Comments on: Good Stuff from Switzerland

By: Steve Bell

Steve Bell — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:56:54 +0000

Found this awesome crate at a farmer’s market in Holland, Michigan last Saturday. Farmer Visser sells his onions and lettuce in these things. I asked Farmer Visser how much? Ten bucks says he. Sold! Mounted to my new Workcycles Transport and away we go. http://www.bellsy.blogspot.com/

By: BlackDawn

BlackDawn — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:53:51 +0000

I was aiming at MI-6 but whatever…

By: henry

henry — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:56:46 +0000

BlackDawn,
Funny you mention that. We’ve built some bikes for the Dutch military and may have an opportunity to do more.

By: BlackDawn

BlackDawn — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:48:31 +0000

Todd,
I want the version with headlights that opens to missile ports.
I would also want a rear one with a smoke generator & an oil tank for taking out the riders on the back.

oh, I almost forgot!
we need to find a place for the girl…

By: Todd Edelman

Todd Edelman — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:41:35 +0000

I like those old wine crates a lot. You might want to make something to brand them with your logo, i.e. with fire and heat. So, every time someone buys one you can do the branding in front of them and of course have a glass of wine.

But also you should offer a drilled out version of the crate with a wind faring, titanium hardware and GPS. Oh, and anti-theft coating.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:47:48 +0000

I can’t really add much to the ‘crate debate’ except to say that the wine boxes look pretty promising.

Instead I wanted to sing the praises of the forgotten other subject of Henry’s post: the excellent bi-pod stand that WorkCycles bikes can be supplied with. Not just useful for loading and unloading the bike without a wobble, but also impressively capable of keeping the bike upright on high-speed (and bumpy) train journeys all by itself – wow. Highly recommended.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:59:50 +0000

I couldn’t find a suitable box for my bike and I wasn’t going to pay $150+ for a suitable porteur rack, so I made my own. The box frame is made out of 1/2″ diameter PVC sprinkler pipe and fittings and the sides/bottom are lawn chair webbing woven around the frame. It worked out pretty good. I probably spent $30 on pipes, fittings, bolts, glue, paint, pop rivets, and webbing. If you only made the box and not the rack also, it might be $10 less. I can send a photo if you want to see it; but I’d need an address to send it to.

By: treberden

treberden — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:55:34 +0000

Hey,

we’re just a bunch of geeks, that’s it !

Sorry.

By: henry

henry — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:28:43 +0000

MacFred,
That wine crate dealer is a great tip – I’ll get Richard on the line with those folks and we’ll see what shows up.

David,
Of course the industrial plastic crates are most practical. I also like the look of them but not everybody shares our taste.

Steven,
Such nesting distribution crates are also used in Europe (in different standard sizes). They’re super tough but also ugly as sin. Generally the rectangular stacking transport crates are a better fit on the bikes. We mount lots of these but the Euronorm sizing doesn’t offer an ideal front carrier box.

ten,
There are already a number of firms making such crates but they’re all sort of charmless and too expensive for the quality offered. I can design a better one but given the quantities we need it’ll be too expensive.

treberden,
Those Bates Crates are a perfect example of my comment just above. They’re very pretty and look nicely made but nobody here will pay $125 for a wooden crate to leave outside on their bike. At €50 we might be able to sell a few of those. Our customers are not obsessive bike weenies (though my employees and I are).

Wow, I’m amazed how much interest a little post about little boxes for bikes gets. Don’t any of you have any commentary about my post about Japan? That took a lot longer to research and write!…
http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/2009/11/20/japan-a-land-i-love-but-just-dont-understand/

By: treberden

treberden — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:01:11 +0000

Hey Henry,

Do you know http://www.batescrates.com ?

They are doing fine work over there, have a look.

Treberden