Tailboxes...trunks etc.

Slugger said:

Is there any tailboxes made for a standard bike rack?
I am looking for such a tailbox (with lock and key) for my EZ-Sport.
Can anyone point me in the right direction please? My searches are
coming up empty.

Slugger.

This is a review I wrote of the German made Allround Fahrrad Set tailbox
about two years ago. It's designed to attach to a seat tube but it may
be possible to make some sort of adaptor. I looked at putting it on my
Tour Easy but decided it would be more trouble then it's worth. You
would have to contact MPH Associates to see if it's still possible to
import one:

A while back on the Chain Guard list there was some talk about hard
shell bike trunks. The Allround Fahrrad Set was mentioned (
http://www.khw-geschwenda.de/Fahrradzubehoerengl.htm ). It looked good
to me so I set out to get one. This is made in Germany by plastic
manufacturer KHW who mostly makes snow sleds and outdoor furniture. KHW
snow sleds are imported to the U.S. by MPH Associates Inc. After several
false leads (KHW kept giving me the wrong e-mail address), I got in
touch with Lauren Putney ( [email hidden] ) at MPH Associates who
was very helpful. She told me that they did not normally sell the
Allround Fahrrad Set but they agreed to import one for me. The Allround
Fahrrad-Box was $118. The metal heavy-duty carrier rack was $13. $15 UPS
shipping for a total of $146. I received the order yesterday. They
included a small animal carrier for free.

I mounted it on an elderly mountain bike that has been heavily modified
for commuting and which is now used as my rain utility bike.
Installation was easy. You need to have a standard rack as the mounting
rail attaches to the rack and to the seat tube (
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove/fahrrad-01.JPG ). That should take 15 to
30 minutes with the 10mm/8mm open end wrench and 5mm Allen wrench
included. Once that is done, the box itself can be mounted or removed in
seconds. The front end hooks under a rail and is held in the back by one
knob screw. The box is 30 liters in volume, has a key lock, two water
bottle mounts (bottles not included) and a reflector with a single, very
bright nonflashing LED powered by two AAA batteries. It has a variety of
attachments that mount on top. It comes with an open basket (
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove/fahrrad-16.JPG ) but I will probably use
it mostly with the metal heavy-duty carrier rack (
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove/fahrrad-02.JPG ). The small animal
carrier ( there modeled by the lovely Cleopatra
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove/fahrrad-13.JPG ) is suitable for cats
and very small dogs. **WARNING: the space between the cage bars is big
enough for a cat to get its head though and possibly stuck. Don't leave
an animal unsupervised.** All these attachments mount and remove in
seconds by hooking though holes in the box in front and a single knob
screw in the back. Also available is a child seat.

The box is easily big enough to hold a helmet (
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove/fahrrad-12.JPG ) and anything you would
normally carry and light utility use but not really big enough for a
serious shopping expedition. The box key locks and is proof against
casual thievery. The attaching knobs for the box to the bike and the
attachments to the box are on the inside so no one can simply walk off
with the whole thing. Of course as with anything light enough for
bicycle use, a serious thief could have it open in no time. The box is
claimed to be waterproof, but there are two holes in the top where the
attachments hook in. As this is my rain utility bike, that could be a
problem. I'll try some duct tape to seal it.

On this bike, I had the seat slid back near the rear limits. With it
like that, my legs hit the mounting on the seat tube and the mounting
rail. It also prevented the open basket and the pet carrier from being
mounted due to lack of clearance from the seat. Moving the seat forward
on it's rails corrected both these problems. I'll have to play around
with it so it all fits.

While it is designed strictly for upright diamond frame bikes and there
may be problems with fit even on some of those bikes, over all I would
say that this is an excellent product, very well designed and a very
good value. Contact Lauren Putney at [email hidden] at MPH
Associates for purchasing info.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"Americans are broad-minded people. They'll accept the fact that a
person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater, and even a
newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive there's something wrong with him."
Art Buchwald

Quoted message said:

Is there any tailboxes made for a standard bike rack?
I am looking for such a tailbox (with lock and key) for my EZ-Sport.
Can anyone point me in the right direction please? My searches are
coming up empty.

I use an Angletech Aerotrunk on top of a rear rack (without the rack
it sags into the rear tire when other than lightly loaded). I then
use a small resetable combination luggage lock to lock the two zipper
pulls together. Since this is a soft trunk (along with a flimsy lock)
I wouldn't trust this setup with anything of value in the trunk and
in anyplace frequented by dishonest people.

In article said:

Quoted message said:

Is there any tailboxes made for a standard bike rack?
I am looking for such a tailbox (with lock and key) for my EZ-Sport.
Can anyone point me in the right direction please? My searches are
coming up empty.

I use an Angletech Aerotrunk on top of a rear rack (without the rack
it sags into the rear tire when other than lightly loaded). I then
use a small resetable combination luggage lock to lock the two zipper
pulls together. Since this is a soft trunk (along with a flimsy lock)
I wouldn't trust this setup with anything of value in the trunk and
in anyplace frequented by dishonest people.

Bob,

Is there mounts on the bottom of that tailbox for a rear rack?
It looks like its meant to fit over the seat back.

Quoted message said:

Is there mounts on the bottom of that tailbox for a rear rack?
It looks like its meant to fit over the seat back.

It is and that's how I mount it. But I adjust it so that
the flat bottom rests squarely on the rack with the bent
up leading edge of the rack going in front of the trunk.
This way, heavy weight (I've gone as high as at least 30lbs.) is
borne mostly by the rack. Without the rack, over maybe
10lbs. the Aerotrunk comes close to sagging enough to rub on the
rear tire.

While I'm not sure this is necessary, the front bottom edge
of the Aerotrunk has two plastic eyes and using short pieces
of cord I tie them to the rack. This is meant to have the trunk
hold its position on the rack but it pretty much stays in
place with just the seat back attachment. In fact, the Aerotrunk
has a beefy handle on the top front and I can lift my loaded
bike's back end up using the handle with or without these extra
cord pieces. (The handle is a nice touch since with it mounted
I can no longer use the mesh seat's top cross member as such a
handle since the attachment covers it.)

One other thing I did that didn't seem necessary after all is
that I used a rack with an adjustable height feature so that I
could match up the top of the rack with the bottom of the trunk.
But on my bike at least, it seems that a "standard" rack would
fit exactly under the trunk.

All in all it works well. I can load a good bit in the Aerotrunk
though less than if I used large panniers. Still, it has a better
shape for some items than panniers.