The Wild and Wonderful World of Wald

[Matthew Naftis]

One of these days I will offer opinions rather than soliciting them, but today is not one of those days.

What does the collective wisdom say about mounting a Wald basket with Wald manufactured struts (for example, the 1372 that Wald sells, or the "Clem Bosco Basket" that Riv sells) versus attaching a Wald basket to a  front rack?  

Obviously, the latter SEEMS more stable and stout than the former, but I'm curious to know if anyone has ever actually experienced an issue with the rackless method carrying a load of less than, say, ten pounds.  I mean, these things were originally designed so that children could haul around and deliver heavy stacks of newspapers and large bottles of morphine in various child labor rackets, right? Surely, they can handle my coffee kit and some snacks.

  

But I figure there are some other pros to the rack attached method other than general sturdiness: it gives you the option to mount front panniers, the ability to mount the basket at a lower height than if you were to attach the basket to the handlebars (as you do in the rackless method), and the option of taking the basket off altogether and still having a rack to use.  Am I missing any other considerations?

The one pro of rackless method seems to be the significantly cheaper price. But maybe there are others?

Thank you for any advice or experience you can offer. 

Matt

      

[Robert Hakim]

In my limited basket experience, I have found that the rack method is best suited to my uses- even if it is just a little canti-stud/P-clamp mounted randonneur rack.

I'm not certain that the first basket I had was a Wald brand, and may have been made out of inferior materials, but I thought the load just flexed all over the place with a 12 pack of glass beer bottles in it. Some of that motion was likely due to the liquid itself sloshing around in the containers. For some reason, however, I don't remember it becoming any easier to control despite my best efforts to lighten the load with a few friends... Must have been due to the liquid itself sloshing around in my stomach.

Anyways- that brief basket experience was enough for me to swear off the struts. Years later, I've returned to the basket life, but I swear by the rack mounted method. Nowadays I tend to overload the basket with groceries instead of malted beverages, but I feel like I can get away with a more substantial load if I need to with the rack-mounted option. (Watermelon, anyone?)

I'm sure if you are only carrying around a coffee kit, snacks, and an extra coat/gloves up front you won't have any sort of issue.

Cheers,

Robert Hakim

SLC, UT

[Eric Daume]

I use a Wald basket with the struts, and I’m happy with them. A gallon of milk with groceries, or a lid of library books, still works ok. Note that I attach the struts to a mid eyelet, so I only have to use one strut per side, not the extended double strut. 

Eric

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/5ddf958a-a275-415d-ae55-da286fffd214%40googlegroups.com.

[Coal Bee Rye Anne]

I’ve used the stock adjustable length struts of the Clem Bosco basket aka Wald MultiFit with an old Raleigh using the bolt-on front axle attachment point and felt it was sturdy enough but did experience occasional flex with heavier loads. I also briefly installed a large Wald basket on one of my wife’s bikes with stock hardware and cut/filed/drilled the struts to fit mid-fork mounts and it seemed quite sturdy but never fully tested it as my wife ended up just not liking the handling with a front load on that bike so it came off rather quickly. She’s since acquired my Clem basket on her own Raleigh 3spd and seems happy with it and I’ll soon be adapting the now unused large Wald basket on another build using a mix of hardware.... or maybe with a rack eventually depending on how a few things pan out. One of the greatest advantages I see with using a rack mounted basket instead is if you have limited handlebar space for the bar clamps you eliminate the extra clutter up at the bar/stem area. I personally found this to be a non issue and had wide/long bullhorn bars on my basket bike/grocery getter with a really short stem where I rode mostly out on the ramps with the basket tucked neatly between without ever felling as though the bar clamps were in the way.

Brian Cole
Lawrenceville NJ

[Timothy Hurley]

The Wald handlebar clips/struts set up works great. Before I went down the nice bike rabbit hole, I used that set up on a beater bike for years. You can’t go nuts with tons of weight in the basket, but that’s true for any set up.

[Matthew Naftis]

Thanks for the input, everyone.  I think I'll start with the Wald struts and modify if I find it necessary.

Matt

[Jeff Lesperance]

I've gone through a few iterations of Wald basket attachment:

* zip-tied to a front rack

* zip-tied to a front rack AND with Wald struts

* with two sets of Wald struts

I never found the base Wald attachment mechanism to be solid enough to handle what I thought was a rational load, in terms of horizontal flex. I also found that not all front racks are equal and some may not hold a large basket by themselves, hence the rack + struts configuration. If you decide to go with Wald rack struts, and think you could benefit from an extra set, I think I have some extra struts in my parts bin that I'd be happy to send your way.

-Jeff 

Silver Spring, MD

Here are a couple of pics showing off a double strut config and rack + strut config:

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/c3b974bd-d2e8-4d8c-a9df-5eea55e13ff4%40googlegroups.com.