Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Big Basket

Well, since I'm injured and stuck riding smooth surfaces for a while, I had this crazy idea that I'm going to start doing something that I ordinarily despise, grocery shopping. I decided that I was going to buy a basket for my bike and start riding the relatively short distance from my house to the grocery store. I figured I'd save some money on gas and add a little more purpose to my riding.

I gathered up my eleven year old son and drove to Bicycles Inc. at I-20 and G
randbury road here in south Fort Worth. A few minutes later I walked out with the Wald Giant Delivery Basket. Like the name implies this thing is huge. I started putting the thing together and installed the handlebar clamps with no problems. The only hitch came during the step where you thread the quick release skewers through the holes in the support legs and try to remount the wheel. Neither the instructions that came with the basket nor the website mentioned anything about the support legs being incompatible with the safety tabs on the fork dropouts. I did a quick Google search and came across the Lockring Not Included blog where the author had the same problem. He simply took his Dremel Tool and filed those suckers off, so that's exactly what I did. A few minutes of grinding and the basket was ready to go.

The next day I filled a canvas military bag with about fifteen pounds of assorted bike tools, a camera, and other stuff, put it in the
basket and took off. I was impressed with the way the bike handled. It didn't take long to learn that when climbing with any weight in the basket you either stay seated or limit your upper body movement to prevent the load from shifting and throwing you off balance. I really didn't have too much of a problem with wind resistance. I guess this is due to the thin wire used to make the basket. One minor irritation that I noticed is that any exposed metal on your cargo is going to make a constant ticking sound when it comes into contact with the basket. Just line the bottom with a t shirt or something before you take off.









1 comment:

  1. Initially, I found going up a hill with Buttons pretty swervey myself. I just sit down and really put my weight down in my feet now. I don't carry her around too much either; she's got to walk off her table scraps. (My mom spoils her so much).

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