I put a pair of baskets on the back of my bike this weekend. I fashioned tops for them out of coated wire shelving so nothing will bounce out and so I can lock them when I make runs to the store. After installation, I road around the neighborhood for a while and all seemed great.

Here's the problem:
I loaded my work clothes, water and whatnot for my 18 mile commute and now there is the worst wobble to my bike. The faster I go, the harder I have to fight it.

Is there a way to stabilize the baskets or am I doomed to a less than pleasant ride with the baskets?

BTW—The baskets are attached by one support on either side, running to the axle and a bracket secured to the seat stays.

Thank you.

Panniers are better for heavy loads like water and whatnot, because they keep the center of gravity lower and closer in to the bike frame. Your wobble may be coming from a high center of gravity, and there's not a lot you can do about it. Panniers are also better than an open basket at protecting packed clothes from the elements.

Panniers really seem nice, but they are somewhat cost-prohibitive.

I switched from the home made trunk bag to baskets specifically to lower the center of gravity. Before, I was riding with everything in the bag, over the back wheel. Now everything is down, below the top rim of the back wheel and I am using a waterproof bag for my clothes.

I'd think of using a rack to mount them, then lower the baskets until the tops are at the level of the rack. Then you have a flat platform for large, boxy items.

Another thought... since you have the rack/ tops you could put a little padlock on them and make them lockable! Super cool.

Also, small stuff will want to roll around. Run some mini-bungie cord from the middleish part of the bottom to the sides so when you put stuff in they cinch down a bit and keep stuff from rolling around.

Panniers ARE really expensive. People talk about commuting by bike to save money, and then they expect you to spend $200 on what is essentially a canvas bag, not all that different from a backpack you can get for $20.

I'll take a picture at lunch so you can see them. They do look sharp, (others might think dorky) and I'll throw the locks on for the pics.

$200 ... that's a one-time expense ... I spend that much in two months on gas for my (auto) commute. And about ten times that much every year to insure two cars. I think you're still ahead!

$200 ... that's a one-time expense ... I spend that much in two months on gas for my (auto) commute. And about ten times that much every year to insure two cars. Yesterday I discovered my wife had driven over something sharp and gashed the left front tire on my Honda. There went another $100. I think you're still ahead!

Here she is. The red bag is for my clothes. I cut the "fender" out of the lid from a Rubbermaid storage bin to keep the mud and water off my back.

Notice that the only supports are from the axle to the rack and on the seat stays. I'm going to cinch the baskets to the lower part of the seat stay with plastic ties for the ride home. I may try adding another support arm to each side tonight.
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...SideView_T.jpgFull Size
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...r_Closed_T.jpgFull Size
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...ear_Open_T.jpgFull Size

This is the setup I was using:
Notice how high everything is on my rack.
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...ast_back_T.jpgFull Size

Nice set-up MMACH 5. I'v enever used baskets. Are they noisy? They seem like they'd rattle a lot.

I have to agree. I have a Timbuk2 messenger bag that I invested about $120 in when I started cummuting by bike on a regular basis. I use it to carry all of my stuff back and forth to and from work almost every day. I'm sure the thing has paid for itself many times over in the money I've saved by not driving my car. The same would be true if I bought panniers.

If a person can't afford to buy the gear that they want right away they could always use a backpack until they've save enough money for panniers or whatever. In the long run you're going to come out ahead by riding instead of driving.

Thanks. They are surprisingly quiet. I only noticed any noise coming from them, on pretty bumpy areas, (of which there are a few on my commute). Other than the wobble, I'm very pleased with them. Hopefully, the modifications I'm planning for this evening will settle everything down.

I really like your alternative to panniers...especially the homemade security covers! My wife has a pair of Wald folding baskets mounted to a Delta rack and it doesn't wobble at all.

Did you make the baskets themselves or buy them? They really look oversized lengthwise and might hang too far in back of your axle, causing your swaying problem. You can try to scoot them forward if you don't have a problem with heelstrike.

I'm not sure what kind of rack that is, but it looks mightly long. This might also compound your problem if it is not rigid enough (a Jandd Expedition rack is long and rigid). Try holding the back of the rack and pushing it side to side...it should barely flex if at all.

This is true. My wife was leary of any money that I wanted to spend on bicycle commuting. But since I've now done it through the hottest part of the year, she's starting to come around. She's also seeing the $$ start to add up from what I would have spent on gas and/or bus fare.

I got them for $20 at one of the bicycle shops. Not seeing any on display, I asked about rear baskets and he pulled out a nylon, mesh, folding rack bag. I'm not sure of the brand, but they were $40 each. I told him I was looking for rigid baskets and he said, "I've got these ones in the back that are built onto a rack. It's this whole bulky contraption. They won't fold down."
I told him that was exactly what I was looking for. Next thing, I saw him in the back, climbing up into the rafters to pull these out from behind some other retail snail items. He said he'd never sold a set of these before.

They are pretty long and I've set them back as far as my big ole clown feet will let me.
They are rigid. There's not much flex to them.

Another thing I'm going to try is bungeeing the load up toward the front of the baskets. Maybe it will at least give me a smoother ride home, where I can experiment with some other stuff on them.

