Trying to get something to drink while being on the road was a bit of a hassle.
I'd seen a few versions of bottle holders, but they weren't totally what I was looking for.
So I happened to be in the hardware store yesterday (my favorite place) when I walked by some PVC tubing (some really fat black PVC tubing). A little light went off in my head and I thought why not use something like that to put a bottle in? Maybe cover it with some leather, and use a pipe clamp to hold it on the handlebar?
So I got some and got to work.
this is the result!

I was thinking of an end cap at first, but decided against it cause it's so bulky. So I ended up sewing a leather end on both the inside and outside of the cup holder. It has a double bottom in other words.

You have quite the knack for some pretty slick looking personalizations. Nice work!

FreeSpirit wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:10:

Sorry, forgot to answer that.
The clamp looks like the Greek Omega symbol, with a hole in each of the feet. Basically what I did was wrap the clamp in leather as well, and screwed the clamp on the cup holder while holding it in place n the handlebar. The sticky leather works like a nonslip surface, and the clamp is gripping the handlebar real tight!
Anyway, it's not like I'm ever going to hang on it, it just needs to hold a bottle of water or a Starbuck's Frappuccino!  

island - you are the woman!!!

Nice one islandwahine, does it work as a cooler too ?
Clive W  

Looks great!  Now-what is that little bag-looking thing with the studs on the middle of the lower part of your handlebar?

We here on the mainland have come up with uses for PVC pipe and all it's permutations on our bikes as well. I took the largest sized PVC pipe connector I found and used it to move my speedometer up onto the handle bars. A couple layers of duct tape around the speedo housing and it's a perfect fit. Looks good up there too. Just like all those Hawg boys bikes. Of course, if I wanted to keep the stock speedo after I put the Harley tank on, I had to come up with something. A trip down the aisle of the local chain mega-hardware store took me to the PVC section and the rest is history. Wished I had thought of the bottle holder too. I did two long trips down south this summer. With the 100+ degree days I rode in, a non-stop drink once in a while would have been nice.

If like me you're not too handy with a sewing machine or needle (yet) you might try what I did to make things look better with the PVC. There's quite a line of texured and non-textured paints for plastics that give you lots of mix and match options for fitting your parts into the color scheme of things. Just rough the PVC up a little with some medium to fine grit sanding and shake-rattle-and spray. Old rockers never die, they just bend bad puns past the breaking point.

Jack