Self-made tools are often improvised tools. Or vice versa. Self-made tools can be a solution or a problem. From my own experience I know that when a self-made spring clip broke apart and I went knocked to the ground because the shock absorber bush crashed into my head.
Self-made tools can therefore break
Now, years later, another shock absorber system was playing. The lower 'hanging position' of the rear fork was limited by bump rubbers that were just thought of. The distance between the mounting points on the frame and rear fork were therefore shorter than the eye distances of the shock absorbers. That problem would be completely over the world if the shock absorbers were pressed together. And for that you need a spring clip. And the scar on my forehead still reminds me that feather clamps should not be made from suture wood. So it was time for a different approach.
Closed on Sundays
Of course, this case happened on a Sunday, the day when auto parts specialty stores (scrabble!) Are closed. Fortunately, there was a kind of chrome towel rack in the box 'miscellaneous'. The mounting brackets there were with little effort 'convertible' to spring compression claws. The were cut for this purpose with the recently extra double discounted cordless grinding wheel (because nobody trusts an angle grinder without a cord) from Aldi and they were provided with a ø8 mm piercing. Insert claws into the spring, piece 8 mm threaded rod through the holes, screw on nuts. The feather was pulled together nicely.
Until a claw broke
The tax limit of cheap chromed material has its limits. Okay: the tools were broken again, but this time I wasn't lying on the floor with a bleeding head. With an inspiring cigar in my head, I looked at what else was available to find a suitable solution with improper use. My eye fell on my unsorted stack of straps. To make it easier for me to think, I first started to disentangle it in a Zen-like way. And almost immediately the usefulness of meditation was crystal clear: I started to mount my spring elements with the help of a strap.
Simple solutions are the best
Of course it helps when a scratch doesn't matter more or less. The Ural combination is a classic that has to work for its food. But with a few old washcloths or whatever for protection, this approach is also great for beautiful classics: You loosely fix the shock absorber on one side. You pull the strap with ratchet piece over the free eye. You provide two, preferably in-line, anchor points for the strap and bring the matter to tension. The spring is compressed, the spring element becomes shorter. That even goes freely checked. If the mounting eye is at the right height, it can be pushed into place, tapped and locked.
Finding the right anchor points was no problem. The placement of the ratchet block, that must be thought about for a while. After all, there must be so much 'ratchet space' so that the desired spring compression can be realized.
But further? "Easy peasy lemon squeezy".
