Bicycle Dig Rig

MinnesotaMetal

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2020
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52
I’m in an urban environment and several very productive sites are within 1-3 miles of my house. As a result it is easier for me to use a bicycle to travel from location to location. This is the rig that I set up to accommodate all my necessary gear securely on my bike. It can also be removed and used as a regular carrying case as well. These are early photos, and there have been some new modifications and improvements since they were taken. If there are any questions please feel free to ask.
 

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Dang that looks like a sweet setup! Nice work!

I’ve used toe clip straps to attach my scoop and held my defector parallel to the handle bars on my bike to ride a mile or two to the beach from my father in laws place… free parking with a bike :lol:

Your setup is Rolls Royce comparatively!
 
Good looking set-up. I have a question Do you live in Minnesota, and ride to these sites in January, February and March? I bet that gets pretty cold.
 
MidTN there is little to no detecting going on up here from December to almost mid April. Between the 18”-24” of snow accumulation and the ground literally frozen solid to the frost line you’re not going to get much done unless you have some earthmoving equipment at your disposal. I use the off season to do my historical research, plan what parks to hit, review land use proposals, set up permissions, clean, organize, research the previous year’s finds and build things like this. It’s definitely no substitute for actual trips out, but it pays off when I can hit the ground running as soon as the ground thaws.
 
That does look awesome! We're about the same here in Michigan. Dec/Jan/Feb is basically "cleaning and sorting" season here, not a lot of digging going on. We're getting close here in mid March now though!

Like folks have said....with expensive gas, this is a good setup!
 
I’m in Minneapolis proper, so I have several (15?) parks within 2 miles of where I live. Riding a bike just makes more sense for those short trips. A little exercise never hurt anyone. I’ve also found that there are bike trails that give you easy access to more than a few quality historical locations that would require a lot of walking from a parked car. This set up works for me, but I could easily see the idea modified for a one piece system to move all your in-use gear from one place to another. Like from your car to a friends, to make room for other stuff in the vehicle, or just moving it all indoors for security purposes.

Stay tuned, I’m currently working on an updated version of the same idea. If there’s enough interest I can provide a parts list and some instructions to build your own.
 
Looking good! Like the way all is setup.

I have a spot I can ride a bike to .. been kicking around the idea, just need a junk bike to get started. Would like to have a electric bike but worried about someone stealing it..
 
The clips are Everbuilt(?) tool holders from Home Depot, but for added security I have a Velcro strap mounted around the entire fixture just so nothing flies off going over bumps in the road. There’s actually two sizes there. The yellow pin size are smaller and hold a detector shaft no problem. The green pin size is larger and hold a standard small shovel handle securely. Maybe these pictures can explain it better?
 

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The clips are Everbuilt(?) tool holders from Home Depot, but for added security I have a Velcro strap mounted around the entire fixture just so nothing flies off going over bumps in the road. There’s actually two sizes there. The yellow pin size are smaller and hold a detector shaft no problem. The green pin size is larger and hold a standard small shovel handle securely. Maybe these pictures can explain it better?

Proper! TY
 
I’ve had some down time between projects and have moved on to Dig Rig 2.0 using a very different setup and implemented some new ideas into the design. I will start a new thread in the next few days to show where things have ended up with the new project for anyone following this ridiculous journey.
 
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