Commuting - What unusual loads have you carried on your bike?

The Long Vehicle thread got me thinking--what kind of strange loads have you carried on your bike? Anything carried on your bike or person counts for this survey, whether by hand, backpack, pannier, trailer, head, teeth, etc. I'll get started:

Once I needed some compost for my garden, so I cycled over to the hardware store. I ended up buying two 50-lb bags of compost and lashing them to the frame of the bike. I then walked the bike home (only a few blocks).

Another time, the tire of my brother's rented bike blew out on a bike path while on vacation. We were about two miles from the bike shop and pressed for time. So I hefted the bike onto my shoulder, got back on my bike and rode back to the shop while my brother rode on the handlebars of his wife's bike. Got some strange looks for that one.

A few weeks ago my wife's bike was trashed by an inconsiderate cager (see Retribution thread for the full story). To get it home, I rested the frame on the seat of my commuter and used some rope and bungees to secure her bike on top. We then walked the mile and half back to our house. I felt like saying to each of the many staring masses "what, you act like you've never seen a bike tied to another bike before."

There have also been countless loads of groceries, a cat litter box tied to my front rack, toilet paper under my arm etc etc. I delight in finding ways to carry the biggest, oddest loads possible.

Let's hear your stories now....

A bicycle wheel.
It can just fit on the top of a rear rack fixed with bunji chords. You used to get special wheel racks that fitted onto the front fork, for club racers to carry their sprint rims to a race meeting.

Back when I commuted by bicycle regularly, I had a coworker call me at home. She had left her five iron at the pro shop of a golf course near my house. I rode down to the golf course to pick it up and then carried it in to work, bungeed to my top tube.

When I am at Purdue, I play Trombone at church every Sunday. We also practice on Thursdays. Typically, I will hook the trombone on the bar ends of my m*ng**se bike and ride on over to the church. It took some getting used to at first, but now I can almost ride without hands and can ride off minor drops (6-12 inches) without losing control. The problem is having that much of a weight difference SWINGING AROUND on the end of the bar.

When I mowed lawns as a summer job in high school, I pulled the push mower beside the bike with one hand several times. Riding on flat ground wasn't too bad. Riding up hills were a little tough. Riding down the gravel driveways was a little tough as well. Riding down the steep hill was interesting to say the least.

:eek: <-- I think I made that face a few times while riding down the steep hill!

Anybody ever pull a small car? I've always wanted to try. ;) !!! That's what I'll do on the Bike Forum Land! I'll be in charge of the Bike Pull!

I once carried a new HP printer (still in the box) bungeed to my rear rack. Rode down the main drag in Branson with all the tourists gawking at me.

I used to ride to the laundy-mat with my clothes in a big duffel bag on the handlebars. The bag has two metal rings where the shoulder strap attaches and they are spaced just perfectly so I can slip them onto the bar ends and rest the bag on the top tube. It makes steering a real bítch.

I have also carried numerous bike parts to and from the LBS; wheelsets, frames, etc.

Most of the time my rear rack is used for carrying books (bungeed to the top) or groceries (in panniers).

And sometimes I actually use my rear rack for it's intended purpose: touring with tent, sleeping bag, and panniers.

well...let's see. I've carried all of the following on my bike at one time or another:

- set of golf clubs
- two by fours and boards to make a ramp
- my new bike frame from the shop
- extra wheels
- a hamster in a cage

that's all I can think of right now.

BTW, my wife has carried thefollowing on her motor scooter:
- drafting table
- 5 or 6 large pillows for an upholstery project. (that was funny lookin')
- heres the best. My bike. last year my bike was stolen while I was on the way to work. When I got there I called and told her what had happened. Well, about 2 hours later my wife shows up at my office with another one of my bikes attached to her scooter with bungee cords. She said that she could not let me ride the bus home because some (insert curse here) stole my bike. Damn I love her!
:D :love:

I consider myself an "unusual load."

:lol:

I've taken some strange items to work on my bike:
2 Rubbermaid step stools to help me reach middle shelves (still
can't reach top shelves)
1 cat in a carrier bungeed to rear rack, rack trunk on top of cat
carrier
A new pooper scooper--- cars did give me extra clearance that
day
A 10 inch stack of newspapers to line cages with
And of course, all my odd-ball home-made bike lighting and
transport gear

OK, this one wasn't "commuting", but on a rec ride one day, eight of us each picked up a whole barbecued chicken and we carried them to the ride's end (about 14 more miles) for a post-ride pig out. I remember some fairly creative ways of doing it too, not to mention a lot more attention than usual from the dogs.

A common but out of the ordinary load: grocery.

