Who does their shopping on a bike?

[Blue Hills]

Car. Dare not leave the bike outside a shop.

Don't you have a lock? I do hope you lock the car.

 

[Blue Hills]

In hilly towns, do your booze and tin shopping at at shop higher up than your house.
Heavy loads are easier downhill than uphill.

Good tip, except i live at the top of a big hill that is a dead end. The only way home is up a dirty big hill i do pretty much all my shopping by bike.

 

[fossyant]

Don't you have a lock? I do hope you lock the car.

Lots of locks. Still wouldn't leave it outside a shop

 

[Blue Hills]

You must warn me where this area is fossy - I get that way sometimes. I lock up outside shops all the time - in big bad london.

 

[ufkacbln]

Used to use a BikeHod as it could be easily taken around the store and filled at the checkout:

It could cope with most of a trolley and with heavy stuff at the bottom, stability was not an issue

However I now do most shopping on the Christiania as it can cope with anything.

 

[robjh]

If I'm on my own I do almost all of my shopping by bike, and always have done, although there are also many other times when we'll use the car as we're out in it anyway and going past the shops.
I've got rear racks on both of my most-used bikes (only the carbon 'summer' road bike that I bought recently is an exception, so far) and usually carry a pannier with me, or 2 if I expect to need them. Light shopping can be done in small panniers on my commuting bike (Giant TCR), and for heavy shopping I use larger panniers on my touring bike. I can often stash unusually large objects across the rack on the tourer using bungee chords.
At other times my pannier will hold things likes lock(s), extra clothing, lights and spare batteries, snacks etc, plus it means I have the freedom to stop and buy things as I see them.
I've never worried greatly about leaving the bikes outside shops. In certain places I might use two locks, and I may wrap the coil lock through the handle of any panniers I leave on the bike, but in other places I just park the bike and go in. I've had no problems so far.

Unusual luggage : bike on a bike

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Not ideal with drop bars, left turns were fine, right turns were wide...

Unfortunately the mule got swiped, it wasn't as good overall as my Skidii Bobyak clone but it was great for bulky loads from Lidl. Although I have a dog crate which I think would make a good load space if attached to the Skidii, which I shall investigate further

 

[Effyb4]

We shop by bike all the time. We take the trailer for the weekly shop and use a rack top bag with drop down panniers or full panniers for top up shops. The picture is of Mr Effy's bike pulling a weekly shop for 5 people. I go in the shop. Mr Effy waits outside with the bikes.

 

[ColinJ]

A WARNING!

I suggest that you inspect your bike before riding it after leaving it unattended in public - I discovered that somebody had loosened my front quick release while I was in the supermarket last week!

I noticed that the QR was loose the following day when looking for the cause of a mysterious rattling sound that I had heard on the ride back with my shopping. The QR release lever was still closed but the nut had 'mysteriously' undone itself ... My a*se it had! I have been using QRs for over 40 years and know how to use them properly. I had checked the bike before going to the shop so all was good then.

 

[raleighnut]

A WARNING!

I suggest that you inspect your bike before riding it after leaving it unattended in public - I discovered that somebody had loosened my front quick release while I was in the supermarket last week!

I noticed that the QR was loose the following day when looking for the cause of a mysterious rattling sound that I had heard on the ride back with my shopping. The QR release lever was still closed but the nut had 'mysteriously' undone itself ... My a*se it had! I have been using QRs for over 40 years and know how to use them properly. I had checked the bike before going to the shop so all was good then.

 

[spen666]

I do mine using my bike and a rucksack. I pop into local Aldi on my way home from work several nights a week. I leave bike inside store by packing shelves and buy what I need for that night next few days.

 

[mjr]

I suggest that you inspect your bike before riding it after leaving it unattended in public

Well, yes: look to see the chain's still on, test each brake as you push it out of the parking space or immediately after climbing on (that might have produced a clunk if the front QR was loose enough), and look to check the tyres are still inflated before pedalling away. It's worth doing that even when your bike's been in your own shed, as someone (even yourself) may have knocked it while moving around it.

I noticed that the QR was loose the following day when looking for the cause of a mysterious rattling sound that I had heard on the ride back with my shopping.

Yeah. Don't ride with rattles if you can bear to stop to investigate. Most of them are harmless, but there's always a risk...

 

[ColinJ]

Don't ride with rattles if you can bear to stop to investigate. Most of them are harmless, but there's always a risk...

I have learned that to my cost in the past!

This time I was only riding 1 km back from the shop and didn't notice the noise until I was halfway back. I decided just to continue and sort it out at home.

 

[Will Spin]

We live just over a mile from the town centre so I always do my shopping by bike, I'm usually trundling into town several times a week. I bought myself a utility bike a couple of years ago, along with a couple of large clip on panniers. It's quicker by bike than car after you take into account time spent trying to find a parking space, buying a ticket etc. I think the bike has paid for itself just through money saved in parking charges. Also, for those who worry that there is a risk that the bike might get stolen, I think the monetary risk of this happening is more than offset when you consider the risk of car park damage to cars, which has happened to me once or twice in recent years, it only takes someone to be careless with a car door to cause a few hundred pounds worth of damage, which is not often recoverable from insurance.

 

[Sandra6]

I started out doing small shops with a front basket, had a brief dallience with a rucksack and then progressed from a small pannier to one capable of holding a good few days worth of food. As a larger than average family, doing all the shopping by bike isn't completely practical but when we lived at the other end of a cycle path to the local lidl it was ideal to go a couple of times a week for top ups.
My "shopping" bike is out on loan at the moment and I really don't like carrying a rucksack with more than a few items in so most of our shopping is now done in the car, but I'm working on a solution.