CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
I've put a wooden box on the front on my upright bike. Throwing things in; the the purpose of.
It's brilliant. I hadn't realised quite how much of a faff it was to ensure I had a pannier or rucksack on the bike.
Highly recommended. Almost on a par with the convenience of dynamo lighting.
That is all.
Piccy!
Pix + info on rack too please.
Picture will have to wait until hometime, but it's secured to a Surly Nice front rack (which is hugely overengineered for this, but is solid enough that I can still fit my massive Carradice rear panniers under the box without issue.)
See, women have known this for aaaaages, it's just a basket isn't manly enough apparently!
WARNING
I've seen the aftermath of 'thing bounced out of front container'.
I don't know if item fell into wheel or person lost control trying to grab it.
Item was too large to fit neatly in container, but obviously not secured.
This may apply to male/female/basket/box.
My best basket has a drawstring cover - can be pulled back if items larger, or snugged up to provide rain cover/prevent bounces.
Basket better for wine, cheese, baguette. Box better for home brew. You gotta get the style right...
Box also better for the attachment of additional Devices (light, camera, horn, etc).
Although some kind of securing cover may be in order.
I've got the Brompton message basket. I turn the bike into a trolley in the supermarket and load it up.
I did leave a slab of Dairy Milk on the self scan a few weeks ago because I missed it when loading up the basket again. And I'd even paid for it.
The Brompton message basket folds up of course.
I just carry a bungee cord with me and lace that across the top of my basket if needed. I am reminded though that in London thieves were grabbing purses/handbags etc out of baskets while cyclists were cycling along. Scary.
The Brompton message basket folds up but, disappointingly, you cannot get a Brompton into it (I am often asked this by strangers). They missed a meta-Bromptoning trick there.
yes Sally. A dual purpose Brompton bag thing would be really fab....especially if it had handle loops that were long enough to go over the shoulder when needed.
There has definitely been a missed take here!!!!!!
I have often thought this was a missed opportunity.
So ... can anyone design a fold up messages bag that fits on a brompton front luggage carrier block but which is also big enough to take a folded brompton? And which has handle straps that are long enough to go over the shoulder.
I can;t think this is too hard a design problem.
Does the frame attach to the bag, making it rigid and then attach to the front carrier block and latch to fix it to the bike?
If so, it would be relatively easy to make a bag big enough to take the bike. The only issue would presumably be limiting the capacity while it's on the bike so that there wasn't too much weight projecting forward, putting too much strain on that little latch.
And yes, boxes are great on front racks for just chucking stuff in.
I made a smaller bar bag, based on a camera lens carrier, that's handy for having little cameras and stuff in. A shameless rip-off of this but larger based on this. Made of really tough X-Pac VX21 fabric on the outside, waterproof cotton fabric on the inside with a waterproof nylon drawstring cover and mesh pockets on the outside.
You'd also need a way of resisting the temptation to try and carry a Brompton on your Brompton, or else a way of strengthening the front block so you can carry a Brompton on your Brompton.
To give some perspective, the Bicicapace Classic has a reinforced front bag that is large enough to carry a folded Brompton. It's actually really quite large.
The Brompton front block is rated for a comfortable 10kg I think. I once carried more like 20kg on it, with an extra webbing strap routed through the frame triangle, and not at any high speed. The strength of the block is limited by about 6mm of thread of two M5 bolts. The luggage block mount itself, which is brazed onto the headtube, is actually capable of supporting an adult* cantilevered out three feet.
* I believe the test subject was Andrew Ritchie.
but does that fit ontothe Brompton front block.
I think it would actually be very easy to design an extended form of the current Brompton Messages bag so it could fit a Brompton when required. No hard stuff necassary.
Lizzie, no, the Bicicapace bag is attached to the frame and isn't remotely on-and-offable in a Bromptonesque manner.
The main limiting factor with the Brompton system is cyclic torsion, which could break the luggage block more readily than a static vertical load.
Never ridden a Brompton loaded or unloaded so can't imagine what it would be like with 70lt of loaded luggage on the front. My tractor, with two panniers of shopping on the front is pretty hard to handle (though I admit most of that was beer, not breakfast cereal).
It handles much better with a load on front than without. If I'm giving people a go, I'll generally put the basket on and chuck a few things in it just to stabilise the steering a bit, which can be a bit lively to the uninitiated. What it would be like with a really heavy load, I don't know.
That's quite a nifty bag / bike combo Arellcat - practically an instant bakfiets.
Piccy of the box here, for those who requested it.
https://twitter.com/Darkerside/status/561315646294986752
I'm now back to a black brooks saddle, so it's slightly easier on the eyes.
Slightly.
So maybe a bit like the Helios. It's a question of getting used to the narrow handlebars. I had the same problem switching from the tractor back to a normal road bike. The road bike felt very narrow and twitchy.
@darkerside
Your box is a thing of beauty. Bet you don't hear that very often.
that's your *upright' bike?!
Yup. Although it now has a very slightly different rear rack on it as well...
You now need a cat ... for the box
Very few cats would be willing passengers.
@Insto How's the wine box on your Original Trendy doing?
If I was going to fasten something to the sparebike's porteur I'd probably go for something a bit less only-stapled-at-the-sides than a wine box to assuage my paranoia. It's also impossible to get the sparebike into its shed if there's anything too deep on the rack, so one of those fold-up multicoloured plastic boxes might be better for me.
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