DIY Awesome Ghetto LED Glowy Bike; the Hobo Cycle!

Intro: DIY Awesome Ghetto LED Glowy Bike; the Hobo Cycle!

This is an easy, ghetto bike project that incorporates things like paint, an iPod speaker, and an LED tube.If you follow the instructable correctly, you should end up with a very nice bike for under $25!
This is my first instructable!

STEP 1: Materials

You can find most of this stuff for very cheap:

Duct tape <$4
Speaker wire: around $3
LED tube kit (found at wallmart in the automotive section) $9.99
Old bike: Free (found)
Old Speaker: Free (taken off an old alarm clock)
Paint: $3
Old Headphones: Free (found)
Batteries: $5
Toggle Switch: >$2 (Radio Shaq)

STEP 2: Paint!

What good are accessories if the bike looks like crud? I used Rustolium, but any paint will do. I only needed one can of paint, the bike was black, so i painted it black and green.

STEP 3: The Coolio Light!

I bought an LED tube kit from Wallmart for $9.99. It has better battery life than a Cold Cathode Tube. I got 2 6v batteries and hooked them in series (positive to negative) to make it 12v. I then hooked it to a toggle switch. and then to the LED tube. I put the batteries in my mail mail man style basket, and duct taped the light to the bike.

STEP 4: The Stereo!

What awesome bike is complete without a cool ipod ready stereo? All I did was take a speaker and use the speaker wire to connect it to a headphone plug that i had cut off of an old pair of headphones. In the future i think i will add an amp to it, because it isn't very loud.

STEP 5: The Cool One Person Seat!

What bike could be awesome without a cool seat? I took the seat that came with my bike (It was pretty torn up) and just duct taped it to death. I put some caution tape on the back for night riding.

STEP 6: The (optional) Two Person Seat!

I was fine with my bike for a while, until i wanted to take friends around in it. I had an electric bike before, and i decided to use it's BMX style seat. The problem was that, it didn't mount on a normal bike. So i took apart an old bike seat and took off the seat part so all i was left with was the metal frame. The old BMX style seat was strong, but it still needed support, so i cut an old hocey to run down the middle of it. Then I realized that the metal part and the hockey stick didn't touch, so i added an extra piece to make it taller, I then tied the springs to the seat.
(note: the materials for this step are not listed)

STEP 7: You're Done!

Congratulations, You now have the coolest bike in the world! Not really. If you liked this instructable, or found it helpful, please vote for it, thank you and have a nice day;
My conciseness thanks you!

Comments

[HammE]

I have a bike that is in really crappy condition (my back brakes don't work, and the gear shifting things are not tightened), so I call it the "Ghetto cycle"! This is an interesting Instructable too, it kinda inspires me to build my Ghetto cycle into something cool too!

[HammE]

Oh, and I don't mean the derailleurs, the things that switch the derailleurs

[MR.Touchy]

this thing is awesome but i wouldnt ride on de streets lool (embarrising)

[shammallamaman]

lol, i ride it on the streets in the middle of nowhere and i look like a hobo :)

[robotguy4]

Heck, you could probably ride it in the streets and then LEAVE it in the streets for safekeeping. It is harder to make something not steal-able than to make it undesirable.

[shammallamaman]

This is hilarious to look back on and read because the bike actually did get stolen

[mowie]

hobos are cool

[zeroemission]

looks don't  really matter that much with bicycle stereos as long as you're playing good tunes. something about unexpected tunes rolling by just makes people want to party! i've seen sunbathing hotties jump up and start dancing to "play that funky music" in parks with bike paths and one woman came up and started freaking on my leg (dancing/humping) outside a nightclub one night to "my sharona" playing on my fugly 20 year old huffy mountain bike. people seem to respond most to oldies that bring back memories.

good tunes on a "hobo bike" make it way cooler than a snobby $5,000 carbon fiber & titanium 10 speed ridden by a poseur in speedos because good tunes make people feel good & happy. hobo bikes have a certain, i'm cool & i'm not even trying to be" charm to them. people that do their own thing instead of joining the crowd are the coolest.

this bike shows you don't have to spend much money to have fun.

[lilbrewdog]

do you think i could make this work with a pair of old computer speakers? if so...how would i do that?

[zeroemission]

i'm going to do an instructable on building a system using PC speakers so i can have something besides my first rigs slideshow. i didn't take pics of the assembly process sadly so it didn't qualify as an instructable.

the EASIEST way to power up PC speakers is to find ones that use 12v, cut the wallwart off it's power supply and wire 8 AA or D cells in series using battery holders & connect the power cord to the batteries using the speakers as/is. you could also use 4 x 3v li-on batteries, but chargers for those are expensive and battery holders for them are harder to find.

that will be the FIRST variation i do, then i'll do another one making speaker boxes out of cardboard for fun & maybe include some $5 battery powered christmas lights for "hobo bling"

[lilbrewdog]

nevermind! :) all i have to do is connect the speakers to a strong enough battery...then make a bike mount for my ipod! :)

[zoneykid]

Uhh what are the headphones for? Cause if you're riding around while wearing headphones, that's extremely Dangerous, since you need your sense of hearing... Unless of course you're just riding around in the park.

[shammallamaman]

What headphones? there aren't any. there's only a speaker that could never go loud enough to stop anyone from hearing anything important

[zoneykid]

Duct tape <$4
Speaker wire: around $3
LED tube kit (found at wallmart in the automotive section) $9.99
Old bike: Free (found)
Old Speaker: Free (taken off an old alarm clock)
Paint: $3
Old Headphones: Free (found)
Batteries: $5
Toggle Switch: >$2 (Radio Shaq)

[pineapplenewton]

he clearly states that he took the mini jack off the head phones and attached it to the speaker

[zoneykid]

Oop, my bad... uhh... Great Instructable! *runs and hides*

[JBizzle]

you're the man! i typed in "hobo" to find some instructables and i was very pleased to find this one.. lol. and no, i'm not a hobo. great work

[zleebme]

not many hobos have computers

[shammallamaman]

hobos do have access to libraries though which have computers

[shammallamaman]

Thanks :D I'm glad you like it