Dwill... Please look away... You will probably find my frugality offensive.
I'm going to be spending a lot more time at home soon, now that I'm quitting my day job to start up my guitar building business. Funds are tight, and I don't trust my nice MTBs to survive a grocery commute. I wanted a bike for beer runs, groceries, library visits, and gym workouts. So I dug through my bucket of parts and bought a few used pieces to complete my grocery bike. It came out much nicer looking than I thought it would.
Here's my 2008 Haro Mary 29er singlespeed frame with it's latest round of components. I got a cheapo wheel set from craig's list, and the rear 1x9 drivetrain components were acquired used from the velodrome swap meet. Cranks and seatpost are the Haro stock components that came with the frame. Saddle is a new cheapo Planet bike one.
The front end is where it got interesting. The fork is a Salsa Cromoto that I bought for this bike a few years ago. The original Haro fork was a total dog and got given away at some point. I picked up a blackburn rear rack for cheap from the velodrome swapmeet, and mounted it to the fork using an adaptor from Surly bikes that is held to the fork with a small hose clamp. Converting a 26" rear frame rack to a 29" front fork mount was a bit challenging but this came out quite secure. The milk crate was chopped down in height by about 3" so that the cables coming off the shifter and brakes cleared the crate. Bars/stem/grips were all out of my parts bin.
Plenty of room for 2 six-packs plus my U-lock (mounted to the back of the milk crate). The Mary bars sucked for MTB riding as you cannot possibly go around a switchback without your elbows winding up embedded in your ribs. But it's a great set of bars for grocery fetching comfort. Grips were free swag from an SDMBA trail work session. Brake levers were from my parts bin, but I had to actually spend money for a new 9-speed deore shifter.
It's great to have Mary back in riding condition.