Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

That first cargo bike...i'm not sure i'd want my centre of gravity so high...

Useful bike

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@amey,

The Straggler is a very heavy frameset to start with, a reasonnable budget build will be more than 13kg. Which may or may not be a consideration...

A considerable amount more than my Elephants which is under 12kg including mudguard, and dynamo.

My Cross Check is 13.3kg with no effort made to save weight (just a few nice 2nd hand bits here and there). That includes mudguards, front rack, dynamo, wired tyres, lights and pump.

Disc trucker is even heavier and it is defiantly a concern but then we are back at square one ..
I dont want the bike to end up so heavy that she wont enjoy it. We live on a 2nd floor flat and are talking about a 52kg female.

Positively Scoblesque deployment of spacer stack, so big it could have been from the hand of the master himself:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thorn-Sherpa-/301472696401?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item46312c4851

What about using her existing frame and adding a hub gear, like a alfine.

120mm spacing and no braze ons of any kind; no bottle cage mounts too!

Mrs d4's early 1980's claud butler Mixtec has 120 spacing. Fitted a Sturmey SRF-5W with a washer each side. It feels pretty light, and is light enough for her to carry up steps. The alfine hubs are great, but heavy... about 3lb.

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@dave4 that looks really nice, not sure about the center pull brakes but I guess period specific.

It's probably because they came with the bike.

Cheers. They were going to go, but there was no real alternative for the rear, with the mounting and cable run. And they actually work perfectly well with modern pads on aluminium rims.

Does anyone have any experience of using a Basil front rack?
http://www.reallyusefulbikes.co.uk/_shop/carrier-racks-front/basil-dutch-front-carrier/

@apollo and @photoben have both owned one I think

Thanks! It would be good to know if they are any good, as I'm considering getting one.

reallyusefulbikes.co.uk/_shop­/carrier-racks-front/basil-dutch-front-c­arrier/

Yes, had one a while ago.

I chopped down the back to reduce the size and weight a bit.

Quality is a bit lacking but it was alright.

I ghetto bodged a bit of estate agent sign to the underside of mine to keep water from the front wheel off my stuff.

Ultimately replaced with a Wald basket which - for me anyway - was much more functional purely because of the sides of the basket.

Sorry, mine was slightly different:

headtube mounted, awful.

I've got one on a heavy bike with a bigass wooden box on top. Heavy x3 but solid. Pic is in here a few pages back (posting from phone)

CDF has gone full winter mode now with cheap Schwable studded tyres from PlanetX.

Faster than driving over my 10 mile commute when you take into account that everyone else cannot drive!

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I keep seeing people riding around town with various empty front and rear racks wearing big ass backpacks. Do they even functional?

Yep. See plenty of bikes round Manchester with rear racks, and rucksacks. Just buy some panniers!