noglider 

I'm in the middle. I think Wald baskets are ugly but practical. The double rear ones are terribly heavy. Kurt's criticisms of them are fair.

Hose clamps are better than zip ties, not only because they are durabler but also because you can undo them and redo them on the road with a wrench or screwdriver. Well I guess that shows you that I carry wrenches but not spare zip ties or snippers.

Our tandem bike was Rivendell-ized by @fender1. I never would have thought to do this, and it works so much better than I expected. We use the Sackville bag, and it's so much nicer than I would have thought.

tonymarch

Had a Wald basket on my Schwinn Typhoon when I was a paperboy. They were then, and probably still are, virtually indestructible. My friend (with the same set up) and I would crash into each other head first...they basket would absorb most of the impact and barely deform! Loved it!!!

FreedBehindBars

Shortly after installing a Wald basket on my Cruiser SSX, I mounted a thin wooden bottom to the rack. Mostly to make it more accommodating for my small dog at the time.

ascherer 

For my recent commuter/shopper rebuild I considered a bunch of porteur-style racks and baskets. Since I had an aluminum Blackburn-style front rack on hand it seemed silly to spend on one of them, and a lot of them looked over-engineered for my purposes.I liked the look of that Pelago rack/basket but the price was too much. I paid maybe $23 for a Wald 137. I set the stays aside and like @nlerner, hose clamped it to the rack. Acorn recently restocked and I bought a bag they make specifically for that basket. For commuting (when we're allowed to return to the office, that is) I can drop my small work bag into the basket or use the Acorn, and for shopping I add my canvas shopping rollups on the back. I can easily manage 4 bags of groceries on the bike and a fifth if I want to backpack one. I have a set of folding rear racks in storage, they were heavy and rattled when I had them on my Sports.


Commuter mode




Shopper mode

PJ943 

Those baskets at least look fantastic! The utility has to be about as good as anything, especially for grocery-getting. I thought about going with a Wald basket myself, but decided on a porteur rack/backpack combo, since I do a lot of riding somewhere and then walking around to run errands and the like. It's awesome that there are so many great options

JaccoW

People on here might like Ocean Air Cycles's, Nitto made Erlen saddle bag/basket support.

mirfi

Fantastic. A basket large enough to hold a 30 pack was a requirement. Now it's a gallon of milk. The basket on the rear rack has to hold a carton of eggs (a dozen). I still have some old Wald baskets around, can never throw them away.

Good job. Reminds me of the Schwinn Speedster I had as a 20 year old. Except I put hi-rise handlebars on it. Thank you.

BFisher

I stumbled upon some baskets that may be of interest, and ordered one today.
https://www.yeti.com/en_US/accessori...110010006.html

They have different sizes. Here are the dimensions, LxWxH in inches:
Tundra 35/45: 9.5 x 10.9 x3.3
Tundra 50/65: 11.8 x 12.20 x 3.4
Tundra 75/110: 11.85 x 11.70 x 3.3
Tundra 105/ 125/ 160: 11.8 x 14.35 x 3.3
Tundra 210: 16.25 x 20.53 x 4.5

jonwvara 

Great idea, thanks--I like the looks of that smallest one. For some reason I find it satisfying to repurpose non-cycling products to cycling use. Especially when they're just as good and cheaper.

BFisher

A lot of times it just makes sense. The customer service was excellent so far, and it shipped the same day.

Ol Danl

I have one of the folding rear baskets. Fits a grocery bag just right, doesn't rattle much when folded up. Pretty happy with it.

tashi

Love me a Wald basket! I agree with Kurt's critiques of them (aide from the extent of the rust issue), but for the price and application they don't bother me a bit. The newsboy is WAY too big, when I ran one I always got myself into dicey situations by overloading the thing. I prefer the 1392/1372 wide and shallow shape to the narrower and deeper 198 shape. I'll probably be mounting mine to a rack soon, as the stays are fairly flexy and I can get it lower if it's on the rack for better centre of gravity.

For a light mount I zap strap a small section (4" long) of aluminum tubing to the front of the basket and mount the handlebar mount to that; keeps it out front where it can't be blocked by the stuff in the basket.

JaccoW

How about some upcycled stainless steel baskets?
Stainless beSPOKE basket. Replacing my small Wald and saving half a pound! - by u/iwasjra

fliplap

Hey! Twinsies! I too run a Wald basket on my 87 Mirada, albeit up front.

Miradaman

Fancy! I like it. Mine has always been a beater utility bike...got it for free 7-8 years ago...

tashi

THIS is super cool.

brianinc-ville

I love Wald folding rear baskets and use them on all my transportation bikes. I don't actually see how you can use your bike as a serious vehicle without them. I'm not sure anybody has mentioned how good they are for bungeeing down big items on the rear rack (like big boxes going to the post office or, on occasion, a Dahon Piccolo folding bike).

I even used Wald folding baskets on my Douze cargo bike, with the 80cm box up front, when my daughter was a baby and her car seat (with the Steco Baby Mee adapter, shown) took up most of the box -- I still had to put the groceries somewhere, and the Wald baskets did the job.




Some years ago (jeez, 11 years ago), I did a post about the nylon quick-release straps I use for mounting them -- these make it easy to take the baskets off and put them on another bike, when you want to.

I'll agree with Kurt, though, that the painted Wald baskets rust way too much. But the galvanized ones seem to hold up pretty well. I've never had a problem with them bending or breaking, and I give them pretty hard use.

BFisher

To follow up on post #58 , I received my new basket from Yeti today. Viable alternative.



This is the Tundra 50/65: 11.8"L x 12.20"W x 3.4"H. Finish looks like black powder coat. Wire thicknesses are just under 1/4" and 5/32". It is much more robust than my Wald.
Cost a whopping $13.77 shipped.

tashi

YETI and good value, there's an unexpected combo!

nlerner

Good looking basket, BFisher!

tyrion

Wow that's cool. Saving half a pound is not insignificant for weight over the front wheel.

BFisher

Isn't it? I'm going to attach it to the front rack on my UO-8 and see how I like it.

mirfi

Don't know where I got 'em, but gonna use 'em.

BTW, a few of my bikes are 50 years old.



Still functional