Here's why I use a front mounted bag on my bike. This way I can keep a close eye on my guy. He tends to move around a lot.

There's a rack underneath the bag. It attaches to the front fork.

The bike is an old Bridgestone MB 5.

I've not experienced any handling problems at speeds of up to 25 kph.

I have put many hundreds of miles with Lucky Dog in the front Wald Giant Newsboy basket using different types of bikes including a World Sport. He weighs in at about 20 pounds plus the weight of the basket.

And it does affect steering!!!! You really need to pay attention, have good core strength, and plan in advance.....and I would never use it on the roads.

Dog loved to ride and his ears would flop out like wings when we go up to about 10-12 mph.

Once got up to 20-25 mph on a down hill section of a mup using the dog in a basket on the World Sport but I quickly realized doing this on a 27 1/4 wheel on crushed stone path was sheer stupidity.

Unfortunately Lucky Dog (not so lucky) went blind and he is fearful of riding so don't use it anymore.

So cute dog and the ears flopping with wind made me chuckle. Truly sad for his blindness--was it due to age?

I have the Electra Quick Release Wire basket which I like. I mostly use it to carry that extra stuff such as gloves, lunchbox, glasses and some groceries I may pick up on the way to the office. I like the basket because it can be taken off with just the press of a button. The mount is very sturdy. The basket bounces a little bit but not much.
For my laptop, my office clothes and shoes and some tools I use a pair of Ortlieb panniers.

I did some quick googling and found the Soma Mini Front Rack seems commonly available in the $20-$30 dollar range online. No experience with it, but Soma stuff is usually good. Also most bike shops should be able to order it up, or potentially have some in stock.

It's not about the handling being bad. Especially with lighter loads. It's just... less good, for lack of a better term, than midsize front loads on many bikes. A probably even better way to describe it is that it's just *different*, not better or worse. For me, once I start loading some six packs, or anything else in the 5+ pound range on rear racks, I just really start noticing the weight balance. Bikes are already biased towards the rear, throwing a bunch of cargo even more off to the rear, especially behind the axle, makes the front end really twitchy and light feeling but without actually handling fast.

Meanwhile throwing that weight over the front, especially if you can get it low and in line with the axle, or more central also has an effect. And it's an even more immediate effect, you feel the steering resisting just that bit more from the start. However once at speed I feel much more stable, planted, and that the handling is more like it *should* be. I found that once I was used to the initial resistance, the ride was much more pleasant. But that's not to say I feel rear loads are wrong or bad, just slightly less preferable in the low-mid weight range.

Just to get even more nitpicky, though, I feel like if I had the choice between really loading a bunch of weight on only one rack, I'd rather overload the rear than the front... haha

Yeah, he's like me......getting old...15 years now and vet said he is truly a senor citizen. First time we ever had him out on an all day ride away from home we came back to the motel exhausted, ate dinner and went to bed. At 2 am he began barking furiously and I was instantly awake trying to calm him and keep from getting booted from the motel when I realized the TV was on fire and dense, black smoke bellowing out from the burning plastic. Smoke about 2 feet thick covered the entire ceiling of the room. I'm convinced that as tired as we were, we would have died in our sleep from smoke inhalation had not Lucky Dog awakened us.

In planning a front loading bike, people choose a lower Trail in the fork rake.

30th post that is a reproduction of Jim Blackburn's racks made from the 70's

... & by many copiers.

Aw, so touching. You are the lucky ones. Hope you will have him with you for many more years.

Thanks, that should do the trick.

I've used front and rear racks extensively and prefer to carry most loads in the back. For me, loads on the front seem to affect handling more adversely and also block my view of the front wheel and tire. Perhaps my bikes were not designed for carrying front loads. My touring bike had a Nitto M12 front rack for many years and I rarely used it for reasons mentioned above. I finally removed it when I installed a dynamo wheel and light and haven't missed it, as I mainly used it as a place to mount my LED headlight. I also had a Salsa Casseroll for several years that came with a front rack, which I only used a few times, such as carrying light packages to the post office.

