jimmie65

Going to post this here since Alt Bike guys seem to be the most creative (and this bike doesn't really fall into any neat category).

picked up a large Wald twin basket, with the 18" baskets. It just fits over the rear tire on my fat bike (a Mongoose Beast converted to an ape hanger cruiser). And I mean *just*. I'm fairly certain it will rub if I ride it this way.

The baskets lean outward a little, so the top of the entire setup is concave. My thought is to flatten out the curve and push the inside of the baskets out so that I get another 1/2" of clearance.

The baskets are zinc-plated steel.

How would you go about stretching the baskets? First thought is just brute force, but I don't want to bend the wire.

Philphine

I've got a harbor freight welder and I'm not afraid to use it.


seriously, I don't know how hard those are to come by that you'd want to experiment much, but I'd cut it right down the middle and weld in some 1/4" or so metal rod to widen it to whatever suits me. then cover what I did with a wooden rack or maybe a skate deck if I found one that fit just so.

jimmie65

Thanks, but I like the look of the wire basket. Really don't want a deck on there.
These aren't that hard to come by (open-box on Amazon as cheap as $24) so I think I'm going to just try to brute force approach and hope for the best.

Fastfingaz

As the saying goes,,, you always ask for advice only after you already know what you have to do,,,,

jimmie65

LOL. Just hoping someone had an idea that wouldn't potentially bend the wires.

Fastfingaz

He gave it to you, but you do have to add metal by welding and then camouflaging it some how,, the way you want to do is bending the metal,, those baskets are designed for something like a 26" crouser or similar,, try it you can always bend it back,,,

fietsbob

wald folding baskets on either side of a rack that fits...


s? cut it right down the center get steel tubing that fits over the wire..

then comes the tricky part burning zinc is toxic you have to remove it before raising the temperature to brazing or welding levels..

wear a double canister face mask , lots of ventilation, etc.

the struts are not that great,, & consider heel clearance , they may interfere with riding the bike if not put way back, or tilted at an angle..







....

jimmie65

Brute force approach - I deformed the inside wire a little but not too noticeable. I'm going to leave the board in until this weekend; not sure if it's necessary but I need to fabricate some brackets and can't do that until Saturday.

3rd pic is the clearance before stretch. The basket fits over the tire but the struts won't.

4th pic is closest I could get to a mockup. I'm going to mount the basket up high so heel strike shouldn't be an issue. Might go further back as well, though I'm not sure how to make a bracket for that. I do have a monostay adapter for mounting baskets so that might push it far enough back.

If I do end up having to cut and re-weld, I think it should be just the braces on the top. Look at the pic in the first post - there is a brace right under the connector. There's one on the other side as well. If those are cut, the basket will easily bend/stretch.

Hickory n steel

Can't really help with this, but I have the same basket on my grandfathers huffy cruiser which is my errand...ect bike and it's an awesome dual basket.
A little beat by now, but still great.

jimmie65

The basket did stretch enough to fit over the tires. I haven't gotten around to cutting off the struts and fabricating new ones. (Too many projects and not enough time.)

chriskoz

Very cool bike, what is that?

jimmie65

It's a Mongoose Beast with ape hangers.