It was a pleasure to ride her- it's amazing to me how two upright step through city bikes can be so dramatically different. Although I guess it shouldn't because the geometry is completely different -riding minerva is like sitting in a chair- it's so incredibly upright, and I've missed it.
In any case I ended up with an enormous load- surpassing even the capacity of the big panniers. So I devised a reusable bag version of "Velouria's panniers" and by my third stop, had a load 4 grocery bags wide! Too wide to get through the 3' gate.
I looped the handles of the bags through the lock and locked it closed, et voila!
Time to watch the game (and commercials) - Go Pats!
Edited- I'm counting this retroactively as Utilitaire 12.1- My first entry in the Utilitaire challenge- more details here:
Edited- I'm counting this retroactively as Utilitaire 12.1- My first entry in the Utilitaire challenge- more details here:
Some pretty wide load you had there...hope it didn't upset the feel of the bike too much.
ReplyDelete-Trevor
Ah ha! I like what you did there with looping the handles through the lock. I've been trying to find clever ways of getting those shopping bags to attach to the rack. :)
ReplyDeleteLove the ingenuity of recycling/purposing the lock ,whats with the blue lites on the handle bars?
ReplyDeleteI still haven't taken Minerva's holiday lights off- I hadn't ridden her since the first of the year. Need to do that so that I can use the (rechargable) batteries in other things.
DeleteThat is a good idea. I will try that when I go get groceries. I also put my U-lock in the same place. I got that idea from you also.
ReplyDeleteMy DL-1 is missing the rack and lights. Ware did you get yours at, or would you have any idea ware to get one?
ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteI bought the rack from the Seattle Dutch Bike company, but it was the last one they had at the time. It's a dutch brand called STECO, and they're a bit hard to find here, especially in a size to fit a 28" wheeled bike. It's super solid- you could easily carry around a 200 pound person sitting on the back.
The rear light is a Busch and Muller Toplight plus, which runs off the generator front wheel. I do not think that B&M makes a battery operated version of the Toplight plus, but they do make some rack mounted battery operated lights. I have a Cateye 5 LED flasher on my other bike's rack, which is pretty good too.
Thanks for the info. Again I really enjoy you projects. Very hands on.
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