Haven't had one of those for a while, what's new with you and yer wheels, folks? Any questions for things?

I recently came back from a vaction in Berlin and like half the fun was seeing cool bicycles all the time and having an actual bike culture, with like, cool shops n shit. It owned super hard. Even got a show of Fixie Riders doing mad spins and tricks.

Any projects on your mind? After having seen so many of the old steelframe roadbikes, I kinda wanna get one, even with frame shifters, just as a second café racer. Also still looking for a cargo bike that doesn't break the bank, but the local used market is ... fairly nonexistant, sadly. I'll find one of these days.

DA GUIDE

Anyway I recently converted an old trekking bike into a sort of cargo bike (transportation bike?). And it fucking rules, man. Panniers are nice, but the convenience of always rolling around with 70L and 40KG of carrying capacity on your daily fucking owns. Oh look, a computer monitor I need for home office, into the crate it goes!

So what you want is a front rack that affixes to the frame, not the fork. Because then your bars don't drop to one side and bring the whole thing clattering down when you leave it. This is about 25€. And then you put a fitting crate on it, that's somewhere between free and 5€ or so. Make sure it has holes so the rain can drain.

For the rear, you want your standard rear rack and then put a bigger baseplate on it for BIG CRATE. In the old continent the M-Wave Racky Baseplate (sorry for the advertising) is probably your most convenient bed, for the rugged individualists elsewhere in the world I'm sure you can find or just make something similar to screw onto a standard rack. Maybe take the Racky as a guide, it's not like it's a complicated system.

And then you just ziptie on a big crate. I got a 46L one. Make sure you you have somewhere to put your lights if you're running clip on lights, as the seatpost is probably going to be hidden by it. I'd avise a step-through frame for ease of use, but being young I've had no problems kicking my leg over one on a step-over frame. As long as the crate isn't too far out to the side and lower than the saddle it's the same motion anyways, allthough it does sort of limit how high you can stack goods in the back.

Et voila. The front racks take about 10kg, your usual rear rack can take about 30kg and together you have about ~70L of storage space on your bike. It's not particularly aero, but some plastic crates also aren't going to be all that heavy and the baseplate / front rack probably add around 3kg. It's noticeable, but you know have a quasi cargo-bike!

  • PurrLure [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I have a question: How thick is too thiccc to ride a regular adult bike? Is there a usual weight limit?

    I haven't ridden a bike since I was a teenager.

    • 6bicycles [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      The "standard" EU-Cycle is rated for 120kg of load. In the US, and especially depending on what you buy, anybodys guess, but if it's not from walmart i'd say about the same since all the frames and wheels are produced in asia anyways and I don't quite believe they change the production up. Wheels are usually rated for 70kg each, so 140kg in total.

      Allthough that's with safety factors. I'm not a small person and with my cargobike conversion I have definitely exceeded the weight limits with that thing multiple times by like, a lot and it was entirely fine, albeit for smaller trips.

      If you want a bike that holds up, I'd recommend a proper hardtail mountainbike. Sure, they're rated for about the same weight class as every other bike, but they're also rated for doing jumps and shit. If you don't do those, it'll probably hold up fine for a long time. Put some slicker tyres on it, run enough tyre pressure, don't take curbs head on and speed and such and you'll be fine.

    • Mardoniush [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      What 6bikes said. Also if you're very thicc, fatbike tyres (as in the tyres, not the person) can help, though they compromise steering a bit.