A-Tisket, A-Tasket

A basket was the first accessory I wanted to add to my bike. My husband originally scoffed at the idea. He sees baskets as silly, frivolous, girly. It must come from his BMX background or it’s just that masculine-american road bike mentality. I see baskets as completely utilitarian. Yes they can add style, but primary serve the function of casually carrying stuff. In just the first few days I had my bike, there were about a dozen times I wished I had a basket.

I originally envisioned a wicker basket like those you see in those romantic images on Pinterest filled with flowers. But, due to the northwest drizzle, I realized that might not be the most practical choice. I looked at lots of images on the Internet to compare how baskets looked with a silver bicycle and black or silver metal seemed to be the way to go. I love the vintage look of open weave wire baskets (lots of images of them on old Raleigh roadsters), but I could just see leaving a trail of escaped items in my wake as I traveled down the road. So I settled on a mesh basket, but which one?

In my research, I was able to trace one image of a basket I fancied to a post on the blog, Imaginary Bicycle (I must add a Blog Roll soon). Emma J has a much cooler bike than I (a WorkCycles Oma), but we share similar taste in our attraction to bicycle baskets. She, or possibly the Oma, chose Basil ‘Bern’ wire-mesh basket. For a moment, I thought I had found the one. Then, I went to my LBS and Bob pointed out that you wanted to make sure the brake and gear cables weren’t smashed by the basket mount. I needed to take another look at the Basil and realized, though there seemed to be enough clearance for the cables, I didn’t really like the all-in-one design with the hooks attached to the basket. Having already dismissed the Topeak, I went back to Wald for another look. I kept coming back to a black mesh quick release basket, but it looked like the model (933) was discontinued. Luckily there were some available via Amazon though I would have liked to order through my LBS.

I installed myself today and it was easy-peasy. Love the quick release and peace if mind that nothing is going to fall out. See Ride Log 062112 for the first time out with the basket.

Happy Summer!

Raleigh Detour with Wald 933