Friday, April 02, 2010

Bicycle shortcomings...

As much as I like riding my bike for simple errands, it's not much for the kind of grocery trips when the shopping list starts out:
  • Paper towels
  • TP
  • Cat Food
  • " Litter
By comparison with the basket on my Trek, the Zed Drei's trunk is downright capacious...
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13 comments:

Mikee said...

At one time in my life, I could pack all my personal posessions (mostly clothes) into a small backpack, jump on my bike, and relocate to a new place to live within minutes.

How I miss those days.

10:25 AM, April 02, 2010
Anonymous said...

They make dedicated bike trailers for hauling "stuff" and other trailers designed for hauling kids (I have the latter). You can frequently get a good deal on a kid trailer via craigslist or the local consignment store after yuppies learn hauling kids in a trailer is more effort than they expected.

I picked up a LNIB Burley Solo from our local Consignment for $70. MSRP is somewhere north of $300. I've used it to haul kids, groceries, and kids and groceries combined.

Chris

10:28 AM, April 02, 2010
OA said...

"You can frequently get a good deal on a kid trailer..."


I'm pretty sure Tam and Bobbi X (Og would probably have a hoot with it, too) could probably make something to do the job for less than $70, to say nothing of $300.

11:10 AM, April 02, 2010
Diogenes said...

LLBean has a package deal for a rear rack and grocery pannier set for 'bout $70.

link

Might help...

12:25 PM, April 02, 2010
fast richard said...

A bicycle is nice for picking up a few odds and ends, but for large loads of groceries a car is much better. After all, if god had meant for us to haul groceries on bicycles, he wouldn't have given us Gottlieb Daimler and Henry Ford.

1:05 PM, April 02, 2010
JeanC said...

I have a pair of collapsing panniers for my bike, both are big enough for a paper bag of groceries each.

1:08 PM, April 02, 2010
TJP said...

The lack of space is no less annoying in a car.

Here's a tip: stop buying your paper goods from the supermarket, and instead have that guy in a brown outfit bring them to your door. Ever since the Charmin marketing wizards discovered that it was possible to convince people to buy fluffed-up rolls with less paper, for the same price, everyone else has been trying to catch up. Walmart has it down to a science. I think their paper towel rolls are exactly eight paper molecules fluffed up to look like a whole roll.

With paper it's about square footage and number of plies. When you wait until you're low and then bulk buy the stuff, you're also saving money on fuel since you don't have to make all those little trips to the store because you're out.

I haven't figured out the cat litter yet, because I don't have a cat, but I'm fairly certain that cat litter is 99% something that some other industry would be throwing out if it weren't for Ed Lowe.

1:11 PM, April 02, 2010
NotClauswitz said...

There's a Ute for youse 'Youts.

2:08 PM, April 02, 2010
Joanna said...

Re: Cat litter, my godmother got me turned onto this stuff made from (of all things) corn. It's a clumping litter that has absolutely no odor after five minutes, tops, and one 30-lb., $30 bag will last you a year if you clean the box every day. The only downside: It tracks like a mother.

2:29 PM, April 02, 2010
Kristophr said...

Long tail cycles ...

More info here.

3:20 PM, April 02, 2010
Anonymous said...

I too take the bulk approach to paper goods, but one imagines that the delicate and tidy nature of the inhabitants of R. Cottage would mean a two-pack of each would be a month's supply, easily totable in a bike basket.

As for the kitty stuff, the recommended method for the litter is the sturdy and appropriately nomered croker sack, tied snugly at the top and dangling from the handlebar as you pedal past a picturesque and private brook. And bonus, after making the deposit, the food thing is rendered rather unnecessary.

Alternatively, your fellow Hoosier oldsters exiled here in Fla are fond of the adult tricycle style of pedal power; they come with a great big basket in back suitable for toting lots of cat-lady supplies plus the paper towels and tp, with room left over for other essential um, absorbent goods for older Americans.

Hoping my suggestions have been helpful and well received.

Al Terego

(uh, april fool...always a day late and a neuron short, that's me.)

7:50 PM, April 02, 2010
Dr. StrangeGun said...

Wow. I know the media's been bad for a long time and getting worse daily, but I didn't know they were evacuating themselves in your house often enough that you're buying them quote litter. Astounding.

11:26 AM, April 03, 2010
og said...

I have a bunch of old aluminum tubing and some old high-mower wheels I was going to use as a deer drag, but hell, if you got a better use let me know!

11:32 AM, April 03, 2010

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