There are plenty of two small pannier sets for $40. And larger ones for under $100.

Most rear racks are stabilized sideways by having two supports coming up from the rear dropouts on each side. One support comes up verically to the edge of the top platform, while the other goes to the centre at the back of the top platform. When viewed from the rear these supports form rigid triangles. You should try and mount your baskets on a rigid rack like that. Your rack with only 2 parallel vertical supports can sway like a parallelogram.

Swaying and wobbling comes from too much mass towards the back of the bike. Your idea to crowd the stuff in the front of the baskets is good. You will notice the wobbling is bad at higher speeds only.

I like the basket idea. I'm not clear on where the wobble is coming from. Is the whole bike wobbling, like a balance issue? Is it the connection points causing just the basket to wobble? Is the whole one-piece structure sort of flexy? Is the stuff inside the baskets moving around and causing the wobble?

I did all my grocery shopping for the last many months using those same kind of baskets, and I noticed that when I loaded the baskets up with pretty heavy stuff--say, a container of kitty litter, a gallon of milk, and other assorted groceries--the front end of the bike went all wonky and everything definitely felt "wobbly." I found that as people have suggested, getting the heaviest weight as low and as near to center as possible helped a lot.

Putting some weight on the front as a counterbalance helped, too, so I started hanging bags of crushable, fragile stuff--fruits and vegetables, eggs, etc.--from the handlebars, and that also helped. I kept thinking I'd get one of those detachable front baskets, but never got around to it. I think that would have helped, too, having a bit more weight in the front.

However, I just this last weekend retired my double rear baskets and replaced them with a Performance Transit Rack (40-lb. capacity, on sale for $20) and a Jannd grocery pannier that I happened on at a garage sale for a dollar a few weeks ago. The grocery pannier is light, holds way more stuff than one side of the basket did, and is easily removable and carry-able. And I like not hauling the weight and bulk of those baskets around, because I'm starting to do much longer rides (a metric century + 26 transportation miles yesterday) and my old bike is heavy enough already.

I plan to pick up another grocery pannier (they are often on sale at Nashbar and/or Performance for as low as $18) so I'll have two for big grocery runs. The rack also gives me other packing/loading options for the future--an Arkel Bug, a full set of panniers, whatever. Just simpler and more versatile than the baskets.

I like the locking top you devised for your baskets, though. Very clever.

Or you could get some cheap used ones on ebay.
You could sew your own. Ideas how by Ken Kifer:
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/bags.htm
Really it is nice to have your gear NOT sweating up your back all the time. (depending how much stuff you have and how far you are going)
Panniers are different than a backpack, they are designed to easily fit over the rack of the bicycle. They are cut away at the corners so you can clear the pannier with your foot when pedalling.
There are a lot of quality panniers much cheaper than $200, and a $20 backpack is sure to fall apart quicker than your quality panniers.

Here's an idea. Have you got any of that Rubbermaid lid left? I guess any chunk of plastic or even thin wood would do. Cut a piece just slightly narrower and as high as the basket. Either use bungee's or cut four holes in the corners and use clips. What you do is use the board to push your load forward, compressing the actual size of the basket. You could also use the divider to create a separate section for fragile stuff.

I've been wanting foldable baskets for ages. I love the idea of having a lockable top. How are they for weight?

I'd also second the idea of adding a front basket to even out the load. Even a cheap handlebar bag would help.

Thanks everyone for your input. So here's where we are now...

Before leaving work yesterday, I used some plastic ties to secure the bottom, front corners of the baskets to the seat stays and used my bungee cords to keep the load at the front of the baskets. Big improvement. The handlebars didn't feel like they were trying to jump out of my hands the whole time.

As I left work, there was a pretty stiff breeze coming from the north. I was going south, so no problem. Heck, my average speed was two mph faster than usual! I thought, "I'll be home in no time!" About seven miles into the ride, I was coming off a red light when pedaling the bike became extremely difficult. Once across the intersection, I started looking at my rack to see if a strap or something had fallen out and gotten into the wheel. Nothing. I pedaled slowly around the parking lot, trying to find the culprit. When I tried to pedal quickly, I got more resistance than when I pedaled slowly. My RD was clicking and clacking as the chain didn't want to stay on its gear. Any ideas out there?

Yep, the freewheel side of the rear axle had slipped in the dropout. The reason? The basket mount. Notice in the image, how it sits between the dropout and the bolt.

(It's highlighted in yellow and I had to use a bolt that is narrower than a standard axle bolt)
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...sket_Mount.jpg

I got out my wrench, put the axle back in place and tightened it down. I didn't make it a quarter mile before it started slipping again, so I stopped again. This time I flipped the bike over and used a wrench on each side of the wheel. As I'm standing there, hunched over my inverted bike, it started to rain. Not a spring shower, mind you, but torrents of water are pouring down on me. I finished up and righted the bike. Before I even got my feet clipped in, the axle slipped again.

