Every Day Adventurers

Many folks have called in wondering what happened to the TrayBien. It’s no longer listed in our online catalog of products. We love the Tray Bien. We use it, and it works great to do this:

However, as a product, it wasn’t performing as well as we would have liked. It was a hybrid of the three parts from three different suppliers, and when we moved to a distribution facility, TrayBien didn’t make the cut.

As a result, for the near future, the TrayBien will officially become a DIT project designed to rescue old roof rack trays with the help of a little scrap garden hose or PVC shim.

Here’s how to make your own:

What you’ll need:

1. Xtracycle Wideloader (or a couple 7/8″ tubes,rods,dowels)
2. A bicycle tray for a car roof rack (old school kind, that has the clamps to go around ~1″ crossbars). Thule, Yakima, and Rocky Mounts make them. We used to sell this one from Rocky Mounts.
3. Some old garden hose (about 6″ will be fine)

OR

3. Some 3/4″ PVC tubing (this mod courtesy of Jason Eddy)

How to make your own TrayBien

Essentially the WideLoader or tubing sections you substitute act as the cross bars you would find on your car roof rack. Now, the only challenge is to attach the tray to your bicycle based cross bars. Most cross bars are 1″ or more in diameter. The WideLoader rack is 7/8″. Use sections of garden hose, cut lengthwise, to act as shims to increase the effective diameter of your cross bar, then clamp the tray to the shimmed sections.

Simple, easy, cheap, and a way to rescue defunct stuff into useful tools for Every Day Adventure.

Now, check this out. Thanks again Mr. Eddy!

1. I have chosen to use 3/4 PVC slit down the middle to attach the 1″ Yakima carrier to the wide loader.

2. I acquired a 12″ piece of 3/4″ PVC from my local hardware store. The PVC was a free scrap piece.

3. I cut the width needed for the front Yakima SLR mount (3″)and the rear Boa tray(2″).

4. Then I cleaned the ends and slip length wise with a hacksaw. I cleaned up the rough edges with a file.

5. I put the 2 cut and slit pieces in boiling water for 3-5 minutes to open the pipe to roughly 3/4 ID.

6. Then I let them cool and snapped them around the wide loader bar and attached my Yakima bike rack.