Nearly two weeks ago, I mentioned Nicolas Collignon's article, in which he expresses consternation and frustration that "sustainable" urban and transportation planning, too often, doesn't include bicycles.
The other day, I wrote about a rather surprising (in that someone hadn't thought of it earlier) way transportation cycling and sustainability have been integrated: bike lanes with solar panels in the Netherlands and South Korea.
Today, I am going to present another, if smaller, way in which cycling and sustainability meet.
What I am about to describe is also rather surprising, but not because it hasn't been done before. Rather, it seems almost-unexpected because it's an idea that seems to be revived and forgotten every few years--and because many people don't remember, or weren't paying attention to, its previous iterations. What also makes the fact that it's not more common so surprising is that, even with all that we toss, I think we, as cyclists, are more conscious of, and conscientious about, recycling than most of the public.
Lots of replaced bicycle parts are tossed out every day, by shops as well as home mechanics. Most, I imagine, end up in landfills. Some, like old cables and housings, are difficult to re-use because the metal is rusted or has lost too much of its strength from the stresses of use. But other parts can find new life in all sorts of ways.
One such part is an inner tube. On my Bontrager Race Lite Mountain bike, I strapped a Pedro's under-seat bag made from an old air chamber. In it, I carried--you guessed it--a spare inner tube in addition to a patch kit, tire levers and the great Park mini-multitool. I've seen other accessories made from old tubes and once even wrapped a pair of handlebars in them.
Another way I've used inner tubes are as tie-downs. Think of a bungee cord without the hook: I've strapped small loads to rear racks and have bound together all manner of items, on and off the bike, for any number of purposes.
I'm sure I'm not the first to have used old inner tubes in that way. But it took someone with a more inventive or entrepreneurial mind than my own to come up with the Daily Hook.
It's what it sounds like: a section of inner tube with a hook at the end of it.
The difference, though, is that the hook is better-made and more practical than any you've seen on a bungee cord: It's machined from aluminum and fits onto the end of the tubing section through a stainless steel backplate. I would imagine that it allows the hook to be re-used on another section of tube when the original one fails.
Speaking of which: Daily Hook's Swiss manufacturer claims--correctly, in my experience--that the tube section will last longer than fabric cords, which have a tendency to unravel or break. And, if and when the tube does fail, the hook won't get tangled in your spokes or cogs because it has a spring clasp that holds it mechanically to your rack or wherever else you attach it. Moreover, if your rack is anodized or painted, the finish won't be marred, as the hook is coated in grippy rubber.
The Daily Hook weighs about the same as an elastic cord of the same length. Its only drawback, as far as I can see, is its price, though if it outlasts a bunch of fabric cords, it could be worth the investment.
And, of course, it gives old inner tubes new life.
