Basket Case

In article <[email hidden]>,

Claire Petersky said:

"Andy Gee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Bjorn Haake" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]-
koblenz.de:

Quoted message said:

The real question for me now is, now that I have the basket, do I get the
plastic daisy? They don't really make wicker baskets for this kind of
bike, but still, what's a basket without a daisy?

I have a basket on our yellow tandem. It has fake purple and violet pansies
woven in. Daisies are, IMHO, too falsely cheerful.

Plastic sunflowers are /so/ desparately falsely cheerful,
they have some comedic value[1].

If I had a front basket, I think I'd be inclined to hang a
couple of those Chinese lantern rv-mirror decorations off
the front bottom corners. Plus maybe a vanilla-scented car
air freshener.

cheers,
Tom

[1] In the old Popeye cartoons, ISTR Alice the Goon[2] having
a hat resembling an upside-down flowerpot with a sunflower
emanating from it.

[2] The character of poor ol' Alice the Goon was such an inspired
literary treatment of the misunderstood soul -- the "tough"
woman with a big heart and an enormous capacity to love.
Plus (or, despite) the killer haymaker. So a plastic sunflower
could be an homage to the misunderestimated people of the world.

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

"andy gee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm now officially a dork, although it's by design. I installed a basket
on the front of my Metro 3-speed daily commuter. First, I wanted an
easier
way to carry groceries, and second, I wanted to not have to carry my
Manhattan Portage briefcase bag over my back this summer. Panniers are
not
a good solution for this bike, and I thought not adding more weight to the
rear would be good. Third, I always like to show that the non-super hero
outfit guy, the non-Trek 5000 rider, the non-messenger, can comfortably
ride through Manhattan.

Anyway, it's fun and certainly convenient. Having the weight forward
seems
to make it handle a little more solidly than extra weight in the rear.
The
only drawback is that the 1.5 square feet of briefcase is shaving about 2%
off my time. It's not preventing me from reaching full speed on sprints;
in fact, I might even be squeezing a little more out on uphill sprints,
but on overall cruising it's a minor drag.

Anyone else with drag and front basket data?

--ag

Nice.

Here is a pic of a Dutch Roadster in the Netherlands
http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=or05yx I think it might make for a good theft
deterent too.

I beat you to it quite a while back, here is a pic of my Huffy 3 speed
"Shopping" bike
http://photobucket.com/albums/c163/earlwb/my%20other%20bikes/?action=view&current=3418ba00.jpg
Of course I went for a big front basket and a couple of rear folding
baskets. You have to have fenders for when it is wet too, no sense having
muddy groceries when you get home. The real trick is carrying a watermelon.
Makes for a good challenge.
Yes when you put stuff broadside in the front you get more drag, but you
also have more weight too.
So it would tend to slow you down more.

Rich <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Do you have evidence that China is using child labor to make flags, or
are you just making up [censored] again.

You're right. I think the flag decals are printed by political
prisoners, not children. Something to do with the toxins in the glue,
but I can't seem to find the citation anymore.

Quoted message said:

And I'm not really sure what's patriotic about making our own flags.
Care to enlighten me?

It's only unpatriotic to rely on imported flag details if you assign a
special veneration to them, like an amulet or a talisman or, in this
case, a symbol of patriotism. It prevents some patriotism-associated
politician from standing up and saying, see what's wrong with this
country, even the flags are made in China. Also, it's unpatriotic if we
assign a special attribute of craftsmanship to our local patriotism.
The Liberty Bell was a European import and it cracked right away.

Latest two Chinese bicycle / accessory failures:

The retainer of my cable lock froze and cracked off in the bracket one
day when the temperature dipped to 12 degrees.

Okay, so I would just slip it over the handlebar, and that was mildly
annoying but okay. Then when I got the basket, I started carrying it in
the basket under whatever else I was carrying. Two days ago, I hit a
bad spot of pavememnt and it managed to bounce up from under my
groceries and fly up 14th st, hitting a concrete-reinforced utility
access hatch. One good shot and SPROOIINNNNG, the lock opens, and then
a little spring inside it launches some little parts.

--ag

[email hidden] (Tom Keats) wrote in news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

a vanilla-scented car
air freshene

thanks, that's the ticket.

