Makings of a Vehicle

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Dave Feucht

Not having a car, we really need our bicycles to be practical vehicles, that we can use for all our shopping, errands, and daily tasks. To that end, we just put a rear rack on our step-thru Raleigh.

We had Clever Cycles order the rear rack that Gazelle puts on the Toer Populaire. Once Gazelle shipped the rack, they realized that Gazelle sent the rack with the fold-down parking stand, which was just fine with me :)

Even better when they told me this rack was $40 cheaper than the one without the parking stand!

We took the CleverChimp (Clever Cycles’ house brand) panniers we got with the WorkCycles Secret Service and stuck them on the Raleigh, and mounted Patrina’s basket on her rear rack until we can get the frame mounted front rack for the Secret Service at the end of the month.

New Rear Rack/Bags

New Rear Rack/Bags

The other exciting thing for me with this, is that I actually have a bike I could give someone a ride on. Anyone want to try it out? :)

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  • http://twitter.com/DiggidyDylan Dylan Dahl

    Now if only you had more bungee cords… ;) 

    • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

      *singing* I’d wrap a bungee ’round the world, for you!

  • Ph0enixinflight

    I remember riding side saddle when I was a kid, but I don’t know that I’d be balanced enough as an adult! Still… I think it’s silly that a lot of the rear racks have weight limits that wouldn’t allow you to haul an adult passenger! Glad you found one that gives you the option. :-)

    • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

      I think a lot of rear racks are listed with a conservative weight limit – for instance, the Dutch ones often list the weight limit as like 25 kg (55 lbs), but clearly they make them capable of supporting a person, in actuality (since it happens all the time). It’s that lovely liability thing – they want to be able to say, just in case something goes wrong, that they told you not to put so much weight on it.