Baskets of MADE, day 1

Big basket news at the world’s biggest handmade bike show in Portland, OR. We’re fast approaching a new era in basket culture: Post-Ziptie…

Matt of Pass and Stow with his daily, a Wald 139’d Falconer.

One standout is a project Matt’s working on to offer a tidier option for attaching your Wald 139 to his venerated racks:

These tidy little 3D-printed basket-holders are bespoke to work exclusively with Pass and Stow, leveraging the existing eyelets which hold his modular racks together, and a simple countersink bolt to grasp the basket. These are but prototypes, so keep an eye out on his channels for a formal launch with pricing and availability.

Matt was sure to credit Bob of Bantam Bicycle Works for the core notion of using countersunk bolts, though:

Bob tells me he’s been bolting baskets to the racks he makes for his bikes for Ten years! I was able to spirit away one of his show bikes to get some detail shots of his method. Because I’m a sucker for purple bikes with silver parts, also I took a couple wider shots a couple of the whole bike.

As I was giving Bob’s bike back to him, I bumped into the illustrious Madi Carlson, who was pleased to show off her custom 137 bag from Andy of Lord’s Luggage, who happens to share boothspace with Bob. Andy’s maritime background shows in his work, which is extraordinarily robust and features some novel mechanisms not otherwise found in the bike-bag space.

Speaking of basket bags. I had a lovely chat with Wes of Bull Moose in Sommerville, MA. He gave me a tour of his soon-to-be-released 137-specific bag. In case you didn’t already know, Wes makes an absolutely life-changing utility-belt-style product called the “basket boss.” My dude Garrett magically scored one at a thrift store and new he basically can’t live without it.

The current working title for Wes’ new bag is “Goat Tote;” featuring a snap closure, five pockets, three of which are zippered, and, like all of his products, is available in fully-customizable colorways. Straps can be either short or long. The basic version will come in under a hundred bucks. For a little more, a deluxe version will add a removable shoulder strap and mechanisms for tighter closure.

Framebuilder Greg of Buendita in Portland has taken another approach to building a post-ziptie basket reality: he’s taking advantage of the stainless construction of Tanaka’s baskets to braze eyeleted plates directly to the basket!

It’s not exactly news, but I always love seeing this one-off Sklar cycletruck at the Brooks booth.

Definitely more to cover from this epic event at Zidell Yards. Looking especially forward to catching the SimWorks ride tomorrow.