'm pretty new at cycling, having taken a 20-year break. I've started to ride to the grocery store, but the back pack I've got doesn't hold much. No way to buy laundry detergent or jumbo packs of toilet paper then strap it to my back. ;) So I'm looking to get a set of the Wald folding baskets for my many grocery runs. But I have to get a rear rack first. I'm worried about buying online then ending up with a rack that is too short, causing my feet to hit the baskets when I pedal. I looked in my LBS, but they only had one rack and it looked pretty flimsy.

My bike is an older Trek 800 (hand me down from mother in law), and I'm a gal, if that makes any difference.

Look for a used trailer. I found mnie at the curb free, waiting for the trash man.
http://www.babygiftusa.com/instep-12-qe125.html

We're planning on getting a trailer too, but our boychild will go in that most of the time.

If you are commuting (or thinking of) you may want to consider a rear rack and a truck bag w/panniers as I have found they carry quite a bit and can be removed to change set-up easily.
Although there is alwasys a way to rig up the Walt baskets for removal, they seem to me less adaptable.
I purchased a kiddie trailer of Craigs List for $100 and it carries more than I'd like to pull, but is shurely the way to go if large and bulky items need to be hauled about. :thumb:

Edit: I was a bit too late.
If you get a double child carrier there is extra room, realy!

I telecommute, so traveling to work isn't an issue. Mostly I tool around town (a pretty small town, at that) running errands, library, grocery, hardware store, garden shop, etc. Really, I just want to find a decent rack that will be long enough to accommodate the baskets for now. If I start riding longer distances, I'll probably invest in a newer bike and panniers to go with it.

Mr. Deplume does the big hauling with his truck on his way home from work (he's a runner, not a biker)

I put the Wald folders on a Trek Interchange rack with a Giant Cypress as the truck part.
I used longer screws to ease assembly and have had no problems other than checking tightness on occation.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for the recommendation. :)

Look for a rack where the top is wider or the same size as the struts. I had to get a bit creative when I mounted mine. The wooden rod is to shim it out so they would hang straight. Any decent rack should work, with one made out of rod or tubing being the best. Also use zip ties to mount it rather than the brackets it comes with.

Aaron:)

http://inlinethumb17.webshots.com/42000/2620054970066886751S500x500Q85.jpg

If you put a Wald basket, number 157b on the front, that will hold two paper bags. Then put Wald folders on the back and those will hold another two paper bags. That should be enough to carry most things from the grocery and worked for me for several years.

Eventually it wasn't enough, so I followed a design by a fellow from Chicago and put the weight on the frame. I can carry 50+ pounds in the front and the back. 25# bags of dog food are no longer a challenge.
http://www.commuteorlando.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=117&g2_GALLERYSID=8786a92e637dc5345767982b03893e46

I don't like trailers. They take up too much room when not being used.

Skip the rack & baskets, get an Xtracycle instead :)

I just finished converting a 16 year old Kona Lava Dome into an Xtracycle and I couldn't be happier. I literally just finished it up this afternoon but I can already tell it's going to be awesome.

One of my older bikes has a Bontrager rack and Wald fold-out baskets on it, and while it's OK for light loads (say 20-30 lbs. max), that's about it. The cheap alloys used on the part of the rack that goes forward and connects to the seat stay braze-ons allow for a lot of side-to-side flex, no bueno on the singlespeed beach cruiser I was riding when I had to get out of the saddle and climb. And you run out of space in those baskets really fast.

Anyways, it's a fairly big price difference, but it'll turn your bike into a car replacement, which the rack & baskets thing can't really do.

http://www.xtracycle.com/

I have no affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

http://www.stevelange.net/images/contraption_02.jpg

Steve

Yeah, I drool over everyone's Xtracycle setups daily. Unfortunately, it's just not in the budget right now. It's on my "someday" wishlist, though.

Obviously a Wald rack for $12 fits up the Wald folding baskets quite well. I didn''t want to deal with rattling baskets and possible removal of same by roving miscreants so I went with the Wald 535 one piece twin rear baskets w/integral rack. Less expensive that the rack + two folding basket solution and seems like it would take more weight - I plan on trying to throw a 50lb bag of dogfood across the top which I'd not think of doing with "folders". It is suprisingly thin and no problem to hop on the left pedal and do a "cowboy" mount over. If anything I wish Wald made an even bigger set!
:love:

I like those metal baskets if you're usually going to be carrying something, but if not, I'd go with standard rack and some grocery bag panniers. I got a set at REI and didn't pay too much for them, but I know they were on sale at the time. They're open at the top, so it's mainly for fair weather cycling, but they've come in handy for me a number of times.

