I saw a guy's bike at the grocery store last summer that had an interesting array of baskets on it. They were obviously the plastic hand baskets from stores. They were of 2 different sizes. There were 2 of the smaller attached to the front wheel forks with a large one above attached by it's length to the handlebars. On the rear wheel forks there were two large ones attached with a large one on the carrier (over the wheel) attached on the long axis.
He had done some light welding of strap stock metal to the forks to support the baskets attached to the sides of the wheels. The sides that attached had sheet metal pop riveted for the attachments so that they would be secure when he was under way. I only looked at it from a short distance. But one of the people in the store that knew the owner said that he could detach the baskets besides the wheels if he wanted. And that he was talking about purchasing an electric motor for the rig. I noticed the rear wheel had an 5 or 7 cog derailleur gear shift set up but the front pedal was a single sprocket.
I don't have any idea of how heavy he would have loaded up at the store, but he appeared to have ratios to spare. I just wondered about his tires being up to the load it looked like he could carry. But I like the idea of those plastic shopping baskets. I didn't see any names on those either, such as Walmart. So I guess he used some polishing compound to rub any indications off so it wouldn't be problems later.
As I drove back home the only thing I thought I could do to improve on his rig was to find some styrofoam and build cooler to fit in the large upper baskets for transporting cold items on the trip back home. But this would be getting the maximum value of your pedal power.
