Fenders + basket = bicycle bliss

I don’t know how this happened but I almost have as many bicycles as there are days of the week. Some of them are extremely specialized (looks at my Starling Murmur and REEB Donkadonk), and a lot of the other use cases overlap with one another. But there’s 1 kind of bicycle that I think everyone should have, and that’s a bicycle that always has fenders, a basket, and flat pedals. Bonus if it has dynamo lighting too.

There’s really just no better feeling than getting a text message from a friend saying, “meet us at Belle Isle in an hour”, then throwing on your bathing suit and Tevas; grabbing a towel, a hoodie, a couple beers, and maybe some snacks, chucking it all in your basket, and pedaling off on your merry way without thinking about it. Maybe it just rained, but it doesn’t matter because you have fenders. Maybe you want to stop at the deli for sandwich on your way— just put it in the basket. No need to think about if your bike can handle it, just load it up and ride.

Above is my first basket bike, before I put on fenders. It’s also before I learned the joys and better handling that comes when you strap your basket to a rack. In this house we stan this cheap Sunlite Gold Tec randonneur rack that comes in both black and silver. Instead of hooking up the basket to your handlebars just ziptie it to the rack, and still use the basket struts if you have them.

You can also strap your basket to a baller René Herse rando rack and ride for 114 miles (true story). Given the lightweight steel tubing and low trail geometry this basket bike handles ridiculously well. I truly didn’t know a basket bike could feel so sporty. Also, this bike has fenders now and flat bar brakes, bike check coming soon.

Remember when I said that I am very into sinking way too much time, effort, and money into 1990’s 26” mountain bikes? Behold, my wife’s city bike. An early 90’s Specialized Hard Rock with Honjo fenders (if I were to do it again I’d probably use Tanaka or Velo Orange), the aforementioned Sunlite rack, a Wald 1392 basket, and to really tie it all together it’s got a dynamo hub + light front and rear. Look at that smirk that says, “Gee I sure am happy that I can ride my bike despite how wet the ground it is, all while being lit up in the front and back, and not have to worry about if I have space to bring things with me!”

Here’s my housemate’s bike, probably the classiest KHS to ever exist. We’re about to lace a dynamo hub in, but he puts a whole lot of commuter miles on this boy.

After building many a basket bike for both myself and others, I have assembled what I think is [basically] the perfect basket bike for my particular use case.

Here’s the rundown on this freakshow:

• Frame: Specialized Hard Rock GX (I think 1995 or 1996)

• Fork: Crust Clydesdale 1”

• Headset: Cane Creek

• Handlebars: Crust x Nitto Ron’s Ortho Bars

• Stem: Bontrager 130mm

• Wheels: a 26” 7 speed freehub wheel I had laying around (I think Arya?) (rear) / Velocity Cliffhanger 20” that I drilled Schrader, which I am soon relacing with a dynamo hub (front)

• Tires: Schwalbe Big Ben liteskin / Schwalbe Big Apple liteskin (front), both with tubes

• Cranks: BNVB aka IXF 104/64 BCD hollowtech cranks

• Chainrings: 44t Shimano and 26t Origin8

• Cassette: a friend sent me a bunch of super cheap loose 8 speed cassette cogs and I assembled some sort of 12-28t (I think?) 7 speed cassette

• Derailer: Parts bin Acera that maybe came off this bike in it’s original state? I don’t even know how my parts bin is the way it is anymore

• Brake levers: Avid BB-7 long pull

• Brakes: Dia Compe V-Brake (rear) / Tektro Aries mated to a 160mm rotor (front)

• Shifter: Sunrace SLM10 left side flipped over on the right

• Grips: Oury

• Fenders: Velo Orange 26” (rear) / Honjo 20” (front)

• Basket: Wald 157

• Misc: Kickstand, a rack mount for my housemates to strap their 1 year old into, various reflectors zip tied to it, and a saddle bag with a pump and 24” tube

Some parts of this bike are dream parts (Ortho bars, Clydesdale fork), but a lot of it was just pieced together from what was laying around. It’s seen many handlebars and derailers while I had it, but the Ortho bars have really tied it all together. The tires weren’t my first choice, as I greatly prefer super light casing tubeless tires, but I didn’t want to put more money into the rear wheel (yet). A fellow PLP Discorder sold me a pair of Schwalbe Big Bens for a song, and I’ve been blown away by them. Despite being wire bead the sidewalls are super thin and supple, and I’ve yet to take a flat even on these broken-Hennessy-bottle streets. I used to run a tubeless BMX tire up front but suspected I could get better rolling speed with a Big Apple up front, and that was definitely the case.

So why a Clydesdale fork instead of a Wald 139 like I’ve run in the past? I’m a [usually] vinyl-playing DJ who lives close enough to many of the gigs I play. The Clydesdale fork handles shockingly well with a 25+ pound bag of records up there, just don’t try to do a wheel lift up a curb. Coupled with a kickstand it’s the perfect bike for mailing my labels’ records, picking up our CSA, doing some grocery shopping, commuting with a bag of records, or just loading it up with your friends’ who don’t have baskets’ stuff. Also, yes it is pretty fun on gravel roads.

Post your basket bike in the comments!