I used the baskets for years -- they're rattly, but if you're using them regularly, it's fine.

I highly recommend an expedition rack from Jandd Mountaineering. It's rated for 50 lbs., but will hold quite a bit more than that. Plus, it's extra long, so you don't have to worry about your heels hitting your panniers or whatever else you carry. It's expensive, but you get what you pay for.

http://www.jandd.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=FREXP

If you decide to get a newer bike later on, hang onto that Trek 800 anyway. They're really good bikes and I would think an Extracycle based on that frame would be just about bombproof.

*eyes Trek 800 in boyfriend's mom's garage*

I really like my 36L panniers from Mountain Equipment Co-op. http://tinyurl.com/42vps8 They make bigger ones, too. These fit best on a Blackburn-style rack made of relatively slender tubing (not the rat-trap kind with a spring).If you're in the US, I think REI carries something very similar.

If you decide to get a newer bike later on, hang onto that Trek 800 anyway. They're really good bikes and I would think an Extracycle based on that frame would be just about bombproof.


Funny thing, when I first unearthed this bike in my garage and looked it up, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a fancier bike. But as my desire to haul stuff around increases, the more I am happy that I lucked into such a sturdy bike.

I went ahead and bought a Delta Mega rack. It came in yesterday, and I managed to install it this afternoon with relatively few cuss words. I'm pretty proud of myself at this moment. Of course, I have yet to mount anything heavier than my helmet upon the rack, so this pride thing just might fly out the window on my next shopping trip. :innocent:

Still mulling over my pannier/basket choices. If I had a place around here where I could touch, feel and eyeball a decent selection of bags and baskets, this would be a whole lot easier. But the closest LBS has only one tiny wall of accessories, and none of them are close to what I'm in the market for.

Yeah, my experience has been most LBSs don't have much of a selection of racks too. My first rack was a Blackburn and when I later got grocery panniers I found my heel would constantly strike. All I needed was an extra inch or two and there would be no problem.

I agree with bragi that the Jandd Expedition rack is a good rack which eliminates heel strike. But I only got that one because Jandd's Light Duty (http://www.jandd.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=FRECN) rack or Standard (http://www.jandd.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=FRSTD) rack were unavailable at the time. They're rated at 25 lbs or 40 lbs (vs 50 lbs) but that's enough for groceries and it's set back enough where heel strike won't be a problem. Plus it's about $40 or $50, just a few dollars more than say a Blackburn.

The Wald baskets are thinner than grocery panniers and if you use those reusable grocery store bags you might have to do a little re shifting to get them to fit inside. My grocery panniers are wide enough to take the re useable bags no problem. Also I found attaching the baskets to the rack with zip ties is easier than using the Wald mounting hardware. Also you can shift them back a little for even a less chance of heel strike. And I don't think they rattled much at all.

I highly recommend an expedition rack from Jandd Mountaineering. It's rated for 50 lbs., but will hold quite a bit more than that. Plus, it's extra long, so you don't have to worry about your heels hitting your panniers or whatever else you carry. It's expensive, but you get what you pay for.

http://www.jandd.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=FREXP

I really like the Jandd racks. In addition to the points you made, the extra big platform also serves as a fender. Most racks are shorter and allow spray to hit your back. It's wider also, supports bigger, heavier boxes. I also have a Jandd front rack which features a top platform as well as lowrider pannier positions. Very nice racks.

tubus.

Still mulling over my pannier/basket choices. If I had a place around here where I could touch, feel and eyeball a decent selection of bags and baskets, this would be a whole lot easier. But the closest LBS has only one tiny wall of accessories, and none of them are close to what I'm in the market for.

I use a pair of these for grocery shopping (and everything else, actually):

http://www.arkel-od.com/panniers/utility/overview.asp

It's bad if you like to buy big cases of TP and bottled water, but I don't so it's not a problem for me. The bags are super strong and stay attached to my bike very well. There is no way for them to accidentally come off the rack, unlike the Trek grocery panniers I used to have. (Read http://blog.jrock.us/articles/Trek%20grocery%20panniers.pod for the whole saga.)