Everything rear rack carrier: Looking for inspiration
 

Hi guys,
I am looking for some inspiration. I have been searching around on this forum and on google and did not really find anything that would be better than my current solution. The problem is, that my current solution is not strong enough.

Here is what I currently use:
See the milk crate pictures in my winter/commuter bike thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/winter-cy...-ish-post.html
My milk crate is mounted to an Axiom rack with a 50kg weight rating. Since this thread, I also added a 10mm round aluminum bar to the right top edge of the milk crate, so that I can attach a pannier flat across the milk crate for further volume and weight capacity.

Here are my requirements:

• I need a good place for my U-Lock to be on the bike without rattling around and being convenient to access
• I have to be able to carry 35kg on the bike with about 25kg of that being in liquid form (milk, water, juice...). This is where my current solution is weak: the milk crate is disintegrating after about one year of use.
• I need a volume of about 50L to carry my grocery runs. As I said, about 25L are liquids, the rest is more on the high-volume side and not as heavy.
• The ability to use bungees and attach lights is a high bonus
• The ability to make the carrying solution detachable (reasonably easy) is also important to me - this bike is my pannier-style bike touring backup, and my current commuting and winter bike.

The milk crate solution is THE perfect fit for me, except:

• it's not strong enough to survive regular mistreatment with ~35kg worth of groceries and other stuff. A little bit more capacity wouldn't be bad.
• The load sits pretty high, so that I do get a lot of side-to-side swaying which makes steering 'interesting'. Though I do have solution for this in mind.

Everything else on the bike seems to be holding up well with this weight. I'm proud of my DIY milk crate extensions and would be up for more DIY improvisations :)

This is what I have considered as an alternative so far, and what I think of it:

• Using a cargo trailer. -> Trailers are quite expensive! Also, storing the trailer will be tricky, because our basement entrance is not the widest.
• Using front racks + panniers: I think this is a possible future solution. However I don't think the fork I current have will survive a lot of extra load, so I think I will have to wait until there is a good reason to replace it with a proper touring fork (Surly et.al.)
• Adding panniers to the back. This is something I have always been trying to do, but haven't found a good way with this rack. Even if I found a good place for pannier mounts to be added, the panniers would be hanging very low (disc brake! Rear derailleur!), because the milk crate limits how high they can sit. If there's a better way to coordinate the two, I might be there. How much weight can wald folding baskets carry?
• N+1: Absolutely out of the budget. There's a dream-bike N+1 lineup and it's too long already. Also, for me, N=Nmax.

I might just replace the milk crate for now, but I'm really trying to come up with a better (more beautiful) solution to all of this. And I'm more on the lines of crafting/DIYing things, rather than buying the solution for big money.

...anyone else feeling creative?
Let me know!

Thanks,
alias5000

I've seen wire baskets that go on top of the rear rack. The one I'm thinking of is by Sunlite. Looks to be about the size of a milk crate.

https://www.amazon.com/Sunlite-Rack-...-20&ascsubtag=[artid|2143.a.20086637[src|[ch|

just throwing out ideas without looking at the bike.

i wonder if you could stack milk crates as you need them for more storage. i think the plastic ones stack don't they? maybe hinge a couple so one would be the cover for the other. or use two like panniers and mount them at a level where you could stack a second pair over them, and maybe even wide enough apart that a third could added to the second level, like storage legos.

Thank you, the attachment using these straps is a neat approach!

I think stacking would be an issue, because it would make the bike quite unstable with such high off the ground loads. But along very similar lines, yours and hermanchauw's comments got me to an idea (thank you, this is why I love this forum !! :D)
I could just get 3 milk crates. The center one is mounted the way it is right now (on top of the rack). And then I'll build a mounting system so that the other two milk crates can be on the sides of the rack underneath the center milk crate. I'm thinking of using some aluminum L-bars across the rack with two hooks pointing downwards on each side. These hooks can then hook into counterparts near the side-milk crate center. This way, I can unhook the side milk crates when not needed (most of the time) and also keep my removable mounting system for the center milk crate.

I just need to figure out tonight, if this will induce heel-strikes.

N+1/2
 

add an extra cycle kit, increase rear load capacity.
I own a Burly Flatbed trailer , it folds flat easily, when you take the wheels off.





....

yeah, that's what i meant for the second suggestion. if the first two are about at the height of regular panniers (top of the crate about level with the top of the tire. maybe an inch or so higher) and wide enough, the next three crates would sit at about bike rack height. so you end up with 5 crates. how unwieldy and/or unstable it might start to get i guess you'd have to experiment with.

Buy or make : Bike Buckets and things stay dry inside them..

Alright guys, I've sort of thrown things overboard. I found a good deal on a used Bob Yak and went for it. It's narrow, so it fits into the basement. The good thing is, that I'm not stretching capabilities with this one, but actually have some space and weight to play with - with the usual grocery run weight and volume.
I will still replace my broken milk crate (rack top) which should now last longer, since it's now not as over-strained as before anymore.

But I really like the ideas that have come up here, so thanks everyone! I will keep playing with the thoughts of mounting things on the rack sides. This could be additional milk crates; but more prominently, I have been thinking of ways to (optionally) mount panniers underneath the center milk crate without removing it. I already had some ideas for that in my mind, but this discussion has most definitely refined them :)

In a way the trailer probably counts as N+1/2 :D
Xtracycles are (theoretically) quite interesting, especially because I could also carry people this way (even though I really don't need this feature right now). How do they handle in (Canadian) winter (leaving the salt/rust/dirt issue aside)? It's a long wheelbase, but the rider sits far forward, which gives me the impression it would handle quite badly in deeper snow where sliding/skiing starts. OTOH, let's see how it's going to be with a trailer in these conditions. I'll have to touch up a few dings before winter starts and then keep it nice and shiny.

Hi, we've used rectangular cat litter buckets [free] hung on the rear rack with bent over shelf bracket hooks, and old plastic soda can flats ziptied to the front porteur on at least 5/6 different bikes over the years. Can hook another pair of buckets same way to the front porteur below the flat, but only for paper products and other light stuff. As noted, buckets are light, strong, waterproof, hook on, lift off, portable, etc. Since I use a 'step over' mixte I can load it good and put a 24 roll TP bale on the rear just for grins.