Leah: How heavy is the dog? And will the dog continue to be included? A "live load" such as a dog or a small child (I used to carry my first born in one of those child seats behind me) gets a bit dicey as they wriggle around. We got a 2 wheeled trailer that proved quite useful, stable, easy to attach / detach from the bike, able to double up as grocery getter, etc. Even a small dog seems like it could upset things if it suddenly decided to hop from one side of the basket to the other.
Since you already have the front rack & basket, you might see if panniers work out for shopping. Carry some re-usable shopping bags into the store, pop them into the panniers when you're done. Personally I like the way my Atlantis handles with a front load in low riders. The downside to front low riders is bending over to access them and with my natural clumsiness I tend to bang my head on handelbars. For a rear rack, consider one with the second set of pannier bars like the new Nitto that Rivendell keeps teasing us with photos. They must have some up there in Walnut Creek by now. Tubus makes several with that feature. It allows easy use of the top platform even with the panniers on the bike. Or you can take a bag off the bike without disturbing the top load. Depending on how much stuff you need to handle, several rear trunk racks (REI, Jannd) make them with built in, zip out panniers but they are fairly smallish. OK for light shopping but not enough for a tour. As others have pointed out, big saddlebags are another way to go. When the Really Ginormous Big Saddlesack came out, early adopters delighted in posting how many gallons of milk, pounds of food, dozens of eggs, etc, they could carry. Big saddlebags need a rack for stability & support but almost anything will work. The whole process of working out racks'n'bags is great good fun. That's why so many listers have so much extra stuff. BTW, re: the bike falling over problem - try a rear triangle mounted kickstand. They seem to provide better support for loads than traditional stands. There is even a little short stand for the front that mounts to a low rider rack. They are bug ugly though. dougP On Sunday, February 16, 2014 1:54:16 PM UTC-8, LeahFoy wrote: > > When I purchased my Foy in 2012, I set her up according to what my family > needs. I needed to pull a bike, so that necessitated leaving space in the > rear and putting an ugly hitch on the seat post. My dog, who insists on > being included, required the Big Front Rack with large Wald basket for his > accomodations. > > But now my younger son will be in kindergarten. Within a year, I bet I can > sell the tag-along bike! I will have CHOICES! > > I don't like the current set-up. The weight in front disagrees with me, > I'm afraid. I'm tired of having the dog sit up there as he can really throw > us off-kilter at times. I don't like how the bars want to swing to the side > and tip over my bike. This has happened so many times, and I've got the > paint job to prove it. > > I'm thinking rear rack (the cool new one) and small front rack. Undecided > about bags and/or baskets. What would look good and be functional? Also, > someday I may pay for a new paint job - think that red and cream Glorious > some lucky person on the list once showcased - so consider how the new > set-up could look with that. Ok, go ahead and spend my > money...ready...set....GO!!!!! > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
