The wife's is on a nutted axle, just to be sure. I'm "risking it" with using the qr, 'cause I really don't like wrenching on my townie bikes much. In my experience, Shimano and Campy qr's can be trusted anywhere a nutted set-up can so I've risked it. No problems so far.

I think in order for the basket to mess you up it would have to somehow force the axle out of the dropouts. I can't really imagine a way that could happen, particularly as the weight of the basket makes lifting the front end enough of a chore/risk that it just doesn't happen.

On the other hand, a axle is less than $10 generally, easy to swap, and cheap to get a shop to swap for you. So if you want piece of mind, it's not expensive. And a nutted axle is a good theft deterrent, although with my basket bikes I always lock the front wheel to help keep the bike standing up - that big basket can take an unattended bike down if it feels like it!


With the one you're getting, I think that it could be easily modded to bolt to cantilever mounts, midpoint rack mounts, or french-style fender/rack mounts. I haven't tried it yet though, but will be giving it a go on my Jeunet "style townie" soon. On that bike I'll be running nuts - the wing nuts on there are death traps!