Little Challenges And Solutions...Part 1

OK, so over the past month or so, I purchase some accessories including a cable lock and a toolkit that's supposed to fit to the seatpost, but gets obstructed by the basket, whilst the lock is supposed to fit to the frame coiled up but looks like this after half an hour or so:

and gets in the way of pedalling. No, it doesn't fit to the downtube, nor the toptube. Hmmmnnnn...

Now, in the not too distant past, I might have given up and just chucked these in a cupboard, then bought something else or gone without, but I've learned that these are just small problems challenges and that if you can just apply a little thought, you can come up with a cheap and easy solution. You also feel pretty good afterwards, congratulating yourself on your ingenuity and problem solving skills - ahem, he says modestly...

Now, to be honest, this new (for me) approach has come about because it seems, many things I buy cycling wise don't seem to work as I had thought they would when buying them so it would get expensive if I just chucked them all in a cupboard, which would fill up rather quickly.

Anyways, I had the idea of using a pair of carabiners, £1 for two at Tiger to hold the coil together:

 

This kind of worked, but during a 30 mile round trip, the carabiners slid about resulting in the coil slipping, so not wholly satisfactory. It's fiddly to fit and also looks a bit messy. Since then, at Tesco's supermarket, I came across hook and loop velcro type stuff - £1 for a metre of which I only needed about 3 inches (76mm) which leaves plenty more for replacement or using for other things; this appears to work fine:

 

I had this idea yesterday - one of those "why didn't I think of that before" things...

The tool kit problem challenge I'm still working on and will be covered in another post.