly downhill...and often found myself fiddling around with different angles of parking the bike, before I put the "parking brake" on it...I mean, sometimes if the back wheel was sitting even 3/8" higher than the front, it would roll forward just enough to fall over, and misalign my mirror, dump whatever I had sitting on the back of the bike, damage my helmet that was usually sitting/hanging on the bike (that's actually the reason why I had to recently buy a new helmet, my bike fell over onto it, and broke a huge chunk out of the side of it.)

frenzy 13 years ago

I do something similar with an old pedal strap. I use it when on the train so my bike stays stable.

Scott_Tx 13 years ago

I need a parking brake for my 4 wheeler, gives me an idea on how to do it, just something a little more heavy duty is all.

Culturespy 13 years ago

Such a simple bike hack but if you don't have a kickstand this can make a real difference. Way to go!