Heather's been super cool about this ride. The SPOT was something we discussed but I really wanted to use it b/c I thought it would be cool for friends to be able to follow along. One thing that she really wanted me to carry was bear spray. A few days ago we went to look at it and after holding it, I really wasn't in favor. It's a bit heavy and it really needs to be somewhere that's easily accessible or it might as well stay at home.

However, I can certainly see where she's coming from and if the tables were turned, I'd be thinking the same thing. So I picked up this 230 gram bottle. Initially I just thought I'd put the holster on one of the shoulder straps to my pack but they were out of holsters. After a bit of research on mtbr.com I found how a lot of Alaska riders mount their bear spray. So I went to Home Depot and picked up some 2" inner diameter PVC pipe and some Red Hot pipe adhesive.



I cut a 1" wide piece of pipe and then removed a section of it so I could slide it around the main pipe and make a straight cut. I cut a 5.5" piece of pipe.


Next I cut a length-wise section of the pipe out. I guessed here as to how much I needed to remove. I started with a 1" section.


Then after a bit of measuring on the bike and using one of the bottle cages as a guide, I marked where I wanted the holes drilled. I drilled holes on both the main section of pipe as well as the 1" section that I cut out. I cleaned up both pieces and laid the inner portion of the smaller piece onto the outer portion of the larger piece and made sure everything lined up. Then I glued the 2 together and let it set for 10 minutes.


I actually made 2 of these mounts. On the first one I had the bolt heads recessed but I was worried about the 2 pieces of PVC separating on day 2 and leaving me hosed. So on the second mount, I drilled through both pieces with the same bit and used some bolts that had pretty flat heads. Now the bolts actually compress the 2 pieces together while the mount is on the bike. It worked out well. Some of the people in Alaska used electrical tape around the bear spray to get the tolerances just right so the mount really holds on. I took a different route. If you take PVC pipe and stick it in the oven at about 350 degrees and leave it in there for a bit, it actually becomes quite moldable. So it didn't take much. I actually had cut a bit too much out and then had to go back and close that gap a tiny bit. The bear spray snaps right in to place and I can either pull it out of the mount or slide it up and out.