Utility Cycling - 26 mile grocery run - suggestions?

I've been pondering the idea of hitting the next town over to pickup groceries, but the 26 mile round trip is a bit discouraging. It's a different experience out here in the sticks where country roads are rough, hills are high, and even the nearest practical stop (a gas station) doesn't have much to offer in terms of bike utility.

I average 10-18 miles 6 days a week on a Giant FR series which is very light and quick. To this point, my riding has been for fitness and leisure. It's been fun eliminating trips I'd normally hop in my car for, but adding utility makes me think I may need a different bike with something to haul a weeks worth of groceries in.

Have any of you experienced this type of situation, and how did you transition to using your bike for utility? Do you think an e-bike might be a good investment given the long distances and terrain?

Thanks!

For that kind of haul and loads I would take a long look at an Xtracycle (http://www.xtracycle.com/) with the Stoke Monkey (http://cleverchimp.com/products/stokemonkey/)...when they come available again. It appears to me to be the best of both worlds.:thumb:

Aaron:)

A good solution is find someone you can carpool with to make once a month
supply runs to the store. While this is not all that common yet today it surely
will become more common as time passes.

I can remember folk's doing just this as a boy in the 50's. :thumb:

I've been pondering the idea of hitting the next town over to pickup groceries, but the 26 mile round trip is a bit discouraging. It's a different experience out here in the sticks where country roads are rough, hills are high, and even the nearest practical stop (a gas station) doesn't have much to offer in terms of bike utility.

I average 10-18 miles 6 days a week on a Giant FR series which is very light and quick. To this point, my riding has been for fitness and leisure. It's been fun eliminating trips I'd normally hop in my car for, but adding utility makes me think I may need a different bike with something to haul a weeks worth of groceries in.

Have any of you experienced this type of situation, and how did you transition to using your bike for utility? Do you think an e-bike might be a good investment given the long distances and terrain?

Thanks!

I wasn't familiar with the FR series, but looking at photos online it doesn't look like it's built for accessorizing with panniers, and I'm not sure if a trailer would hitch to it either. Depending on how interested you are in putting miles in, you could make frequent small load trips with a backpack. It wouldn't be very comfortable, but it would work.

Overall though I'd say for the distance you're talking about I'd consider getting a road bike with racks and some large panniers. 13 miles each way is a bit of a stretch even for a utility bike if you're doing it frequently (since they tend to be a bit heavier than road bikes).

Just do it a couple of times and I think you'll find it's not as hard as it seemed.

Works like that for me anyway, when I'm faced with something that seems intimidating.

For a task like this I would hook up either my Burley Flatbed, or Solo and go. I doubt the type of bike would really matter.

Much of my riding is done on elderly English heavyweight roadster bicycles and really if that's what you're riding all the time the question of bicycle weight is neither here or there. When it comes to carrying a load of groceries I'd much rather have a good solid bicycle under me than something that's going to twitch around and flex. Those old fashioned 28 inch wheels roll beautifully too :)

I would recommend a trailer so you can haul a cooler.
Xtracycles are no good for carrying coolers.

Find a friend to do the ride with and make a day of it.

Forget about getting a new bike, just get a trailer.

Agree, bicycle trailer. Build your own:

http://bikecart.pedalpeople.com

See pictures of mine in the Post your Trailer thread.

I would recommend a trailer so you can haul a cooler.
Xtracycles are no good for carrying coolers.

Not so. I was just browsing Xtracycle's site and they make a cooler for their system: http://store.xtracycle.com/_e/Biking_Essentials/product/CL-whblu/S_U_B_Cooler.htm

Plus, I'm sure you could bungie (sp?) a cooler to the top board if you wanted.

Another interesting option for a 'build your own' trailer is:

http://www.wicycle.com/cargo_diy_kit_bicycle_trailer.php

You don't have to be handy in the least.

Not so. I was just browsing Xtracycle's site and they make a cooler for their system: http://store.xtracycle.com/_e/Biking_Essentials/product/CL-whblu/S_U_B_Cooler.htm

Plus, I'm sure you could bungie (sp?) a cooler to the top board if you wanted.

The one Xtra makes is real thin, not much room for ice, or if filled with ice not much space for food.

The problem I've found in attaching a cooler to the snap deck is a lot of weight up high makes for twitchy handling.

My advice is to shop at the closer grocery store.

A trailer is the way to go in this case. You will hardly notice it on the way to the store and it will not put any strain on your bike (just a bit on your drive train). Even when it is loaded, it will be easy to haul except uphill. The Bob trailer is great but you don't want to overload the single wheel trailers, so if you are getting lots of groceries, get a used kid trailer or borrow one for a trail run.

I've been pondering the idea of hitting the next town over to pickup groceries, but the 26 mile round trip is a bit discouraging. It's a different experience out here in the sticks where country roads are rough, hills are high, and even the nearest practical stop (a gas station) doesn't have much to offer in terms of bike utility.

I average 10-18 miles 6 days a week on a Giant FR series which is very light and quick. To this point, my riding has been for fitness and leisure. It's been fun eliminating trips I'd normally hop in my car for, but adding utility makes me think I may need a different bike with something to haul a weeks worth of groceries in.

Have any of you experienced this type of situation, and how did you transition to using your bike for utility? Do you think an e-bike might be a good investment given the long distances and terrain?

Thanks!

With the mileage you are riding now, a 26 mile ride doesn't sound like too much of a stretch to me.

