Basically instead the cart would have to be on the back end, and in addition to steering with the front wheel, you would need to rig the petals to use the front wheel, almost in the manner that one would pedal a unicycle - no gears and chains, just straight pedals.

Best of luck!

And the next day i was salvaging at the landfill (just their metal and wood - the household trash is baled and shipped to Seattle) and scored another shopping cart - i'll see about making that one into a trailer.

About all the negativity - not really surprised. Lighten up! It is healthier!

This is a sign from the heavens! Thanks Meg!!

@King of the Wild Frontier: he's an adult, let him do as he sees fit..i think this article is hilarious! If he gets hurt, it's his fault...he can't help it if others are easily impressionable and try to imitiate him.

Considering this douche-nozzle is riding his Franken-bike in flip-flops, I don't think safety and stability are really his primary drivers...

Converting the front fork into a cart has to be pure suicide; I'd imagine that one pebble could cause that thing to flip. Ever push a tool chest and get something stuck in the front wheel? First thing it wants to do it tip the direction you're rolling. I fail to see why a bike doing 30mph would be any different.

Instead, he should have made a trailer hitch for the back, can't be much harder to make than his chopping cart front fork. Then make a single axle trailer, or cruise around local yard sales for an old toy wagon.

A proper messenger bag (i.e. not the more fashionable glorified brief cases with shoulder straps) is going to be way more stable than a shopping cart since it's centered and attached to your body, and a regular bike is hell of a lot easier to lock than a modified one.

What ever happened to just lashing a milk-crate to the handlebars?
@Troy F.: That'd be kinda small for groceries, wouldn't it?

Where are you going to get one? Steal it?
@Maulleigh: I bought a cart for under $30. Granted, it wasn't literally a grocery cart (wrong shape) but it holds plenty of food and even fits on the bus. Useful and worth it considering the alternative of trying to carry a bunch of plastic bags home.

haah everyone is so analytical about an article that is supposed to be light and comical...

Any decent bike store has trailers that will carry nearly as much as a grocery basket; some of them will also carry kids. Get rear panniers or baskets. Get a front basket if the rear ones aren't big enough, but don't put too much in it, because you don't want to have to move heavy groceries along with your front wheel if you have to swerve suddenly. (Touring cyclists have front panniers, but they're usually riding on long stretches of open road at low speeds.)

@Maulleigh: Its a huge PITA to bring it all the way back :p I almost always return mine

- pay for a shopping cart (expenseive)
- steal one from a store (risky and illegal)
- steal one from a homeless guy who stole it from a store (you're a winner! ok not really)

Check out [www.xtracycle.com]

Their stuff is stylish, useful, and safe. I'd go with them before attempting to build one on my own.

I'm a big advocate of cycling for utility and practical reasons. I have a couple "grocery panniers" that work just fine and hold a sufficient amount - and I usually have my Timbuk2 messenger bag for quick trips, which actually holds quite a bit as well.

james...

(If nothing else, it'd be less painful than the accident I would certainly have.)

I saw it all the time in CA. People would overshop and have no way to get all the groceries home so they'd just push the cart all the way home and abandon it in the bushes.

What ever happened to just lashing a milk-crate to the handlebars? It also negatively affected steering, but it was workable enough that we survived our paper routes during our middle school days.

My friend built a trailer-like gizmo on the back of his bike. It looks hilarious, and people laugh at him, but it works. He bought a bar and worked on the inside alone for 2 years. He used it to carry drywall, 2*4's, etc. Quite ingenius.

How to improve it? Lose the shopping cart and put the front wheel back on. Get some panniers. Yeesh.

wow... Accident waiting to happen.