Removable Mini-S-Frame and Wire Basket on a Brompton

When I acquired a wire basket for my Brompton, I attached it to a modified S frame with cable ties.  The cable ties were really easy to use, and the attachment very stable. However, I’m about to make another bag for Basil because I’m crazy and the closet-full I have already aren’t enough I’d like to have a super-small one. Now I want to be able to slip that mini-S-frame on and off the basket without having to find a pair of scissors.

The new attachment system uses nylon webbing and buckles, and some wide hook-and-loop fastening.  I hand-sewed the webbing, with buckles attached, to the top and bottom of the basket, fitting them carefully over the S frame/basket combination.

The buckles had to wrap so that they were easy to open and close, and the strap/buckle combination had to hug the S frame snugly.

The sides of my modified S frame are not riveted in place — that’s so I can swap them out for differently-sized tubing if I choose to.  This means, though, that they should be stabilized, so that the sides won’t vibrate out of the frame while I’m riding. To prevent that,  I sewed wide hook-and-loop strips across the middle of the back of the basket.  (Those unsecured straps to the right and left of the basket are the hook portion of the strips.)

Here’s how the back of the basket looks with the frame completely attached.  (The hook-and-loop strips flop a little bit over the vertical center frame bars; that just makes them easier to grab when removing the basket.)

Here is the back of the basket with the frame removed.

The security of this system is completely dependent on how well the straps and hook-and-loop tape are attached to the basket, so, if you are tempted to give this a try, sew well!  Neither the buckles nor the hook-and-loop tape will slip if they are installed in the right places, so it’s only the stitching that is vulnerable.

Here is the basket on Basil.  (Indoors. Sadly, it’s not a good biking day.) The buckles and webbing add very little weight, and don’t impede airflow much, if at all, but make swapping out the wire basket easy and fast when the frame is needed elsewhere.  I’ve freed up my modded S frame, and can now move on to the next bag — because, naturally, one just can’t have too much luggage for a Brompton.  Right?  Right?