My Mud and Snow Milk Bike

I acquired this lovely bike a couple of years ago as a frame with just a front wheel and some otherwise respectable parts. Its a Panasonic mountain bike frame and was a garish green and yellow with something like "Montpelier Parks" hand painted across the top tube.

Since then I gave it a cheap but effective paint job, switched out the handlebars and break levers, added a rear wheel and installed a respectable Brooks saddle. Oh yeah, I also added a nice set of SKS fenders to round out the effort. The bike is currently wearing a set of studded Nokian tires for rides on snowy nights.

If for some reason you've followed this blog over the months you'll know that biking around the corner to the nearby farm to get milk for making yogurt is one of my favorite activities. In the past I would hook my bike trailer up and then strap the 2 gallon milk bucket to the trailer. That worked, but I thought I'd be cool to come up with something a little easier and maybe more streamlined. To answer that need I created a small wooden rack that mounts over the rear bike rack I have in place on the bike. The bucket fits neatly in the circular opening and I just run a strap over it to insure it stays in place and it all works quite well.

I've since decided that this rack is actually rather clunky and overbuilt, so I've schemed out a much more elegant and minimal version. I've cut the parts and they are just sitting there in the house. I just need to assemble it. Version two will be a significantly more elegant solution.

I love this bike. It's reminiscent of a three-speed in feel with mountain bike gearing to haul up steep hills. The one change I need to make is installing a slightly taller stem to raise the bars up just a little more.

Fun.