Is it really necessary to follow all the supposed best practices for using bike baskets for grocery shopping, or are people just overcomplicating something thats essentially just carrying stuff on a bike.
Ive seen threads where people claim that a good bike basket should be at least this big, or that you need to distribute weight just so, or that you must use netting to secure items, but have we ever stopped to think about whether these rules are actually based in reality.
Take load size, for example. How many people are really buying that much stuff at the grocery store on a regular basis. Dont get me wrong, I know some people are going to go out and buy a weeks worth of groceries in one trip, but for the most part, are we really dealing with that much volume.
And distribution - Ive seen people claim that you should aim for a 60/40 split front to back, but whats the science behind that. Has anyone ever done a study on the optimal weight distribution for a bike basket. I highly doubt it.
And then theres the netting - a good idea in theory, but how many people are really going that fast on a grocery run that their eggs are going to go flying out of the basket anyway. I mean, dont get me wrong, safety first, but come on, are we really going to be doing 25mph down the bike path with a basket full of groceries.
So I guess what Im asking is, how much of this is just conventional wisdom, and how much of it is actually based in reality. Are there people out there who have actually done the research and experimentation, or are we all just parroting the same best practices without ever stopping to think about whether they actually make sense.
And whats the worst that could happen - an egg breaks, a loaf of bread gets crushed, a can of beans rolls out of the basket and into the road. Is it really the end of the world.