Groceries and baskets

[Fred Craven]

Front or rear?

Now that I'm able to ride a reasonably short distance without cardiac arrest, I desire to go to our local grocery store and pick up a few items for dinner (and you can be sure that I will get wine cheese and baguettes at least once).

To facilitate this chore I will need "on bike" storage: most likely a basket. But where to put it, front or rear? My Rivendell Road Bike is of the generation where extra braze-ons were not standard fare. But that's not a problem. I think a front basket looks awesome, but rear storage might be more stable. As I'm utterly ignorant on the ramifications of this choice so I welcome your opinions.

The geometry is Riv-road, with a delightfully short top tube (thanks to Joel). I'm not sure if that affects things, but that's the situation.

[Tim Gavin]

I have a '97 Riv Road Standard.

I've used a medium Wald on a mini Nitto front rack, with p-clamps to the fork legs (Tubus leg clamps are more secure and I will use them if I install the mini front again).  

The basket fits fine, but may cause a problem if your bike has a short head tube and you use narrow drop bars.

I found the basket to work great for light loads, like the cheese and baguettes, or a sweater, or a lightweight sleeping bag.

I found that the basket resulted in lots of wheel flop when I put more than ~5 pounds in it.  A six-pack of beer in the basket was dicey, and with a 12-pack the handling was downright mulish.

Front low-rider panniers (like the Hub Area Rack and bags, or Tubus Tara, or Nitto Campee Classic racks) are more stable and can easily carry more weight up front than a basket atop the wheel.

You could use the front basket for the bread and cheese, and stash the wine elsewhere.  

A rear rack/bag setup?  Or, replace one bottle cage with a Salsa Anything cage, which would fit a wine bottle just fine.

Tim

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[Matthew J]

> I found that the basket resulted in lots of wheel flop when I put more than ~5 pounds in it.  A six-pack of beer in the basket was dicey, and with a 12-pack the handling was downright mulish.

> Front low-rider panniers (like the Hub Area Rack and bags, or Tubus Tara, or Nitto Campee Classic racks) are more stable and can easily carry more weight up front than a basket atop the wheel.

For medium or high trail bikes or even a low trail bike with poorly designed rack / basket, yes.  A low trail bike with well positioned porteur style rack can carry weight well over 20 lbs without handling issues.  

Low trail bikes have other handling characteristics that many Riv fans may not enjoy.  For them i think your rack Rx is spot on.

[Tim Gavin]

Exactly.  Fred has a mid-trail Riv Road and so do I, so I felt my experiences were germane.  

I would not make the same recommendations for a low-trail fork (which I have no experience with).

[Steve Palincsar]

Rivendells are rear loaders.  Baskets have some major utility when it comes to shopping, far easier to manage than panniers or bags.  I would think something like this Wald unit would be ideal for the bike and the intended use:

[Minh]

i'd echo tim's comments, i have a big wald basket on my QB (with a platrack), so i overload it often.  i've carried a pretty large watermelon, an auto-battery, both were not really fun, but i got them home.  but for a normal grocery run, it's fine, you just have to be a little more careful with the steering if you start piling in the sacks of potatoes.

[John Dilsaver]

It's possible to carry more than you think, especially for short distances. I have a mini-front rack with a wald basket zip-tied to it at times. Works great for groceries. A couple years ago we were out on the bikes on a Sat morning stopping at some garage sales. We stop at a sale and there's this plastic tool box full of neglected rusty sockets and other junk, but could be cleaned up, probably over 20 lbs. No way am I asking the price 'cause I can't carry it. Candy asks. It's $3. I had to buy it. I sat it on end in the basket, we bought a 50 cent or maybe a dime belt to strap it to my bars and off we went, made it home fine, just a couple miles.  Buff up the sockets, and coat 'em with some lanolube, they're great.

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Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2015 16:19:26 -0500
Subject: Re: [RBW] Groceries and baskets
From: tim....@littlevillagemag.com
To: rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com

[Will]

==> Tubus logo evo rack on rear with Ortlieb shopper pannier or roller pannier. Bags go on and off in 5 seconds. Very stable. Carries 25-30 pounds with no handling issues. Check with Wayne at the TouringStore.com.

Not affiliated, simply a very satisfied customer and regular grocery hauler.

[Patrick Moore]

I've been carrying heavyish rear grocery loads on Rivendells since 1997 or so. The secret is to use a very stiff rack, and I had very good luck with the Tubus Fly -- 11 oz, rated to 44 lb, which I've maxed out. The Cargo model is rated to 80 lb, IIRC.

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[Mark Reimer]

Here's some of my personal best loads - a 40lb bag of wood stove pellets tied down to my Nitto Campee using a wire shelf to distribute the load. A Honda cb750 engine block in a pannier, 24 beers, and a cord of wood. The bike handled quite well all things considered!

[Kainalu]

A cord! That's got my hugest load whooped and I often use a trailer that maxes at 300ish lbs. 24 packs I can do. Seen a gentleman in Beijing with a few hundred pounds of melons, that had looked like a record to me.
Glad for my oil heat
-Kai
Brooklyn, NY

[Ryan Fleming]

Yup...I've seen Mark' beast of burden in action and yup , he hauls a lotta stuff on it. Doesn't   seem to slow him down appreciably, though

[Tim Gavin]

Kudos to Mark.  

His Nitto 34F (Big Front Rack) is definitely a more capable of epic loads than the Nitto mini front racks.

Tim

[Mark Reimer]

My rack actually isn't the big rack! It's the smaller more elegant campee model

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[Tim Gavin]

My mistake, thanks for the clarification.  I glanced at it instead of looking carefully.  I really like the Campee Classic (with removable lowrider) front racks.

[Mark Reimer]

And my mistake for saying a cord of wood, I had always thought a cord was a bundle like in the photo. I see know that I was a wee bit off!

[Montclair BobbyB]

A CB750 block!!! That's gotta be the all-time best!!!  You rock, Mark!!!

[Fred Craven]

OK, so far I'm getting the idea that a rear rack/basket/pannier is better than front for carrying a few groceries, especially given the fact that my bike has more of a road-ish geometry. And that the front basket may do just as fine as long as I don't load it up too much. All of the comments are quite helpful. Thanks.