Inexpensive Wide Front Basket ("porteur" or "pizza" Rack) for Bicycle

There are heavy-duty flat front baskets (sometimes called "porteur" or "pizza" racks) for bicycles. They may be hard to find and they tend to cost hundreds of dollars. Here is a way to build a medium-duty flat front rack for less than half the cost. Even cheaper if you have some of these parts already gathering dust in your basket(s) of spare parts. ^_^

1. two under-shelf storage baskets for a kitchen cabinet, each approximately 39cm x 26cm <<<=== obtain as cheaply as possible, try scrounging in discount household stores
2. an aluminum front touring rack <<<=== probably more scrounging required, but these are not hard to find
3. two hose clamps (plumbing hardware) <<<=== in case your front fork does not have mounts for a touring rack
4. malleable metal strapping (general hardware)
5. several two-whole straps (general hardware)
6. not shown: 5mm diameter bolts (15mm-long machine screws with matching washers and nuts — standard bicycle hardware)
7. not shown: pieces of used inner tube for various uses (padding, protection)
8. not shown: a bicycle that you love ^_^

A) Do a standard installation of the front touring rack if your front fork has mount points for metric bolts. The result will be similar to the example image.

-or-

B) If your bicycle's front fork does not have mount points — as is likely the case of a bicycle with front suspension — you will need to use the hose clamps to secure the "legs" of the front touring rack. Attach one hose clamp to each "blade" of the front fork. Optional: Protect the fork blades by wrapping them in pieces of used inner tube.

Slip the "feet" of the front fork into the clamps. Each "foot" may have two "toes", as in the sample image. Slip the longest toe through the clamp. Keep the shorter toe above the clamp, extended forward. Be sure to tighten the clamps!

Think of each under-shelf basket as half of the porteur basket that you are building. Clamp the two under-shelf baskets together, upright and opening-to-opening, using several two-hole straps and 5mm bolts.

The arrows suggest where to use some two-hole straps.

Now you have one large basket!

Use more two-hole straps with the 5mm bolts to clamp the combined basket to the top of the front touring rack. Use sections of malleable metal strapping with 5mm bolts where necessary.

Bear in mind that this home-made porteur basket will project forward beyond the front touring rack. If the combined basket is well-secured to the front touring rack, it should be able to bear a medium load of grocery items.

Note: if you are carrying items in your new front porteur, it will affect the steering of your bicycle. Keep both hands on the handlebar!