Grocery Getter

As I had mentioned in my last post I'm basically out of commission for a week and a half while my wife is out of town.  I've got cat-sitting duty as well as the usual routine of going to work, preparing my own meals, keeping the house somewhat clean and organized, etc.

The grocery getter... a Raleigh Mojave 4 mountain bike "converted" for performing chores in the city.

Thus my recent bicycling has been confined to trips to the store.  Local rides that don't involve much mileage but do require some carrying capacity.  Appropriately I've outfitted the Raleigh mountain bike (a Mojave 4) to serve as my grocery getter.




There wasn't a whole lot to do to make this mountain bike a city bicycle.  A long time ago I swapped out the mountain gearing for more sedate city gearing.  The original cassette included a granny gear and the typical large spacings between gears for sudden changes in terrain that occur during dirt riding.  I replaced this with a road gear... I believe it was 24 - 32... in an 8-speed cassette.  (I kept the original cassette... I can always put it back if the urge to hit the trails suddenly overcomes me).


I put those goofy, thin little Continental 26" tires on that came standard with the Surly LHT.  The Schwalbes I'd put on this bike went to the LHT.  Everything is now in its appropriate place.

But most important are the baskets.  I put on a Wald quick-release (QR) front basket that connects to a bracket on the handlebars; there are no struts.  You might think that means minimizing the weight it can carry but one time I carried a 6-pack of motor oil (for my wife's car) in that basket.

I put the Topeak Super Tourist rack on the Raleigh (I had been using that for the Surly but, really, it's designed for a bike with disc brakes... which the Raleigh has) and secured 2 Wald folding baskets.  These things are great!

The Wald folding baskets easily expand when you need to carry stuff... 

... but can then be folded out of the way.  They hardly add to the rear width of the bicycle.  A very, very practical design by Wald.

Last Tuesday I carried a whole weeks worth of groceries between these three baskets and they worked like a charm.

You've probably noticed the Planet Bike Super Flash taillight.  I also added a Planet Bike light on the handlebar as well as a Mirycle bell:

Ding, ding, ding!!  No fool can escape me!!