The Pup Boxes

This year, a few customers have commissioned custom racks for their Omnium Mini builds.

The standard Mini rack is an awkward size for carrying a small dog, as it's difficult to find a plastic box which works nicely. Added to this is the need for a padded base, and ability to attach a tether or two to the dogs harness.

After wasting a lot of time trying to avoid making something, I started the 6 hour process of just building something from scratch.

The design criteria were:

• 50 x 50cm base.
• 25cm height to comfortably fit under the handlebars.
• Mesh panels on the sides to allow some airflow, and not catch the wind too much.
• Padded base panel to maximise comfort.
• Break-away harness tether to quickly and easily stop attach and disconnect.

The first steel frame was great, but the fabric panels did not attach as cleanlky as I would prefer, so I addressed this in the second version.

My dog Leeloo fitted perfectly inside the box and was immediately at home. There was also enough room for two dogs of her size, or for you to put some shopping or a backpack next to the dog.

The padded panel in the second build is removable, and held down with quite a lot of 50mm wide velcro. Also, the mesh side panels are a nice tight fit, and look a lot cleaner than the first attempt.

This will serve as the standard template for future builds, but I will switch rack materials so the production version will be aluminum, rather than steel. This will reduce the rack weight by as much as 50%, but will be a little bit more expensive to make.

If you are interested in building a bike for carrying your small dog (max15kg), then the Omnium Mini is a really good place to start. It's more stable and versatile if you get a bigger bike, like the Mini-Max or Cargo, but if the length of those bikes is an issue then this system will definitely work for you.

Keep an eye out for this system on our webstore, or on the Sentient Works website.

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