Introduction: Flatpack Bike Basket
In the following steps I will show you how to create a flatpack lightweight bike basket
All the dimensions that will be shown in the following steps are in millimeter (mm).
Requirements:
- A polypropylene [PP] plate (thickness: 5mm): 350mm x 320mm
- A polystyrene [PS] plate (thickness: 1mm): 510mm x 480mm
- Transparent doublesided tape
- Cutter knife
- A couple of zip ties
Step 1: Getting the Polypropylene Casing Ready
The bike basket consist of two fundamental parts: the casing (which will be made out of PP) and a bottom plate (made out of PS).
First you will have to draw the lines show above on the polypropylene plate.
Then carefully cut out the profile with your cutter knife.
The dashed lines are going to be folded.
The full lines will be cut.
DO NOT CUT THE DASHED LINES!
This is what you need to do for the dashed lines: gently press with your cutter knife onto the PP plate and slice it so that you will make a shallow cut. Once you're finished you can fold all the parts of the profile.
Step 2: Putting Together the Casing.
Once everything has been folded you will see that the casing is starting to take shape.
Put a strip of doublesided transparent tape on the parts that are colored blue and red in the image above and make them overlap eachother.
Step 3: Preparing the Bottom Plate.
Cut out the bottom plate from the polystyrene plate using the dimensions shown above
After that, we will drill 4 holes into the polystyrene plate. Make sure you put it in the PP casing as well so that the holes align perfectly once you're have finished drilling.
Once you've done that you can attach the bottom plate in the folded polypropylene casing using the doublesided transparent tape.
Step 4: Attaching the Bike Basket to Your Bike Rack.
One of our final steps is to place the bike basket on your bike rack. Take a zip tie (or attach 2 zip ties to eachother, depends on how long your zip ties are) and put it through the hole in the bottom plate. Pull it through your bike rack so that it can go back into the other hole of the bottom plate. Now attach the end of the zip tie to the beginning of the zip tie to close your loop.