I've been riding the same Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo Mountain Bike since my uncle found it in a sandpit and gave it to me to ride while away on my first internship. It was in somewhat rough shape back then, and it's kind of the bicycle of Thesius at this point as parts failed and I found ways to replace them.
I was replacing the front tire and realized I'd like to make this thing into a cargo bike (I currently use it to scout for furniture to restore on trash days, but usually have to ride home and return on foot to grab anything I find, plus I could get groceries). I'm not sure what level of standardization this bike follows and I have no familiarity with cargo bike parts, but I was thinking I'd like to add a Rear Pannier Carrier Cargo Rack and perhaps a large basket on top of that - in fact, I happen to have this homemade welded steel basket I pulled out of a dumpster a couple years ago:
It's 23" long, 12" tall, and 16" wide. I could weld on whatever mounting hardware it needs.
So basically I'm looking for advice on layout and things to add, specific parts if you have any recommendations, is that basket a horrible idea, etc. What traits make for a useful cargo bike, what would work well with this old mountain bike? And thank you for any ideas!!
That definitely adds a lot of length to the back! I think I see these on the bike path sometimes but didn't realize its an add-on rather than a custom-built bike. I'd been thinking when my SO and I have kids in a few years, we'd get one of those cargo bikes with the big wheelbarrow bucket on the front, where kids or probably another adult or groceries can ride. But I've never ridden either version - do the ones with the cargo in the front handle worse? Are there other tradeoffs?
I like his electric bike conversion. I'm brand new to anything more than the most absolute basic bicycle maintenance (this bike's rear derailer was held together with zip ties at one point), so I hadn't waded in to electric bike options and tradeoffs yet. I've heard they're a huge game changer and an improvement on cars in the kind of built-up areas where I live. I'd figured I'll set this one up for some cargo capacity, then sort of feel out what I want once I've been using it a bit.
OK in that case I definitely recommend a reasonably heavy duty rear rack and some good quality panniers. Your Kona will be able to take a decent amount of weight.
If it was me I'd then also put a flat front rack on the front and then you can fix a basket to that but also run it flat if you need to. Something like this: https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Specialized-Pizza-Rack_95421.htm
Then like you say, once you want to upgrade an amazing option would be the proper cargo bike like you say. Definitely on my list!