Anyone use one? I'm tempted to put one on this bike but I'm afraid it might make the handling pretty sketchy. All opinions appreciated.

It is heavy enough that it will effect your ride, even when its empty. I had one on my cruiser but eventually switched to the next size down Wald. On the plus side, it will haul a lot. Not recommended.

i've heard the CETMA racks are pretty popular among SS/FG crowd. much lighter than the wald racks but just as functional. though much more expensive

Wald wins in the price category. It will affect the handling BUT those multi-tracks are very versatile and underrated bikes, IMHO. It should work fine so long as you don't go crazy with the weight.

As a nicer alternative to the CETMA recommendation:

https://www.velo-orange.com/voporteurrack.html

I have had them on a couple of different bikes. They seem to work best on a heavier bike. Also when full they WILL affect the handling. I plan on getting another one shortly for a secondary grocery getter.

Aaron

Thanks for the replies. I guess the key will be to mount as low as possible if I do get one. The Cetma and VO racks are nice, but $ more than I have in the bike, and it's not my primary ride or anything, so I'm thinking cheap. If I go ahead with it I'll post a picture and give a report.

I used to carry 100# of newspapers, and an occasional friend, in one, every day.

That was when I was 125# myself, and never had a problem.

You would be surprised at what those things carry.

The local newspapers used to carry them in the circulation departments, and sold them for cost to newsboys.....

I like the size down from that. It's 2 paper grocery bags in size, and it's deep enough to hold stuff in. Those flat rack are much more bungee dependent.

I've been riding with the size smaller for 2 year now and it's been great, but it does change the handling. Between the weight and the flex, even when it's empty it's enough to notice and make riding no hands pretty tough.

I do recommend it for a townie because it's nice to be able to carry so much on a whim, and you're not usually on a townie for the speed and handling.

Edit: I'll add that you should really have a bolt on axle for one of those. It's not good to run it with quick release and it won't mount easily anywhere else.

I've got one and love it. It carries anything I want to take around town. It screwed with the handling, but I got used to it right away. Changing from a 29 to a 38 tire in the front helped make it way more stable and corner better. I think that the reason they work on newsboy bikes is because of the front end geometry of those bikes.



My wife's got the smaller one and it's awesome as well. I'll be putting one on my other townie soon.

Thanks for the heads-up. That's something I hadn't thought through. I guess I'd imagined that I could rig it to the fender eyelets, but maybe that's wrong.

Anyone with a q/r front wheel successfully mount one of these? Tashi, looks like yours is q/r but I can't tell whether the basket is attached to the eyelets, or whether you ran the skewer through the mounting bracket.

I'd switch to a bolt on axle for a wald delivery basket.

I've used them for years, and they do affect handling, but you get used to it.

Thanks, everyone, for helping me sort this out. I decided to go with the next size down, which I believe is like the one on Tashi's wife's bike. Looks like it will work well for my purposes and for $20 shipped (Amazon) the price was right.

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!

I bought a used industrial bike that has one. I can't really tell that it affects handling while riding, but then that's on a heavy cruiser, not on a 15# bike. Where it really affects it is when you're not riding, as it tends to make the front wheel rotate around when on the kick stand. If your bike is light enough, it may not stand up on the kickstand at all. If you have a kickstand, that is.

Cosmetically, it looks a lot better on a clunky old cruiser than on a bike like yours.

I have a front Wald basket and twin Wald baskets in the rear on my Raleigh DL-1. If I could only have one, I'd go with the pair of rear baskets. They old a lot and affect handling far less than a loaded front basket.

Doohickie, I'm not sure if it's possible, but if you can lower your front rack as close to the top of the fender as possible your handling would improve a great deal. Might be tricky to do without modding the top brackets significantly though...

So if I can hijack this thread a bit, has anyone installed a Wald front basket on a straight fork? I have a Nashbar steel MTB fork, not a nice traditional curved one.

There are two issues: as you said, I'd have to mod the top brackets. Also, this is a rod brake bike with a Raleigh headlight bracket/emblem on the front. So the brackets have to go forward and not down:



The headlight bracket is visible at the top of this pic:



I did the best I could without modding the basket. I carry heavy stuff in the back, lighter stuff up front.

Update: I wound up installing the 2nd largest Wald basket and I'm finding it to be pretty perfect for my needs. I can carry lots of groceries, etc. and haven't experienced any problems with attaching the braces to the fender eyelets. Still using the QR front wheel. I also switched the bike to a 1 x 6 which I like a lot.