We have two kids, and I usually shop once a week (except for vegetables, because we have supplies near home). So, I often come back home with 30-40 kg of groceries in 4 panniers. Panniers are easier than the kids' trailer, because I can sneak in the bike with panniers in the kitchen, park it near the fridge and unload it.


An unusual load:

a soup for 50 persons I carried to a church meeting, 7 km away from home, last February (on ice).

Regards,

Michel Gagnon

Originally posted by jacktaylor
OK, this one wasn't "commuting,"
OK, well this one is off topic, but I clicked on your homepage.

:cool:

I hope you get posting on this online freespeech website.

Me and my freind made a trailer to carry a canoe and out fishing gear. It was interesting seeing a 20 foot+ trailer behind a bike.

I consider myself an "unusual load."

for what i've read, yes you are.;) :beer:

When we bought our Labrador puppy (Gaspode the Wonder Dog - you can tell I'm a Pratchett fan), I carried him home in a backpack on my bike. He hardly struggled at all. I also carried a small potted tree once in the same backpack.

My wife cycle toured around Australia fully loaded, which isn't especially unusual, until she was given a guitar, which she strapped to the top of everything and continued on her merry, if slightly slower, way.

Well, the other day we were riding and my wife saw a rock she wanted in her garden. So, I put the 30 pound rock in the pannier and peddled merrily home!!:D

30 pounds !!! I hope there were no significant hills in your path.

Originally posted by cycletourist
30 pounds !!! I hope there were no significant hills in your path.

Nope - and anyway, it is no more than you would load on for a bike tour, right??

(It MIGHT have been 25 pounds, but I think it was close to 30.)

Mainly garden related:

four large terracotta pots (two in each pannier).

five hawthorn whips

trays of violas, pansies, delphiniums etc.

Richard

Take a look.

http://probicycle.com/images/fullbike.jpg

Your guess is as good as mine.
Cheese maybe?

just thishttp://www.airstream.net/images/cyclist.jpg

Jack, looks like clay pots. Welcome to the forums, Im a big fan of your site, hope to see you around more often.

th, I'm impressed, how did it handle the hills? ;)

On one trip, a tenor sax, an alto sax, a flute, piccolo, clarinet and stands for all of them. I was playing in a musical. I cycled very carefully, because it would have been an expensive crash! :o

On a seperate trip, I carried a garden table (flat packed) across town on my bike. But I didn't ride that time, just balanced the table on one pedal as I walked it back.

Ellie

When I graduated from college , I decided to become a juggler. I didn't have a car, so I bicycled to various festivals to perform my act.
I strapped my unicycle, propstand, my many props, and extra clothing, food, etc.. to the bike.
I used a lot of bungee cords. One of the items was a big suitcase, which I strapped to the rack first, and it made piling the other stuff on top of it much easier. It was an enormous amount of stuff, but when the stuff was all unloaded, it looked like even more stuff. Whenever I see photos of people hauling huge stuff on bikes in China , I think of those days.
At the end of the day, folks ask me where I parked, so they could help me carry some of the stuff to my car.
I would point to my bike, and they would go "Ha ha, no really, where did you park your car?"
When they realized it was no joke their jaws dropped.

I carried a crock pot of hot beans to work along with two dozen boiled eggs.

Up until last summer, I lived near the North Umpqua River in Roseburg, Oregon. I was about 300 yards away from the river, and my other hobby was scuba diving in the river. It was getting to be a pain to walk to the river with a double-tank aqualung scuba unit on and a weight belt of about 20 pounds. So I developed a new strategy, combining my two hobbies of bicycling and diving.

I had an old Schwinn Varsity at that time, which I had converted (again) to upright riding handlebars. It had a cheap rack, and it did not take too much ingenuity to hook up the diving rig to one side, and the weight belt to the other, and walk the rig to the river. It was much easier than walking with everything on, and I used it several times. At times I wanted to do some underwater photography, and would hoof the camera, case and strobe down there before getting into the water.

I've moved into the Portland Metro area now, so that's not possible any more. But I surely enjoyed that river, and miss my bicycle/diving adventures.

Originally posted by mike
I carried a crock pot of hot beans to work along with two dozen boiled eggs.
Sounds like one of those covered-dish things. :)

I love those things. I am a species (Cyclista bicycletta) that subsists on the leftovers from these work-related affairs.

I will eat anything, as long as it's cold and dead.

:eek:

Originally posted by LittleBigMan


I will eat anything, as long as it's cold and dead.

:eek:

Be careful with that one, Pete. I have seen some things on my travels that would make you faint.

