Shopping with panniers

[Soltydog]

Following on from the Pannier Bag shopping thread which confused a few by it's title, I thought I'd start a thread about shopping & strange things you've carried in your panniers.

I'll start with my shopping trip / commute today. Cycled to work & whilst in Hull called into Lidl to purchase some fruit trees. Ended up buying 4 & cycled 16 miles home with 2 5' fruit trees in each pannier Saw a friend about 1 mile from home who was most upset that he didn't have a camera on him

 

[Baggy]

Chuffy once carted home a metal pole for net curtains, had it sticking out of his pannier. Got it home no problem, swung his leg round to dismount...bent the pole in two

 

[alecstilleyedye]

no panniers, but a bottle of bollinger (from a grateful client) must have looked odd sticking out of the side pocket of my rucksack a few weeks ago.

 

[Soltydog]

Chuffy once carted home a metal pole for net curtains, had it sticking out of his pannier. Got it home no problem, swung his leg round to dismount...bent the pole in two

LOL i had the same problem dismounting too but luckily didn't damge the trees, just my pride

 

[longers]

A rose bush once.

I've done a few miles with two galvanised dustbins strapped to the rack as well .

 

[Joe24]

Not as strange, but i had a bag on my back with handlebars strapped to them, stem and brake levers. Brake cables and outers wrapped around handlebars and the brake cables already on the bike.
Hardest thing i carried on my bike was a tyre, not a foldable one. Had it over my shoulder but it kept moving around to the front, catching the seat and bouncing off my legs. It annoyed me but i did the 7miles from bike shop to home with it, which included a long steep hill.
I'm still yet to carry anything large or odd. I want to try a bike frame strapped to a bag, but not sure how safe it would be

 

[longers]

Joe, fold a tyre in the middle to make a figure of eight, one loop over each shoulder.

 

[fossyant]

Erm... not much more than a "Dine for Two" M&S meal in my rucksack...took careful packing...that and an extra bottle..bloody hell it was heavy.....

 

[longers]

I've done a few 70 milers with a bottle of wine in the pannier and a bottle of champagne once

 

[HelenD123]

Not panniers, but I had a summer job picking flowers (which were then dried) and at the end of the season we were allowed to take home as many as we could carry. Me, my sister and her friend strapped a load to our bike racks and must have looked quite a sight riding home through the villages.

 

[Brains]

mmmmm, let me think, odd things I've carried on my bike

A child's bike (big child's bike), fitted it across the rack flat, rode a good 7 (flat) miles. Child was on the saddle, I was standing on the pedals,

A big plant (over 1m) complete with pot and earth

Lawnmower and hedge trimmer

2 boxes of wine

a PC (desk PC) including CRT monitor

Several printers of different specs

Archive boxes

Suit bags, complete with suit

Rolled maps in tubes
(at 1.5m wide, you carry them crossways, puts the fear of god into overtaking vehicles)

Flat packed maps - 1m Squares - takes some fitting, but can be done as long as no high winds

step ladder

and I'm sure a lot of other things, the advantages of owning a proper touring bike, the limit of what you can ride with is your imagination

 

[Abitrary]

Lawnmower and hedge trimmer

hmmm..

anyway, flatpack workbench and jigsaw for me.

 

[Creamcrackered]

We are but amateurs http://aistigave.hit.bg/Logistics/

 

[Globalti]

An Irish pal of mine used to ride his MZ motorbike up to Aviemore with skis strapped alongside the panniers and joined at the tip behind his bike. He got some curious looks from Police officers but never got stopped.

 

[wafflycat]

Admittedly not that exact bird, but one of same species. I found it exhausted in the middle of a lane. Several cars had gone over it (but not with wheels...). So I picked it up and put it at side of road and it couldn't fly off. So I popped it into a pannier and rang my local animal welfare group. Took it to a specialist vet where it was looked after. Apparently there was a shortage of insect food that year and many a house martin was starving. This one found itself in a room full of cages of wild birds being fed up to a sufficient weight to be released back into their natural habitat. So it hit lucky.