Well I finally got it finished. I mounted a handlebar mount for my Wahoo, a bell, and old Cannondale saddlebag, and a bottle cage.
I'm ready to tackle my first grocery trip!
Its about 7 country miles into town, which is not much for some people, but these roads are narrow, and bumpy - a dirt road is smoother. You get beaten to death on short rides. The river is nice today. Lots of wild ducks make their summer homes here.
Lots of hayfields along the way. Once in a while you see a deer near the edge of the woods, or an eagle overhead, scouting for prey.
Made it to the shop, and locked 'er up. I doubt that I had to do this. Very low crime rate here, and no one I know has ever had anything stolen (here), but all the same you never know. Now I can shop without worry.
And here she is waiting to embark on the return trip. I estimate about 40 pounds of groceries, which she handled with ease. Its the engine that was having difficulty! It took me 15 minutes longer on the return trip than it did going out, and my average speed was much lower. I'm no athlete, but I do ride a lot and I'm reasonably fit for a 62 year-old mick. Despite the fact that there were no major hills, I was still huffing and puffing a few times along the way due to some serious headwind.
Other than the need to possibly work on saddle tilt, the bike fit me well and was surprisingly comfortable. The Schwalbes did a great job of soaking up the bumps. Such a great tire. I may experiment with removing the front basket and installing matching saddlebag-style baskets like the rear. If I do that, I'll work on getting them even lower to lower the center of gravity. Building this bike has been fun. Up until now, all of my experience has been with road and mountain bikes with the occasional cruiser or beach bike tossed in. I've never had reason to play around with utility or cargo bikes, so this is fun to me.
I hope you enjoyed this, and thanks for reading!