My one hangup with my fabulous new carpool is the bike parking situation. I hoped for some kind of covered, secure place to lock my bicycle, perhaps a garage, easily accessible basement, or a covered porch at my coworker’s house. I rode the first morning, not knowing exactly what I would find (I already knew the garage option was out) but determined to make it work one way or another.
I arrived early on day one and found no covered parking options. Instead, I locked up to one of the vertical support poles of a chain link fence in the back yard. Baby Jake and I were not pleased. Other than when actively being ridden, or for relatively short lock-ups when running errands, Baby Jake is an indoor bicycle.
I didn’t like the idea of my lovely bicycle sitting exposed to the elements for ten-and-a-half hours every day, not to mention some concerns about theft.
Enter Back-Up Bike (BUB).
BUB lacked some of the convenient commuting accessories I’d added to my main bike, namely a rear rack and crate. I found a used rear rack at Bicycle Works, and planned to just switch my lone plastic milk crate back and forth between Baby Jake and BUB, but I tired of that pretty quickly. I toyed around with the notion of carrying a back pack, but it’s so nice to ride “naked,” i.e., no back pack, especially in the heat of summer.
I could just bike to a store and buy a plastic crate, but that would be too easy, so the search for a used milk crate (or something similar) continues. I will find one! In the mean time, I rigged up a super classy cardboard box, as you can see in the above photo. It fits will with some of BUB’s other swanky features:
Très chic, non?
Her Green Life 
I love the aesthetic of the cardboard box. Very Japanese minimalist.