I do use a small front handlebar bag on bike tours. I also have a front pannier and rack that I use for heavy loaded touring when I need to distribute weight better across the bike. But for general use and commuting, front racks are not for me.

I got around this using a lowrider front rack--has an arch above the wheel perfect for mounting a light.

Agreed. I haven't tried a frame-mounted front rack, but in my experience, anything more than a couple of pounds in a bar/fork-mounted front rack will cause dangerous steering difficulties. Weight should go on the back, and as low as possible.

A frame mounted rack Our-products | Steco B.V. on your DL-1 would carry an amazing amount of weight with little effect, and more comfortably than on the back.

Here's the same rack on my Gazelle.

Meh...


That should be at least 80 pounds in the front. Just don't corner too quickly.

That's a sweet set-up, kickstart. Did you buy the rack in the US, or NL?

My favorite on line retailer, the NL equivalent of Niagara, https://en.hollandbikeshop.com/?currency=USD

Shipping is a flat $35, but is often made up by their prices, and carry many items unobtainable at any price in the US.

That's right, but I find a flat platform, CETMA-style, more versatile than panniers (I assume you use those) for urban load carrying like big cardboard boxes, especially with flat handlebar and a short stem. Front panniers look great for touring, but my fork doesn't have mountings for a lowrider.

Fair enough. I've never even thought of that.

Yes, it does. But not necessarily for the worse. I have found there are situation where heavily loaded panniers on LowRiders have been the difference between unridable and rideable. Over snow and ice, over angled railroad tracks. In situations like these, the loaded LowRiders are a huge benefit. Obviously I don't make a point of seeking out angled tracks but in my Ann Arbor winters, I used to carry heavy books I didn't need into campus just for the aid to handling.

One of the pluses of LowRiders is that when climbing out of the saddle, the bike handles and feels virtually like the unloaded bike, just a lot more work. No frame flexing, no needing to fight the handlebars to control the bike.

Steering is slower and bikes with less trail (more fork rake and or steeper head angles) are better for regular use with LowRiders. (When I say LowRider, I am including all the copies.)

Ben

After months on tour a bike without 4 panniers feels odd.

[MENTION=266503]JaccoW[/MENTION], that's the cutest thing I've seen all day. Can I carry a young sweetie like that, too?

One nice thing about having your shtuff in the front is that you can see it and reach for it when riding.

I have a frame mounted steco (Azor/Steco Pickup frame mounting front rack) on my Opafiets with a small wood crate stuck to it. As mentioned previously, frame mounted handles loads much more comfortably than bar or fork mounted and a load up front is a bit better than in back (though this may be personal opinion).

Even so I still kind of prefer nothing up front so for lighter stuff I just use the rear rack and have a small wood crate for there as well that I can just throw my computer bag in. This works well on a step-thru like an opafiets or Gr8 but might be a problem for some people getting on a step-over.

I'm currently ghetto mounting my rear panniers under my VO Porteur rack. While not as optimal as lowriders, it's still nice to get some essentials down low underneath, while being able to strap bigger/bulkier items up top. Need to fab up the mounts on my bags a bit so they can drop down a few inches, since the rigid back of the pannier currently sticks above the flat rack by 2-3 inches. I've also found it easier to "overload" on heavier stuff. Even it out by throwing a six pack each underneath, and strap the other two up top, and the handling is better than stacking all four up top, in addition to my lock and other gear...

Whether having a load on the front works well depends on the design of the bike and the preference of the rider. If you haven't tried it, you might think it's a terrible idea. For many, it works just fine, even a gigantic load. Some people have tried it and found it to work badly but they tried it on a bike that doesn't like front loads. You need the right kind of bike, and I can't say exactly what that is.

Long ago, I made a commuter bike out of an old 1970s Motobecane Nomad frameset. I noticed it rode BETTER when it had a front load on it. I can't explain that.