Easy Upcycled Bike Basket

I have had several bicycles since I was little, but none of them can hold a candle to my Electra Townie! I LOVE this bike! It is so comfortable to ride, and it is a multi-speed bike which makes hilly terrain so much more do-able for me. My dad still teases me to this day because when we lived in Kansas City I would have to stop and walk my bike up every hill. No one really tought me how to use my gears, and I would get tired out half way up. One of my favorite things about my bike is the color. It is an awesome sparkly shade of aqua! I have been wanting to add a little style to it for a while now. I want to recover the seat and have been searching everywhere for the perfect basket. I didn’t really care for the generic wicker or metal baskets you can find at the store, and all the ones I have ever really liked were way more than I could afford to spend. So, I finally came to the idea of finding a basket I liked and rigging it to the bike. I was thrilled when I found this wire basket from Target’s new charity team up with FEED America. I loved the industrial feel of the metal basket paired with the natural cotton liner with bright red printing! I also loved that my purchase would feed twenty people. As it turns out it is really pretty fast and easy to make a regular storage basket into a bike basket!

Here’s What You Need:

*Metal Storage Bin/Basket

*Thick Leather

*Scissors

*Heavy Duty Snaps and Kit

*Hammer

*Leather Punch or an Awl

*Wire Ties

Instructions:

The first thing you need to do is cut a couple of leather strips. Cut them to be skinny enough to go through the holes in the basket. Hold the basket up to the bike and secure with some heavy duty wire ties to help hold it in place. Wrap the strip through over the wire tie and overlap the ends by about an inch. Mark the center of the strip and half an inch up from each end. Punch a small hole where you marked on both ends. Now, follow the instructions for inserting the snap parts onto each side. Insert the snap into the correct side of the disk and insert the punch into the top. Hammer the punch down until the snap is set. Now do the other end. Now you can attach your leather strips over the wire ties and snap in place. Fill your basket and ride on…

Isn’t that so easy! This literally took me about fifteen minutes. I wanted leather straps to hold my bucket to my bike for the look of it. You could always just use the wire ties if you like, or you could just do the leather straps. If you are planning on putting anything heavy in your basket, I would suggest wire ties under the leather for added strength. I LOVE my new bike basket! It holds everything I need, and it is super cute! I gave each of the dogs a turn in the basket. As you can see Beauregard did not like the basket too much. Lily on the other hand loved it! I would not take any of my pets for a real ride however without being able to restrain them in the basket. I’d be afraid that they’d see something and try to jump out and get hurt. But we did have a nice little walk up and down the driveway. Or at least Lily did. This basket is perfect for holding my water bottles and there is plenty of room to pack a picnic lunch and a small blanket. I can’t wait until the weather gets a little cooler and we can ride more! Stay tuned, I’ll be back next week with more summer projects! Until then…

Happy Crafting!

*All photos taken by Kim Crenshaw Photography