I’ve been riding the same Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo Mountain Bike since my uncle found it in a sandpit and gave it to me to ride while away on my first internship. It was in somewhat rough shape back then, and it’s kind of the bicycle of Thesius at this point as parts failed and I found ways to replace them.

I was replacing the front tire and realized I’d like to make this thing into a cargo bike (I currently use it to scout for furniture to restore on trash days, but usually have to ride home and return on foot to grab anything I find, plus I could get groceries). I’m not sure what level of standardization this bike follows and I have no familiarity with cargo bike parts, but I was thinking I’d like to add a Rear Pannier Carrier Cargo Rack and perhaps a large basket on top of that - in fact, I happen to have this homemade welded steel basket I pulled out of a dumpster a couple years ago:

It’s 23" long, 12" tall, and 16" wide. I could weld on whatever mounting hardware it needs.

So basically I’m looking for advice on layout and things to add, specific parts if you have any recommendations, is that basket a horrible idea, etc. What traits make for a useful cargo bike, what would work well with this old mountain bike? And thank you for any ideas!!

  • JacobCoffinWritesOPEnglish
    2·
    27 days ago

    This is awesome advice, thank you! I bought a rear rack and some cable housing (I’m worried the rear derailer cable will scrape on the rack mountings). I’m going to start with the rear rack and panniers.

    My front fork is some kind of chunky mountain bike built-in-shocks thing and I’m not sure there’s a way to mount a front rack to it, but I’ll try to figure something out once the rear one is set up. Failing that, I’ll look for one of those handlebar baskets.

    I figure I’ll start small, see if this is useful, and add capacity as I go.

    Thanks again!

    • AchtungDrempels@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      19 days ago

      There are also handlebar mountable baskets, klickfix for example. I have klickfix adapters for all my bikes, currently not using it on my touring bike, but i did for a lot of tours. They’re not the most stylish baskets, but i like the easy possibility do dismount it and go shopping with it or whatever.

      Except on my citybike i have a fixed basket that is mounted to the head tube.

      Something like this might work with your fork. Front baskets are really nice to have imo.

      • JacobCoffinWritesOPEnglish
        3·
        18 days ago

        That’s a good idea! I’ve got the rear rack attached, I’m going to add a kickstand and then some kind of front basket. I think these will work with my front fork.

        Thanks!

    • Showroom7561@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      27 days ago

      I figure I’ll start small, see if this is useful, and add capacity as I go.

      That’s what I’ve done! I’m lucky that the used MTB I linked is a 26"er, and so was my older one. I built up my older MTB with a bunch of gear, and they all ported over without issues. Then I just added more as I saw fit.

      Good luck with your build!