Wald's Front Basket

A while back I discussed the availability of silver front racks for under $80. I believe I only found five of them and the two that I was interested in were on back order. I wanted to mount a Wald basket to a front rack rather than the handle bars for better handling and stability. 

I ordered a silver Wald 137 like the one pictured above from my local bike shop. One look at my Peugeot with its mustache handle bars and brakes sticking out in the front and I knew that I wouldn't be able to mount the basket as intended anyway. Having the basket in my hands I really wanted to put it to use, front racks be damned. So I began by taking the legs and handle bar hardware off. I knew I could easily shorten the legs, I just needed to devise a way to secure the basket to the fork crown. At first I tried using the handle bar hardware. After messing around with it for a while it became obvious that it wasn't sturdy enough, luckily I had an extra mounting bracket from the rear rack. 

                                                 

               It wasn't too difficult to shorten and shape the legs to fit.

         I used the handle bar hardware as a sort of metal strap that I could attach the bracket to. 

I had to shape the bracket and get a longer bolt to hold it and the brake to the fork. I left the bolt a little longer for future use when I install fenders. As you can see the headset and the bracket are just a 3-4 millimeters apart which is just enough to allow the fork to turn without rubbing against the bracket. A wood bottom was in order to hide the unsightly handle bar hardware and ensure that small items wouldn't fall through the bottom.

The bottom is one piece of pine with grooves cut into it so it would appear to be several pieces of wood. I stained it and applied several coats of shellac before bolting it to the strapping.

The Finished Product