S Rider

Which one is recommendable? I think number 1 is stronger, right?? My shopping also includes heavy bottled water.

1

https://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=12415


2

https://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=12441

johann

Both of them appear to be supported only by the handlebars, so while one might seem better than the other, I suspect there is little difference. I had a basket like #1 on my cruiser and it suffered under relatively light grocery loads. For heavier loads a better choice would be a Wald paperboy or Grocery basket with legs that attach to the front axle. Even a sturdily mounted rear basket would IMHO be a better choice than the baskets you have shown, but it is nice having things in front where you can keep an eye on them.

You will also find that with a front basket your bike will be subject to the front wheel turning/bike-flopping-over when parked. I can't say exactly the optimal solution for that..... Hebie makes a spring-stabilizer that tries to keep the front wheel from turning too far (we've had limited success with that, but could be improper installation on my part). Not sure, but a double-legged kickstand might also help here.

wahoonc

I like number 2 better. The bracket looks like the one that is on my wife's wicker market basket. If it is is actually hangs off the handlebar and has a support loop that goes back against the head tube to keep the basket stable. The number 1 basket looks like it uses a single point click style mount. Nothing wrong with it, but heavier loads may cause problems with it. Kind of hard to tell until you try them out....

Aaron

S Rider

Thanks for the info

Do you know of a good basket for shopping which I can just fix to my rear rack?

wahoonc

S Rider,
I am assuming you are in England, because of the links to Evans These are the baskets I like for shopping use. They are made in the USA but there might be someone over there importing them. I also have a set of Shopping Panniers that I use. You might be able to find a set of these over there too. I like these because they can be moved from bike to bike very easily. The Wald baskets are fixed to the rack and stay with the bike.

Aaron

mike

Johann pointed out that the baskets are not supported underneath which is something I would agree with normally, but the baskets you show are the typical baskets used throughout Japan by millions of shoppers. They are very heavy-duty. In fact, if I remember correctly, they are expanded and coated sheet metal rather than actual woven wire baskets.

I have used them extensively and can say they work very nicely.

Front baskets are convenient - just toss your goods into it and off you go.

Of course, if you have something really heavy, I would suggest rear carriers. If baskets are fine with you, the WALD wire sidesaddle baskets are nice - you can really get some real shopping done with those!

mike

Here is a WALD front basket on Amazon.com for $12.00

It looks like it MIGHT hold more than the model you showed on this thread. It also has a fork support which is good.

HOWEVER, the WALD wire mesh is much more open than the Japanese/British basket you show, so you would have to be careful of just tossing things into it. Even one of today's small cameras or a cell phone would fall between the WALD wire spacing.

2_i 

There are at least two systems of attaching baskets with handlebars to the rear rack: by the Swiss Pletscher

https://www.pletscher.ch/

and by the Dutch Basil

https://www.basil.nl/gb/assortment/

A member of my family had bad experiences with Pletscher and currently rides on with a Basil. The Basil basket clamps on from both sides of the rear rack.


This sounds funny as the US market of commuter accessories is generally a far cry from what is encountered in other countries. (Well there is a Moldova...) The coarseness of Wald products actually, though, benefits their side basket.

wahoonc

Wald has been building those baskets for probably 45-50+ years and still building them the same way they did in the beginning. I used them as a newspaper carrier for years and they were still on the bike when I sold it after 5 years of heavy service. I think sometimes people in the US have a tendency to over do things like commuting, in terms of the equipment. The town I am moving to is small as in 3x4 miles square. There is no where in town that I can't get in less than 15 minutes by bike. It is fairly flat, so all I really will need is a 3 speed with baskets to take care of everything. What is sad is that I will be one of maybe 2 or 3 people in a town of 10,000 that uses a bike for transport on a regular basis. There is no mass transit in the town, much less any type of interstate bus service, or passenger train service. But I figure eventually they will come back.

Aaron

2_i 

One problem with various manufacturers is that they persist with the use of the same materials and technology no matter what the product.

Wald utilizes thick wire, sparsely spaced in baskets, and sheet metal. The thick wire works well in the side baskets that keep the shape under heavy loads. However, they then make their front baskets in the similar way and make feeble sheet-metal supports for them. Given that not much load can be carried on the weak supports, it would have been better to make those baskets out of finer mesh, permitting dropping in smaller objects. Unless you in the business of carrying empty boxes, those baskets can be pretty pointless.

On the other hand, some manufacturers of decent fine-mesh front baskets can manufacture in the same way the rear side-baskets. These baskets may not be able to hold shape and there is little chance to hold loose small objects in there.

In the countries with a commuting tradition, though, you will usually find a mixture of products and you will be able to sort out what is suitable for you. Very often a single shop there can have a wider selection of sensible baskets than the whole US market. Which is not to say that the offering for commuters in the US market is slowly improving. That is the case in spite of the fact that throughout the most of my 30-min commute through a US city I might often not encounter a single bicycle rider or pedestrian for that matter .

wahoonc

Interesting note today...I was in my LBS picking up parts and surprise of surprises...they are carrying more commuter stuff They had just gotten in some baskets and lo and behold Wald makes a basket with the fine mesh that is almost as big as the old newspaper special! I didn't get a price, but it has a Wald logo on the front, comes in black and IIRC the model number is 952-G? Also for S rider...Topeak makes a decent basket that will lock on to their rear rack and I am pretty sure you can get it worldwide. Saw it in the catalog at the LBS. I also found out that Wald has been around since 1905 and was making bicycle parts at that time too

Aaron

2_i 

Come to think of it, the past Wald basket indeed seemed optimized for carrying folded newspapers for distribution. With the low US demand, otherwise, for the baskets, there must have been little past incentive for those baskets to evolve.

I am not quite sure about that Topeak basket attaching to the rack. A mount combination with basket needs to survive when a bicycle falls, best releasing the basket. This Topeak mount looks like it might crack but maybe they have been smarter than that. A couple of other Topeak designs I came across have been quite intelligent.