Forum

[Bertie the Bullet]

Bertie's top box is quite frankly ugly, not suited to Bertie's 1950 style and needs changing, any of you slightly older folk out there know what type of told box is correct for the era?

[Scalyback]

Something like this??

[wilf]

Hi Bertie, I don't think I saw a top box on a bike until the late 60s. No doubt they can be useful, but I don't think they look good on any bike. I know someone who has a wicker basket fitted to the rear carrier. Not exactly weatherproof, but looks the vintage part.

[1950s Bulleteer]

Wicker-work cases were quite common, you know, like old fashioned picnic hampers. They are getting popular for keeping clothes and stuff in at home now, so you often see them in the high street, finding one with a secure lid is the thing to look out for. Using this approach I had to make up my own mounting kit, but that hardly difficult.

[1950s Bulleteer]

[Red face] Oops, sorry Wilf, somehow your message wasn't showing and I just duplicated your advice.[/Red face]

[PeteF]

You can still get a CRAVEN which looks more the part.

[Alan R]

-------------- but not CRAVEN A anymore !!...........Well, actually YES YOU CAN !! ............I just tried GOOGLE out of interest sake and there they are still, along with that Black Cat as well...

[Ian Martin]

Craven started production in 1952 so one of their Snowdon top boxes would not look out of place on Bertie. They are available brand new in black or white, are made in fibre glass, with aluminium bands across the top and are robust compared to the modern plastic type. My Bullet has a full set of Craven panniers and top box fitted which complements the Avon handlebar fairing....very retro! Craven products do crop up on auction sites occasionally and being fibreglass can be easily repaired and more importantly can successfully be sprayed to match the bikes colour scheme. Mine were second hand, repairs were made with body filler and my local paint shop matched the original paint colour (off white). They were sprayed in my garage on a warm day. I made up my own mounting kit and with a bit of ducking and weaving the panniers are now QD to allow the easy removal of the rear wheel.
A word of warning, they are not waterproof and require careful packing of their contents in waterproof bags, I use canoeists PVC sealed duffle bags inside the panniers.
Ian

[1950s Bulleteer]

Canoeists bags sound great Ian, I had not heard of them. I must investigate before he next camping trip.

[Bertie the Bullet]

Thanks all, Craven look interesting, will investigate these further, haha and I will pass on that Scaly.