However, I don't know your age or fitness level.

I don't know if you're buying groceries for you, or the whole tribe.

I don't know what a week's worth of your groceries look like, when in a pile.

Personally, I only eat beans and rice, oatmeal, bananas and an occasional peanut butter sandwich, so, with a backpack, rear panniers and a rack, I can easily carry all I need.

The one Xtra makes is real thin, not much room for ice, or if filled with ice not much space for food.

The problem I've found in attaching a cooler to the snap deck is a lot of weight up high makes for twitchy handling.

a large cooler sitting on a wideloader works great.

I would recommend a trailer so you can haul a cooler.
Xtracycles are no good for carrying coolers.

My vote is for a Big Dummy AND a Trailer! :D:innocent:

I've been pondering the idea of hitting the next town over to pickup groceries, but the 26 mile round trip is a bit discouraging. It's a different experience out here in the sticks where country roads are rough, hills are high, and even the nearest practical stop (a gas station) doesn't have much to offer in terms of bike utility.

I'd start by weighing a typical grocery load. Or even several typical loads. Get a good idea of the typical volumes too. 90% of my grocery trips don't involve anything with an odder shape than a bottle of wine or a sixpack of beer. But if you're shopping for cases and flats of dried/canned goods, you could end up in a very different situation from me. I do end up with a lot of weight and quite often, but densely packed panniers stuffed with flour or rice just aren't going to behave in the same way.

About 30L of volume (mostly) covers our household of 2 hungry carfree types and I can get away with one grocery trip a week. If you are feeding more people or are eating less in the way of potatoes, beans, rice, tortillas and veggies, this may vary.

Most frozen stuff will last about a half hour (even in summer) with no extra help. For me, that 13 mile trip would be about an hour, so I'd want a cooler (to keep heat in) and/or ice packs (to up the thermal mass of COLD). If you're faster with a load, it *might* not be so critical. Keeping refrigerated stuff with the frozen items means I can save weight by not hauling a cooler. If I didn't have that option, I'd see about picking up an insulated bag style cooler to keep the delicate stuff in.

If there is a grocery store that's mostly uphill, go to that one. The trip home will be faster, because the extra weight gives you more momentum.

Sianelle is right about sturdy bikes. There are all kinds of good solutions for hauling stuff by bike, but a lightweight racy bike is pretty much never on the list. You can kind of fake it with a trailer, but on serious hills (10% grade or more probably), that might get iffy. Depends on your riding style and the trailer. I tend to prefer a rack and panniers, but I'm mostly feeding 2, and I limit impulse shopping by having a rule that stuff has to fit in the panniers.

Thanks for all the great advise guys! It sounds like I should probably work on a trailer or panniers and possibly a bike better equipped for hauling. A correction is that the bike is an "FCR" series not "FR" as quoted in the OT. Unfortunately there isn't a closer grocery store so I'm going to need a cooler and some experience hauling extra weight through country hills before I'll be comfortable with a full load.

There's a "dollar store" about 5 miles up the road which carries some basic items so I think I'll start there. I usually don't head that direction because the best route requires highway travel and the closest other routes are gravel and every direction but a straight line.

My 2 cents is ,,, I love my Nashbar Trailer, light and fast, hauls a good supply of groceries.
a large cooler will fit. with room to spare.

I've ridden my Worksman front-loading cargo trike to Walmart for groceries several times. It's only a couple of miles or so, and most of the way, I'm on a good bike path. But still, it is a pretty good workout coming back home with a load.

I can say that for me, it would be a real chore going 13 miles each way to get groceries, whether by cargo trike or bike. It would be okay to do once or twice when the weather was pretty, without any hills, etc. But much of the year, it'd just be a slow sweatfest that would take all the fun out of it.

I think a part of the success of doing stuff by bike is going to be planning actitivities that can be done by bike. I live about 32 miles from work. Theoretically, I could bike that distance, but for practical reasons, that just wouldn't work at all. If I want to bike to work, I need to work closer to home or live closer to work, and I think that's a similar situation to what you're facing with the shopping.

You might consider some other schemes to help. A lot of my weight when shopping is canned goods. If you drove over once a month and stocked up on canned goods, that might let you do the lighter shopping by bike in between times.

They sell insulated bags for groceries. You might be able to enhance one of those with bubblewrap and skip the ice chest.

For information, here's my load of groceries, pretty much a cart full:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/MiscBikePhotos/ThingC.jpg

I shop at the local store for spare of the moment items. 1 mile eack way.
Wally World once a week for lunch supplies. 8 miles each way.
Meat market every other Monday. 6 miles each way.
For ALOT of cangoods adn once a month stockpiling, I take the Caravan.

I used a cheap InStep Pronto trailer. Great, til its wheels fell off. This was used for hauling only, due to the Young Prince being too long legged for it. It went back to Wally World (thankfully I had the reciept) in exchange for a tag a long bike for the YP. So now, I'm without a trailer. Might build one from plans found here. Bike is pitifully not setup for racks or bags. Shame on GT for this. Otherwise, I really like my Nomad, except for its hideous color green.

Trailers are the way to go. I feel they are more stable than packing the bike down. I does improve the ride over a heavy bike. I feel sorry for my bike's tires and wheels now, with just carrying my fat ass around! Hate to see the poor things cry and moan when its me and a couple of cases of Diet Coke!

Jerry