Not yet, though it was briefly considered when exploring cargo carrying for my wife who did not care for handling with a front load (for the most part.) But we ended up trying something similar with a milk crate with mixed results. This was on her XS Velo Orange Camargue, which we picked up not for touring but more utility and all around general use when she was interested in a touring type load carring bike to complement her sporty road bike and kind of replace an old comfort MTB that desperately needed an overhaul.
We initially tried a Surly front rack I still had at the time... but she didn’t care for handling with the rack weight alone when unloaded nor the need for additional luggage for casual errand running. So I ended up later installing a Wald 139 with modified struts to midfork mounts, which she like a little better for ease of use and some unloaded weight savings but still didn’t care for the front end handling under bigger loads. After getting an appropriate rear rack installed she ended up finding a brightly colored milk crate she wanted to try before I got around to rigging anything else, such as the 139 basket installed rear and lengthwise which I was considering. The crate and rear load was preferable based on her personal taste and handling preferences but her small frame and tall crate just didn’t really get along and it would obstruct her ability to scoot back far enough on the saddle at times. During the time we worked through a lot of trial and error I had also picked up a Clem basket aka Wald multi-fit for one of my own bikes, and at some point she asked I get one for her old 3 speed. My own basket bike was (and still is) a work in progress and during some bar swapping I just moved the basket over to her 3speed... and she liked it enough to declare that one her main basket/farm market bike. Now I have the 139 left to use myself and likely going up front but I’ve considered how it might fit in the rear on a couple bikes and figure as long as it sits below the saddle so no interference like my wife had with the crate and if there’s enough rack support to install lengthwise the width would be then be minimized. Not sure if I’ll personally get around to it but probably worth a try. I used a bunch of removable zip ties when trying to fine tune crate placement and would use the same zip ties for test fitting basket placement (it also had the added benefit of a not-so-quick release for days/weeks we planned rides but knew there’d be no load carrying so I’d occasionally pop the crate off advance.) Brian Cole Lawrenceville NJ -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/5c3c5a45-bdd6-4c51-a5b8-4cfcb700844b%40googlegroups.com.
