Who does their shopping on a bike?

[Tin Pot]

How are you doing it?

Rack and panniers, front baskets, trailers? Care to share any good resources on this topic?

One hand on the handle bars, the other hand operating my iPhone.

 

[ColinJ]

I prefer double panniers because the clips don't have to carry as much weight... but it's still unsettling if they're not clipped on properly, I load them lopsided by mistake and they flip off the bike as I ride away, being dragged along by the anchor strap

That makes sense.

The Lidl panniers were stupidly cheap so I have very low expectations of them, but I would still rather avoid catastrophic failure!

They have flaps on the top which can be used together to form a carrying handle. The flaps are wide enough to get more than halfway across the top of the rack. If I wanted to I could devise a way to attach the inside flaps of the 2 panniers to each other. They have some lightweight Velcro strips on them. Maybe I will replace those with heavy-duty strips and then I could Velcro them together ...?

 

[Pale Rider]

I had a stationary fall due to too much shopping.

Two panniers, crammed as full as I could with heavy stuff.

I knew the bike was overloaded, but thought it would be OK for the few miles home.

As I came to rest, I put my left foot down and lent the bike in that direction.

The weight did the rest, taking the back wheel away from me and upwards.

The front was wheel was still on the ground and I still had hold of the handlebars, but I couldn't apply enough force to arrest the fall, so down both me and the bike went.

Predictably, my shopping spilled across the road.

I felt very foolish lying on the ground entangled in the bike and surrounded by groceries.

 

[ColinJ]

I won't 'Like' that, but I had the feeling that I was going to end up that way this evening!

 

[fatjel]

I bought a very scruffy looking pinnacle frame and built it using parts I had lying around.
The idea being it would be unattractive to bike thieves and easily replaced if it were pinched

 

[annedonnelly]

Yes, all of my shopping - unless I walk when there's snow/ice on the ground.

I use panniers and take them into the supermarket with me. Pack from the till directly into the panniers - heavy stuff at the bottom - so no faffing about outside.

 

[ColinJ]

I use panniers and take them into the supermarket with me. Pack from the till directly into the panniers - heavy stuff at the bottom - so no faffing about outside.

I came to that conclusion yesterday. The mistake I made was to shop using a basket rather than a trolley. Trolley next time - not only easier for carting shopping inside the store, but also for taking heavy panniers back to the bike.

I thought it was obvious to pack heavy objects at the bottom of bags but I see people doing daft things like putting a punnet of strawberries in a bag and then throwing a 2 litre drinks bottle in on top!

 

[Salty seadog]

Gotta love a bit of Bran van.

 

[raleighnut]

Yes, front basket and rear rack and panniers for the main shop(s), bag on top of the rear rack for top-ups. Trailer if needed (rare). Best rollable panniers are my Basil Mara which but I think they're only 26L and tedious to attach/detach. I'm still using a set of semi-rigid crivit 56L panniers a lot, but they're showing their age now and catch an awful lot of wind. Basils are on the left, crivits on the right (but there's a cool bag instead of the top bag on the crivit, plus a Basil Sport single pannier bungeed on top of the Mara - this was holiday shopping).
View attachment 204720


Interesting. Why? I've a two-wheeled high-hitch trailer (a Veelers, I think), which has the advantage that I can use it as a shopping trolley or wheelbarrow when detached, but the drawback that it shoves me around a bit when cycling along and is prone to weaving/wagging at speed. I'd been thinking of going single-wheel if I ever get another.


You have a Brompton?

By the way, returning deposit-paid trollies to a trolley park after loading the panniers was annoying until I started using a large carabiner to hook the loop end of the pay-chain to the top handle of the pannier and tow the trolley along backwards behind the bike

I find my 2 wheel trailer to be more stable at speed,

I prefer 2 wheeled trailers for shopping, you can carry heavier loads and longer ones. They may be more stable when static, for loading. Single wheel trailers track better, esp off road so are good for touring

The first long trip I used the trailer on was a camping trip up to Derbyshire when returning I got it up to over 45mph on a long (downhill) section of the Ashbourne to Derby dual carriageway ( there is about a 1 1/2 mile downhill bit with no side turnings so I took primary in the inner lane and kept up with the flow of traffic in that lane) the only thing I find a bit 'scary' is the thought of stopping all that weight.

 

[MichaelW2]

I find my 2 wheel trailer to be more stable at speed,



The first long trip I used the trailer on was a camping trip up to Derbyshire when returning I got it up to over 45mph on a long (downhill) section of the Ashbourne to Derby dual carriageway ( there is about a 1 1/2 mile downhill bit with no side turnings so I took primary in the inner lane and kept up with the flow of traffic in that lane) the only thing I find a bit 'scary' is the thought of stopping all that weight.

I carried a full load of topsoil, just about the heaviest load i can take, but had creep downhill at 10mph to avoid a runaway train scenario.

 

[raleighnut]

I carried a full load of topsoil, just about the heaviest load i can take, but had creep downhill at 10mph to avoid a runaway train scenario.

It does feel like things could go very 'pear shaped' if you needed to pull up sharpish dunnit.

 

[tyred]

I have recently re-commissioned this machine. Makes shopping trips very easy.
Pashley PO bike by https://www.flickr.com/photos/theoldbikeshome/, on Flickr

 

[MichaelW2]

It does feel like things could go very 'pear shaped' if you needed to pull up sharpish dunnit.

Some people have devised trailer brakes activated by compression on the mounting arm, is the trailer going faster than the bike.

 

[mjr]

It does feel like things could go very 'pear shaped' if you needed to pull up sharpish dunnit.

It's more ^shaped, as the trailer forces the back wheel into the air.

 

[raleighnut]

It's more ^shaped, as the trailer forces the back wheel into the air.

One thing I've always done is to keep the trailer pretty well balanced and a touch 'nose heavy' luckily mine attaches to the NDS stay very close to the axle so it can't get that much leverage on the bike.