New Bike Basket

[misterjensen]

Oops; it looks like this thread has gone to a second page. The wide shots of the basket on the scooter on on page 1.

(Click on the pictures to see the full size image)

I used oversize stainless steel washers (with rubber washers in between) to sandwich the bottom of the basket to the official Honda rear rack. If you look closely, you will see that one of the cross bars of the basket lines up perfectly with the handle to lift your scooter when you are putting the stand down.

Basket mount.JPG (189.75 KiB) Viewed 673 times

I drilled holes through the front basket mount and used stainless steel screws and nylon washers to attach the reflectors. The orange tips are rubber screw protectors to keep the bag from fraying on the screws. The steel was virtually impossible to drill through. I broke 2 bits trying to do it! The basket is VERY strong steel.

Reflector mount.JPG (168.66 KiB) Viewed 672 times

[misterjensen]

(Click on the images to see the full size image)

The bag is the all star of this basket setup. It's made of a very durable material and includes snaps for snapping it into the basket, handles for carrying, a zipper to close it up when it is out of the basket, and...

Basket bag.JPG (166.18 KiB) Viewed 659 times

...a mesh top that can be pulled closed through the use of the included, attached drawstring.

Basket bag liner.JPG (144.25 KiB) Viewed 657 times

In short, this is EXACTLY what my wife wanted.

[misterjensen]

I just wanted to bump this thread back to the top and tell everybody that my wife is LOVING this rear basket. She can actually do some REAL grocery shopping with this basket and can easily fit more than a full paper bags worth of groceries with room to spare. Actually, you don't even need a grocery bag because the basket has a removable "environmentally friendly" tote built in, not to mention you can expand and seal the top to prevent things from blowing or bouncing out. It's well built, looks great, and is VERY functional. I can't say enough positive things

[tortoise]

For those that do not require the security of a locking trunk box, a basket offers a lot more "utility". This image shows a 40 lb. bag of water softener salt on the floorboard, and a 10 lb. bag of grass seed and spreader in the basket. Two 2 liter soda pop bottles will fit under the seat on top of a few tools.

Google Shopping . . gym basket

[GIJoeBob]

I put a basket on the back of my Spree. I just ziptied it to the rack. I liked it so much I built a mounting bracket to put another on the front. It comes in very handy at work, picking up groceries on the way home, etc.

[Fathom]

I just picked one of these up through Amazon/BikeWorldUSA for $58 shipped. They had one left after my purchase. That is 1/2 of the retail price.

[Fathom]

I already received and mounted the Electra basket on my Met. I used the fender washers and rubber washers as done in the photos above. Nice clean install. Basket seems like it is mounted as solid as the OEM box on my wife's Met. I think this basket will work perfectly for small runs to the grocery or anything else not requiring to be locked.

All the hardware (4 M6X30 bolts, 8 rubber washers, 8 fender washers, 4 M6 lock nuts) cost a whopping $8.00.

Total cost for the basket, bag, hardware, and rear rack: $152 (this was about $33 cheaper than doing another OEM box install.)

[bitterlily]

Hey y'all... I really like the looks of this set-up, in my opinion it is much more attractive than that black box Honda sells. So, I've ordered all the pieces, and finally the last piece, the rear rack, arrived today, and I noticed the specs say it's maximum capacity is 6.6 lbs. Given that my two primary intended purposes were carrying my textbooks and laptop and grocery shopping, and both of those are easily going to go over 6.6 lbs, I'm a little concerned. How accurate is that number? Can I safely go over it?

Thanks for any help!

Susie B

[GizmoGal]

I think the max. capcity warning on the Honda Met rear rack is vzstly underrated, possibly for safty reasons form their view. I won't say it has an unlimited capacity, but I put a giant spool of wire on the thing and it did fine. I have bungie-corded so much crap on the back of my Met it's amazing the thing could ride along with fat me plus the cargo, and it does.

I do not have a rear wire basket or a top box. Instead I mounted a very nice sized chrome sink protector thing (form a housewares or hardware store) on to the rear rack with zip ties and that serves as the platform to hold cartons, spools, tools, endless loose boat equipment and even mundane cargo like groceries and six packs.

I am quite sure textbooks and laptop/groceries will go fine back there. I have never exceeded 25 lbs, no matter how bulky the stuff was. But the rear rack is the foundation for the cargo "platform" I devised and nothing has failed. YMMV.

[bitterlily]

Thanks GizmoGal! I was pretty sure it was more a CYA type thing on Honda's part than a reality, cause really what's the point to the rack at all if you can't carry any more than 6 lbs? I doubt I'll be going over 25 lbs often, if at all, so I think I'm in good shape.

[kunzog]

Here is a thought for someone that wants a vintage looking basket. Try a wicker Picnic basket. You could use tie wraps or leather straps (0ld belts) to secure it to your rear carrier. I dont have a carrier for my Met yet but am planning on using our old family wicker basket.

[SCscoot'n]

To install a basket like that do you have to buy the back rack lst. I only have the met the way it came, no back rack, but would love to have this basket.....thanks

[ronnath]

back when i had my first met i had the rear rack and mounted a KMart martha stewart basket on it. IIRC the basket was maybe 10 bucks.

as far as the weight limit, about the most i ever put on it was a case of.........um, refreshments. i don't know what it weighed, but i suppose 15/20 pounds. made the run often.

[uncleralph]

Did you pick that brand because the colors looked good with your scooter?

[ronnath]