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Sunday, December 17, 2006

Who needs a trunk?

Image of two bikes with fully loaded pannier basketsMy wife and I did some shopping this weekend, and of course we did not use a car. (We don't have one; Enterprise is kind enough to rent us a vehicle when we need it.) As I say on my bike commuting tips pages, with a little ingenuity and a few elastic cords, you can carry a great deal on a bike.

This was a light shopping day. I use a pair of permanently installed Wald rear folding baskets. My wife uses a pair of removable Nashbar "Townie" folding baskets. If we had needed even greater load capacity, we also own a Cycletote trailer and a BOB trailer.

We visited many crowded stores on the weekend just two weeks before Winter Solstice/Christmas holiday. We enjoyed lots of fresh air and exercise with traveling through San Francisco's festive retail districts, the Ferry Building Farmer's Market, and along the waterfront Embarcadero. And we dealt with none of the stress of all those motoring shoppers fighting parking, traffic, delays, and abundant road rage.

Image: Paul Dorn
Visit: Seven days of groceries on two wheels--Shopping by bicycle, TheExaminer.com
Visit: Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips Site

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

so, how do you manage what you've already bought and parking your bike at additional destinations? parking a bike and hauling everything steal-able around with me is definitely a hassle. totally an argument for having better bike parking.

Paul Dorn said...

Often my wife does the shopping, while I watch the bikes and make calls or listen to an audiobook on Ipod. For some stores where we both are shopping, we bring our goods in with a cart.