Mary & I did the weekly grocery run today, with a few add-on errands.
I’m (finally) shipping the Totally Featureless Clock to my friend and hauling a bag of shredded leaves (the first of a dozen) with which Mary mulches the plants in her remote garden plot. We dropped off the leaves and some garden gate fencing (from her bike), then continued on for groceries.
Mary returned to the garden to spend the afternoon coaxing the plants to grow nicely, while I hauled the TFC (and the groceries) to the UPS inlet.
And then I hauled the groceries home. Most of the four bags of chow fit in the trailer, with squishable fruit & veggies in the bike panniers. A whopping 13 miles, all told, but a good time was had by all.
The trouble with bicycles is that they have approximately the cargo capacity of your car’s glove box. Panniers help, but for bulk capacity you need a trailer. Think of it this way: these days, a good trailer costs maybe three or four tanks of gasoline.
If you keep coming up with reasons why you can’t get your butt on your bike and “I can’t haul X!” is one reason, a trailer might be the answer for reasonable values of X. It’s no good for plywood sheets and water heaters, but I’ve hauled plenty of other X that would ordinarily call for a car trip.
It’s an old B.O.B Yak. Works fine, tracks well, doesn’t wobble, carries more than you think possible.. Just do it!
We each put about 2000 miles a year on our bikes, most of it on errands just like this. That’s not many miles by bicycle fanatic standards, but we do lots of other stuff in addition to biking…
Search the blog for “trailer” and you’ll find a few other hints & tips.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
4 responses to “Just Another Bicycle Trip”
I like BOBs: they’re simpler than two-wheel trailers. When my ex-gf rode across the US a couple years ago she took a BOB with a huge rubbermaid container that she put all her stuff in; we bolted it to the trailer and it served as a great rainproof way to transport things. It sure beats panniers, particularly front panniers that make the bike handling frightening.
front panniers that make the bike handling frightening
Although Schubert says front panniers help distribute the load and prevent shimmy, my experience agrees with yours: not so good.
Perhaps I didn’t have a real “touring bike” with the proper geometry, back when I rode diamond-frame bikes that were far too fragile.
Now I know better…
All well and good in theory but for those of us who live on hills we can barely haul our own fat asses up in granny-gear, not so much with the useful. The power-to-weight ratio is Just Not There with Seattle terrain. In my defense, I take the bus, so at least I’m not driving. Oh how I hate driving.
Seattle terrain
I hauled a hydraulic spring compressor to a friend’s house and ended up making a less-than-graceful dismount on the impossible hill out front; of course I had an audience, too. The hill is barely do-able even without 50 pounds of cast iron in the trailer. I should’a known better.
On the other paw, that thing would have weighed only 10 pounds back in my younger days… it’s time for more table pushaways!