I took one more picture of the kludged cable from my iMac hack – this time with the good digital camera. Check it out:

So a good portion of the city of Boston moves in or out of their apartment on September 1st (any guesses on what percent of the city turns over?), leaving behind them a wake of trash and assorted abandoned goodies. One of my favorite September 1st activities (when I’m not moving myself) is to bike around and check out the freebies left on the sidewalk. Past hunts have yielded such treasures as houseplants, pots, tools, etc.

My brother and I went digging around on Monday night and discovered… drum roll please… a car roof rack! Not a cheapie one, either, but a genuine Thule rack, including a piece to mount a bike up there, as well as carry several sets of skis. The only thing missing is the set of feet to attach the rack to the car (and even if we’d found them, it’s unlikely that they would’ve fit my car since they’re matched to the roof shape). The rack and accessories are worth about $200 new, according to the website.

We were about a mile and a half away from my house when we found the rack, and only had the bikes for transportation. Rather than risk someone else finding it while we went back for a car (or waste the time having one of us sit around waiting for the other to come back with a car), we managed to strap the three hefty beams to my bike using only two bungee cords, and I managed to bike home without taking a spill. Check it out:

It’s hard to see, but there are two beams strapped to the bike just under the basket and a third sticking up out of the basket

Here’s the rack disassembled in my garage

I’m heading off this evening to the bike store to see about buying the feet and gettin’ the rack all set up.