The strangest loads that I have seen was on the Ride The Rockies. A group of guys called the Bad Boys, would pull into town every night. There was a group of five or six of them. One guy had a 50 gallon metal drum used for a barbeque grill. It probaly wieghed over 50 pounds. One guy had a radio, with a small generator for power. There was a guy with a cupboard that was full of liquior, he would pull up and start mixing drinks. There were a couple of others that I can't remeber, but these were the best. It was a big rolling party.
:beer:

I was out for a walk this weekend and I saw a teenager riding with two deep U shaped brackets attached to the left side of his bike. It reminded me of the pictures you see of the Viet Cong using bikes to carry supplies on the Ho Chi Minh trail. I was curious what he might carry with it, then I realized it is probably for a surfboard.

Mine are also of the gardening variety. I once carried a shrub on the back of my bike. The pot wasn't terribly large or heavy but the thing was about 5 feet tall and wide so it attracted a lot of stares. Another time I bought 2 large potted ferns at a farmers market, put one in each of the 2 baskets I had on the back of the bike. Then was looking at some other stuff when I noticed someone photographing my bike, which, I must say, did look quite attractive decorated with 2 lush green ferns on the back. The photograph was run in the newspaper! I've also carried kitty (in cat carrier) to the vet, who of course complained the whole way.

I carry a carton of beer.

See, that's what suicide levers are for !

(it's a classy look)

Originally posted by Richard D


trays of violas
Richard

When in Holland last year, saw a guy with a double bass strapped to his back on a bike (Sorry, couldn't resist the link)

We may have a winner here! Thank god it wasn't bear season!

Ive carried a lot of things but i think the most bozare ones are a computerdesk, 2 lazy boys on my back while riding went to the doc. a week later and had to have back theropy

I like to go to tag sales and flea markets, so I hook the trailer behind the bike and head out in serch of tresures. I have brought home lots of bikes and bike parts, a set of tires for my car, a stack of 1"x6"x72" lumber, a kitchen sink (really) and an apartment sized washing machine. Got the washing machine for free, they could not belive I would tow it home behind the bike.

A friend of mine who dose not drive (or bike) asked me to take her to the store so she could do some shoping. I was fine doing it every now and again, but it turned into a weekly thing, then twice weekly.... The last time she called I said "fine" The look on her face when I showed up on the tandem with the trailer behind! Made her ride the ten miles or so. So she could buy dog food, two fifty pound bags. Hmmm come to think of it she hasen't asked me to take her shopping for quite some time ;)

The best thing that we carry in the trailer is our holiday tree. We wrap the lower branches and stand it up in the trailer, then tie the tree to the trailer frame so it won't fall over. We get lots of smiles and waves riding home with our tree. Just don't try this on a windy day. It will blow you all over the road.

I have a Cycletote trailer equiped with brakes, its a big trailer and can carry more then I can pull. Or I would want to pull.

A piano move by bike:
www.chicagocriticalmass.org/gallery/pianomove.html

An apartment move by bike:
www.chicagocriticalmass.org/images/bikemovepan.jpg

And attached is another masser moving a washer and drier by bike.

Chicago Critical Massers often move masses with their bike.

Having read the posts, I can match some of the gardening, but the most unusual to me, was a dumpster dive for an end table, one of those big ugly ones as wide and tall as a section of a sectional couch. I didn't have bungie cords, but I did have old inner tubes I keep around for just such events. It was late at night so I wasn't really worried about cars passing and the like, but it was a good 5 mile haul over some slight hills. It sits presently doing its duties in my apartment.
I almost grabbed an old golf cart from a dumpster, for use as a trailer. I thought with some modifications it would work pretty well. I just never got around to getting it out of the dumpster.

I haven’t carried much, but on my first (and recent) bike tour I saw a sight. I was pedaling through a very poor section of Camden NJ. Going the other was an old guy on a bike. You could tell that he was not a ‘hobby cyclist’ - he was a poor guy trying to get around. He was carrying a full sized screen (storm) door. He held the door about 3/4 of the way back and had the front resting on the handlebars. Don’t know how he managed it but he was going along at a pretty good clip.

theres a guy round our way runs a lawn mowing bus. with a bike & trailer with his motor mower & edgers ect. in it, he even carts away the clippings, i seem him all over the place, riding up all the hills, in his gumboots too ! i bet he could go like lance on a road bike :D :D

I have carried a bike straped to my backpack while ballancing a case of beer on the top tube.
I went on a beer run and at the same time picked up a bike from a friends house that I needed to fix.

Slainte:beer:

uuuhhhhh....beavis......he said 'load' uhuhuhuhuhuhu