A bike is good...

Sizing up parts to use for the project. This is an ancient Scott triathlon handlebar extender.

After day 1, doesn't look like much but I had swapped over the handlebars, cut apart the Scott extender and started trying on a crate for size.

End of today and proving its worth by carrying a basic unit of currency, a slab of beer.

This is all the workings of it. Downstairs, a small prop which keeps the crate away from the headstem. Upstairs is the equivalent of 3 sets of mountainbike bar ends which support the crate and provide stops to stop it slipping.

Just in case orange is your colour, not green.

Hi

A bike is good but a bike that can carry stuff is better. That has never been truer than here and now!  In Melbourne we are coming into stage 4 coronavirus restrictions, and there are limits on exercise (1 hour per person per day) and shopping (1 person trip per household per day). So the load carrying bike turns shopping into exercise, hooray, who woulda thunk it? The bike I've started with is an Avanti Illusion as described here.

Anyway, this bike is just a trial, it puts a load carrying milk crate on a bike in quite a civilized neat way without first having a rack to tie the crate on.  Not sure if this is a good idea, but I have put it out there.  And it hasn't carried any real loads yet, just posed for photos in the back yard.

Regards

Steve Nurse

ebay Pic, Scott bars in original form

And my pair in use. installing these bars doesn't have to involve removal of brakes and handgrips from handlebars.

So here are a few postcards from out and about on this crate bike and the recumbent I usually ride. In Melbourne, we are now in day 2 of a 6 weeks lockdown to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

Trenerry Crescent, a walker in the cycle lane for social distancing.

Woolworths supermarket, Hive shopping centre.

Hive shopping centre, Nicholson Street. I usually give Anthony (seated on the footpath) a few dollars and he watches out for my bike for me.

Shopping list

New bike lane in.....

Elizabeth St. Richmond. A few weeks ago I came off my bike in the same street, this is a definite improvement.

Wellington St Kew, a free book library

Corner Charles and Wellington, a scramble crossing is installed, a good idea, pedestrians are prioritised at least for part of the light cycle. Hardly any traffic at all today though.