No offence or anything intended, but one thing that always surprised me at university if how many people hauled around heavy bags loaded with textbooks all day. They brought a textbook for every class to every class, even when that was absolutely unnecessary. Most profs did not require that students bring textbooks to class. I guess if you drive or live on campus, it doesn't matter that much - but if you have to carry those books home and back every day on a bike, it makes a difference. So perhaps one thing you should do is to think whether you really need to carry all those books around with you. (It was probably pointless to write all this since you said you're looking for ways to lighten the load already.
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Originally Posted by Bolo Grubb
ok after a couple of weeks of commuting with the milk crate i am starting to give more thought to a set like fillthecup's ( a toolbox bolted to the rear rack and wire baskets).
One advantage to milk crate is they seem to slash the bike's attractiveness to thieves in, like, half or so (no stats, don't quote me on this
). Well, maybe it's not that drastic, but the dork factor certainly goes up, which is a good thing.