Tuesday, October 20, 2009

LHT with a Basket up front

Now that the herd is being culled, it's time to play, alter and adjust the setups of the select few.

I've wondered about a basket for the front of the trucker. A few quick (and reversible) mods to the Wald, and some zip ties, and we have our testing ground. Test results didn’t really surprise me, but I was hoping for better. With any significant weight in the basket, the bikes handling is significantly compromised. To the point that I had a close call this morning while trying to avoid a puddle of water. Should this area of the bike be a place where I really want to be able to haul stuff, a few fork with more rake would be a wise investment. By that point in time, maybe a Kogswell P/R with the corrected fork rake would just be easier.
But, this was just a brief little test, and now I know. LHTs handle fine with panniers mounted on either side of the wheel and down low. Not so fine with loads mounted up above the wheel. Would have been a great, practical and dare I say……….stylish option for carry things. Oh well. Maybe next time.
Cheers.

3 comments:

JPTwins said...

There's a nice review of the LHT in the new Bicycle Quarterly, and that was probably the only gripe -- that it couldn't carry much weight in front. But man, it looks pretty nice and utilitarian!

Jerome said...

Hmmm......I'm still waiting to my copy of VBQ to come in the mail. Maybe it takes a little longer to get aaalllllll the way up to the great white north we call Canada. I did hear that there was a Trucker review coming. Now I'm super stoked to get my copy!

There is just something cool about a bike that looks good, while being utilitarian. Kogswells have really got my eye for that.

JPTwins said...

Hmmm, if you haven't gotten it yet, you might want to ping them in a week or so. i got it a few weeks ago. But yes, you're "international", heh.

nice to know you a BQ member too!