The Wald Folding Basket is great: I have them on all three of my around-town bikes. They are robust enough to carry a heavy bag of groceries (far more weight than my Nashbar Townies could safely carry); they fold up; they are screwed on so are tougher to steal; and they are inexpensive. Mine do not make noise and they aren't that heavy considering the conveniene. I mount one folding basket on one side of my rack and a removable Townie on the other; this combination allows me to bring home a full collection of groceries (heavy stuff in the rack; bulky but lighter items in the pannier) from Trader Joes without damage or inconvenience.

So... highly recommended based on personal experience.

Well, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Looks like this would be a sound investment.

But, I do have another question: When folded, is it advisable to use bungee's in addition to the stock locking mechanism? I will be putting my bike on car/bus racks.

A couple of bungees at hand is ALWAYS the right answer.

If you are out & about and you wanna use your baskets, the bungees can be used to help secure stuff in the baskets.

+2 on the bungees, a +1 for each.

I am a WALD fan, just for sheer function. They are heavy and asthetically put you straight into granny-league, but they really are good for hauling heavy loads and the chrome shine looks good on any bike.

I do not like the folding WALD baskets because I have seen too many of them over the years that get dented and become non-functional or very difficult to unfold.

My preference is the sidesaddle baskets. You don't want to burden your everyday rig with those big twins, but most serious bicyclists have more than one rig anyway - at least one bike for shopping and hauling stuff and another their "sporty ride" for fast transportation, dates, and the like.

I can see your point. I've been trying to *educate* my wife about the idea of having more than 1 bike. The subject matter bores her. That's okay though. She never goes out to the garage. She won't notice when my black flat-bar starts *dating* a green drop bar... Of course that would mean I would have to buy the kid's new bikes, or they would blab.

Love 'em

These are from 1965 and still in use:


And I use the giant delivery basket on my '08 Kona
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Just snapped this pic after my ride to the shop.


Also love the big rear doubles. Built this beater, but then sold it:

I have two of the Wald folding rear baskets mounted on my Cross-Check. They work great. I used hose clamps to mount them instead of the brackets that came with them. The hose clamps are much easier to install. I use 3 rack trunks for commuting. The rack trunks fit nicely inside the baskets & make it easy carying everything into work, packing with groceries, etc. I've zip tied the baskets open since I seldom need to close them. It makes them a bit quieter as well.

Run a bungee from the rack hooks over the folded baskets. Silence.

Now THOSE are what I call baskets.

Everybody should have at least one freighter bike that has big huge baskets. Notice that Cody's baskets aren't just baskets, they are the old newspaperboy Super-Sunday sized baskets.

I could see having BOTH the front big basket AND the big sized double sidesaddle baskets on a bike. With that, I think you would really have to try hard to justify using your car instead of your bicycle for shopping and most other tasks. You could haul at least four full sized bags of groceries and a 50 lb bag of dog food. Just make sure wherever you shop is UPHILL from where you live... and make sure your brakes on in good working order.

I like my single wald folding that I've got attached to my bike. Only thing I've found is that latch to keep it folded has a tendency to bounce open. But that's no big deal as I've reinforced it with the bungee net that I was planning on taking with me anyways. I'll have to get around to posting pics at some point...