I dejectedly walked my bike over to the mail center of a nearby apartment complex in search of a pay phone. There was none, but a kind woman who was checking her mail let me call my wife on her cell phone. As I was standing there in my helmet by my bike, the apartment's residents were getting home from work and coming up in to check their mail. It's not an exaggeration that 8 out of 10 people who came in made a comment equivalent or at least similar to: "You're not going to let a little rain stop you, are you?"

I got home and began fashioning supplemental supports for the baskets. Several hours of trying different materials, brought me to a torn quad chair that I saved in case I could use any of its parts http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...uad_chair.jpeg
A little drilling along some Dremmel tool cutting and I had new supports for my baskets.

Time for installation. I got the baskets all lined up and went to put on the axle bolts. I couldn't get them to tighten to save my life. This is when I realized that the threads on the axle were stripped. I cannibalize the rear wheel of an old junker bike to replace the axle and began trying to figure out how I could mount the baskets without attaching them to the axle. A whole lot of head scratching and thumb twiddling and I went with rubberized cable clamps.http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...rubbercush.gif
I put the clamps around the base of the seat stays and attached the supports. That's when I looked at my watch and realized it was 4:00am. I get up at 5:30am to get ready for work. Needless to say, I overslept and had to drive to the office. My wife did ask me, before I left if I got the bike fixed. I told her that since I dozed off a time or two while working on it, I should probably give everything a once-over before riding it to work on Wednesday.

So I don't know if my supports worked or not. I'll give it a thorough test ride when I get home tonight.

Thanks again to everyone for the tips and suggestions.

Sorry for the bump.
Just an update for anyone who cares.
I went home, checked the supports from the night before. All was secure, but it seemed just a little less rigid than I would have liked. I took my old rack, tore it apart and used a seat-post clamp to add two more supports at the front. After I got done, I headed to the store and got some milk, soda, sugar and some other items. I loaded them into the baskets and road around the neighborhood for a while before heading home. All was steady and I'm back to commuting again!

Here are some shots of the new supports and mounting system:
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH..._Support_T.jpgFull Size
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...ket_Side_T.jpgFull Size
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...t_Bottom_T.jpgFull Size
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...supports_T.jpgFull Size
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...port_Top_T.jpgFull Size
Thanks again everyone. Have fun and ride safe!

Looks pretty good! Did you manage to get your stripped axle/wheel slippage problem taken care of?

Yes. With the axle from my junker bike, (that I pulled from a dumpster a few years ago), I was able to get my rear wheel back in action. And I've now mounted the baskets to the base of my seat stays with the cable clamps instead of the axle.

Re: wobbly baskets

I've found wobbling and rattling is taken care of by thick zip ties. I use a front basket attached to a small front rack. Zip tie that sucker down real tight. I've never had the basket wobble or rattle. The stuff inside rattles around in the basket, of course.

MMach5,

You're a better man than I, Gunga Din. I tried baskets of the style you described, and experienced the scariest wobble of my life. I ran, did not walk, and certainly did not ride, back to my local bike shop to return the baskets.

I admire you for making them work. They seem much more useful for commuting and in-town errands than fussy panniers.

Sorry to hear about you three hour tour. Hope you get some rest, and that your repairs are successful.

Go to Nashbar.com and search for NA-ATP2 - big, nice, and $35 for two.

I have had a pair for over a year and they're holding up fine. About 2500 miles of commuting, about 40% of which was over rough gravel with mud and bumps with loads inside ranging up to 2 gallons of milk and a few textbooks.

One of them got messed up a bit on the side, because I didn't hang it properly when I left and it got caught in the spokes when I turned a corner, but it's still functional. Just one of the side pockets has a hole.

Okay. This is my absolute, last basket update:

Friday, as I rode to work, my bike just got harder and harder to pedal. I couldn't tell if it was me or if there really was a problem. When I could feel something inadvertently dragging, even when coasting down hills, I knew something was wrong. I couldn't find anywhere that the baskets were causing the problem.

When I got home, I started looking the bike over and found that the rear axle, (remember the one from the junker), was bent. Saturday, I ran to my LBS, got a new axle and some bearings. I removed the baskets for easier access and got the rear wheel back in good working order. When I took the bike out for a test spin, sans the baskets, I realized immediately how heavy and cumbersom they actually were.

When I returned home, my wife said, "So, just leave them off."

"But I really like them and I hate to admit that I couldn't make them work and I did spend $20 on them..."

Having decided to just forgo the baskets, I now had to decide what to do about carrying my stuff to and from work. I had torn up my old rear rack to put supports on the baskets.

So, I took the pieces of the rear rack, a few aluminum angles and built myself a front rack. I added the "poor man panniers" after the fact.

I ran to the store Monday and loaded a 10 pound sack of cat litter on it and rode home with no problems.
The commute, this morning was a bit easier and the rack even survived my first crash, (not too serious, but the bike did go down).

http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...t_Rack_1_T.jpgFull size image
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...ack_Side_T.jpgFull size image
http://home.swbell.net/mcpoop//MMACH...ole_Bike_T.jpgFull size image
Notice I raised the headlight, so it can shine over any load I'm carrying.

Thanks again to everyone for trying to help me make the baskets work. If my commute was under ten miles, each way, I would have probably stuck with them. :)