--ag

Andy Gee said:

The real question for me now is, now that I have the basket, do I get the
plastic daisy? They don't really make wicker baskets for this kind of
bike, but still, what's a basket without a daisy?

Absolutely. And a garden wind spinner cable-tied to the rear rack...and
a pair of those truck nuts as a mudflap.

HTH

--Karen D.

Andy Gee said:

You're right. I think the flag decals are printed by political
prisoners, not children.

Any data to support that?

Quoted message said:

Something to do with the toxins in the glue,
but I can't seem to find the citation anymore.

I'm not surprised.

Quoted message said:

Latest two Chinese bicycle / accessory failures:

Are you implying the Chinese can't make quality products? Or are you
implying that the Chinese can't make quality products at the super-low
price point that Americans now think is more important than quality?

Rich

In article <[email hidden]>,

Andy Gee said:

[email hidden] (Tom Keats) wrote in news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

a vanilla-scented car
air freshene

thanks, that's the ticket.

I thought about suggesting weaving plastic ivy all over
your basket to give it that wildly overgrown/Swinburne's
"Forsaken Garden" look, but everybody does that.

If you like dangly stuff, there's always plastic fuchsias.
Fuchsias and baskets work together anyways.

I bet a large-enough fishing creel could make an excellent
bicycle basket. Maybe stick a plushie-toy kitten on it,
like it's trying to crawl inside to access the piscine
contents. Or would that be too Rockwell? At any rate,
a big fishing creel would have a hinged lid, which could
be handy. If the lid has a hole big enough to stick your
hand in to pull out a PBJ samwidge or a banana, that could
also be handy.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

andy gee said:

Speaking of patriotic, does a flag on a bike take a real flying flag like a
boat, or a decal like a plane? If the latter, does it need port side and
starboard side decals? All the flag decal sets I've seen (last time I
looked was after 9/11) were made in China and didn't have port side
decals.)

One of the many advantages of the Canadian Flag (that, and no planned
obsolescence should DC or PR evr get statehood.)

Quoted message said:

Does the answer change if the bike crosses international frontiers?

No, but it does with a strong tailwind.

Rich <[email hidden]> wrote in news:121ophopf526mb5
@corp.supernews.com:

Quoted message said:

Andy Gee said:

You're right. I think the flag decals are printed by political
prisoners, not children.

Any data to support that?

Not a shred. It's just an irony that would be so good it has to be true.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Something to do with the toxins in the glue,
but I can't seem to find the citation anymore.

I'm not surprised.

Now I remember -- the Seinfeld when George lost his finace to the toxic
envelopes.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Latest two Chinese bicycle / accessory failures:

Are you implying the Chinese can't make quality products? Or are you
implying that the Chinese can't make quality products at the super-low
price point that Americans now think is more important than quality?

The latter. They have aircraft, spacecraft, naval radar, nuclear
weapons, all the stuff that requires highy skilled engineering and
manufacturing. But if they made stuff to high specifications, it
wouldn't cost enough less to make it worth the trouble for us to
outsource or import it.

--ag

On Sat, 18 Mar 2006 15:25:00 GMT, Andy Gee <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Rich <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Do you have evidence that China is using child labor to make flags, or
are you just making up [censored] again.

You're right. I think the flag decals are printed by political
prisoners, not children. Something to do with the toxins in the glue,
but I can't seem to find the citation anymore.

Good one.

Ron
Yes, somebody got it.

Veloise said:

Andy Gee said:

The real question for me now is, now that I have the basket, do I get the
plastic daisy? They don't really make wicker baskets for this kind of
bike, but still, what's a basket without a daisy?

Absolutely. And a garden wind spinner cable-tied to the rear rack...and
a pair of those truck nuts as a mudflap.

Oooohh! I see we're shooting for the classy avant garde look. I
personally am thinking about seeing if I can find a nice manly accessory
to make into a rear mudflap. Perhaps a nice Hello Kitty snack box could
sacrifice it's life to my tin snips? Hmmm, maybe I should shoot more
for a Yaoi theme, that would be manly...

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]
"CS is about lofty design goals and algorithmic optimization. Sysadmining
is about cleaning up the fscking mess that results. "
-- AJS in the Monastery