I have the large racktime basket on my bike and have been using at least once a week for a year and a half. It is coated steel (aluminum does not rust) and still looks like new with no rust anywhere. They can be bought on ebay for $60. I have found the racktime attachment hardware reliable and sufficient.
It looks like you poked holes in yours to put an elastic strap through. What's that about? What have you been carrying in it that has caused so much wear and damage?
It seems evident that your use was extreme for this basket and you should have purchased something more heavy duty. Most people want their bike accessories to be as lightweight as possible.
You probably should have gone the milk crate and zip tie route.
It's not really fair to use, if not abuse, an item so heavily and title your thread "
Stay AWAY from RACKTIME BASKETS !!
Here is my bike this past Saturday with the basket filled with about 15 lbs of veggies and other food stuffs.
View attachment 40041
I poked holes through it ?? yea right...
Put your bincoculars ON and see that those holes were from the 2 big black screws breaking apart from the CHEAP plastic frame mesh and there are broken seams everywhere and in order to secure the basket i had to put the strap through and the other zip ties. Only for a few more days until i decide which brand makes a solid basket/rear rack combination.
lt will definetly be NOT MADE IN CHINA.
I already said that this rack is for one apple and 1-2loaf of breads , exactly the type of stuff of what you are carrying ! And most likely the roads have much better pavement where you ride.
On NY streets, my ebike encounters massive crater wide potholes, 15-25inch deep holes in the road are very common. I avoid what i can, but not all can be avoided.
The message is clear , if you want a sturdy rack to last a lifetime:
STAY AWAY FROM RACKTIME BASKETS.
Too bad i had already dispose of the first one. That one had massive damage from carrying LIGHT stuff.
What they didn’t engineer or anticipated in this cheaply made chinese rack is that stuff bounces from a HEAVY ebike rear end ocassionly hitting 10-25inch deep potholes and it sends the shockwave into the basket and it’s flimsy components.
That would need a structural engineer to design a solid EBIKE RACK for US broken infrastructure roads.
The only US made component on my ebike is the Spurcycle bell and it’s a masterpiece of engineering design.
The rest of the ebike’s components are chinese (90%) , 5 german ( Abus, Lupine, Busch&Lumen, SQL labs, Ergon),1 japanese(the DAPU rear hub motor).
