Homemade bungee- strong enough to hold a.....

Its amazing how many things you can use bits of a bike for. One of the best and most versatile bits has to be the inner tubes, I have a million and five uses for them. I reckon the simplist and most useful though is as a luggage bungee. I use these all the time when moving bikes on the trailer- mainly because they are so strong.


.....which got me to thinking...how strong are they? In a not very scientific experiment conducted over a very short period of time (and not by a scientist) I discovered that they were in fact very very strong.









They were strong enough to hold most of the pans from my cupboard....


















...strong enough to hold up 5 litres of lovely magnolia paint

















...and strong enough to hold up my daughters bike, the bungee was so strong in fact that I lost my nerve before it broke!







If you'd like to make your own bungee's you'll need one inner tube, an old spoke (or two), and some scissors- the spoke is used to make the hook for the end, you can just use the tube by itself as a tie down but it does make life easier and quicker if you have the hooks on the end.

Simply cut the tube to the length you want and the width of your thumb. Shape the spokes to the shape you want ensuring that on one end you make an eye for the tube to thread through and on the other end you make the hook. Now thread the tube through the hooks and voila!.... A free bungee.

NB- I accept no responsibility for any replication of my bungee test, there is a very real possibility that suspending weighty items with a homemade bungee will result in real injury.