hockeyteeth

Best load ever. I never get to haul anything fun, just groceries. I do, however, plan on borrowing my friend's pedicab soon to make some money towing drunk people around downtown.

Ender686

Last Memorial Day I brought the cookout: Two 12s of beer, two folding beach chairs, charcoal grill (Weber kettle type), charcoal, lighter fluid and a longboard. I used the Trek Rocket trailer (I got it on the cheap) folded flat for everything but the beer, which went on the front and rear racks. It was only about 3 miles, but I got all sorts of cat calls up and down the hill.

Artkansas 

I agree there. In my early career I used to carry military IC chips on my bike between sites of the company I worked for. These were designed to be used in attack helicopters so I suppose they were designed to be a little shock resistant. Carried in my backpack, I never lost a chip. Lashed to the rack, I had some failures of the chips after carrying them on the bike.

Lamplight

Not that unusual, but the most I ever carried was a bunch of Christmas presents:

Simplebiker

Mine aren't as bizarre as others, but I'll post.

Every week, I go to community concert band practice immediately after work, so if I ride my bike to work, I also take my alto sax. Fortunately, I have a backpack case for that. So I have one pannier with clothes. A briefcase pannier with any papers and my sax on my back. Recently, I started taking a clarinet with me also. I was considering looking for a case that would hold my saxophone and my clarinet and hoping I could find one with backpack straps. That probably would have run me over $300, but I got wise and figured out that I could strap it to my rack with a bungee cord. I haven't gotten the serious motivation to get a trailer yet, but that may happen some day.

I didn't think it was bizarre, but I took an broken flat screen monitor to be dropped of for recycling a couple of weeks ago. I probably would have rented a car if I were taking more things, but when I saw the traffic, I'm glad I didn't get the car.

ggriffinslo

the largest and most unwieldy things I've acarried happen to be garden equipment. I transported a rototiller across town in my BoB trailer. Last weekend I traded in a gas lawn mower for a battery powered electric one at an Air Pollution Control District event. We rode our tandem pulling the trailer with the old gas lawn mower in it. On the return trip we carted the new electric model still in the box. Got quite a few looks both ways.

veganboyjosh

i've thought about building some sort of lumber carrying trailer for my bike. it would basically be two wheels that share an axle, about 36" apart. all i'd have to do is tie down the back of the load to the trailer, and figure out a way to tie the front of the load to my rack. doesn't matter if they're 16 ft 2x4's or what. sort of the same engineering behind a semi trailer's wheels...

Novakane 

Well, the system had no harddrives in it and I took the ride slow over a route I knew quite well. It was very well cushioned. I think I may have placed a pillow under it between the case and the rack. Either way, I'm still using that system over a year later, so no damage was incurred.

recumbentrike2

Several times I've used my mountain bike to pull a two-wheeled cart ten miles one-way loaded with sawdust. We've got some pretty steep hills in south-central Kentucky!

bmclaughlin807

Add two grocery panniers full of food and a 6 pack of toilet paper and that's a fairly common load for me.

Most unusual? My wife's bike:


Hauled it about 20 miles that way.

gerv 

My job for this afternoon is to travel over to the garden center and then figure out how to bring back a dozen transplants. I don't think my panniers will work at all here. I'm thinking cardboard box bungeed to the rack.

TuckertonRR

In Atlanta!? I spent a month down there 2 years ago, and the only bikers I saw were weekend roadies, never saw any commuters, _at all_. Surprising to me.

roseskunk

when i was a kid, must be nearly forty years ago, my mother handed me a note and told me to ride to the drugstore and hand the note to the woman behind the counter. i jumped on my schwinn stingray and rode to the store and handed her the note. the woman walked me down the aisle and handed me the largest box of 'kotex' sanitary pads that they had. if i remember correctly the box was bright blue and i swear the damned box was three feet tall. they put it in a bag for me but it stuck out half a foot on the top. i wasn't quite sure what they were used for, but i did know that the weren't something that a ten year old boy should be carrying on his bike. fortunately i make it home again without running in to any of my friends...

Phantom808

a live parrot.

that's the weirdest thing I ever carried on my bike.

Artkansas 

What did the Parrot have to say about riding on a bike?

watermelon

About three times a year I have to haul a 120lb. crate of industrial cutters into town to the Fedex drop off. I put the crate in a Blue Sky cart and ride 4.5 miles. I do 400 feet of climb, mostly on 7% grade. Thank god for granny gears!

Cosmoline

Rifles. And lately I've been running down to the range with a double barrel smokepole and 2 pounds of FFG black powder. If a car hits me hard enough, we're BOTH going up!

Mr York

I have a kid trailer. I folded it down flat and lashed on a chest and moved it a little over a mile. The next week I used the same setup to take a bunch of boxes of junk to a storage shed a few miles away. Recently I strapped on a huge desktop computer to my rear rack and took it over to my sisters place.

peace_piper

I take blankets that are too large (or thick) for my home washer to the laundromat up a hill 30 minutes away. I put my laundry basket on my back rack and bungee the blanket in.

I_bRAD

I brought 3 30L bags of triple mix home the other day. Only 2kms, but getting started was a trick! Felt like the rack was made of spagetti. 150kg capacity my ass.

coldfeet

I went to the superstore the other night and a little boy with his mother made a comment when he saw me stuffing my shopping in the panniers, his mother explained what I was doing, and said I can carry a lot of stuff in my bags. ( she stressed it a bit for the little guy ) I then walked into the gardening section and her expression was interesting when I came back with a 32Litre bag of cedar mulch and proceeded to strap it on top of the rack/panniers. When I paid for the mulch in full cycling garb, the cashier said "How the hell are you going to carry that on a bike?!" I pointed at the bike and said "watch."

Another time I bought a 48inch double fluorescent light fixture. I used the elastic straps to mount it on my back pack and rode it home with some what of a forward lean. Going under a low bridge on the pathway, I was so intent on keeping low and not snagging that I missed the best straight line I've ever had, good looking girl rides past, ( I wasn't going too fast ) she says "that's quite a package" I missed it completely! just said something about no headroom. D'oh!

Buglady

This thread is full of inspiration

Best I've done so far is 30 lbs of porduce - this was before I got the big panniers, so there was a bit of juggling involved. And the people at the pet food store think I am completely insane for carrying cat litter and cat food home on my bike!

Lamplight

Ah, that's a great feeling. One of the first times I got a full load of groceries on my bike, there was a lady parked very nearby, watching me from her idling vehicle. I could see a look of amazement/confusion as eventually the entire shopping cart load disappeared into various bags, and I rode off.

Sianelle 

When I was still running my old trike with 20 inch rear wheels I hauled an 8 foot long hardwood workbench home. The new owners of a house a few streets over didn't want the bench and put it on the side of the road with a 'Free' sign on it. Fortunately it was fairly flat going to get back home, but I still managed to bend the rear axle due to the weight of the thing. It's a really good solid bench and it now has pride of place in my workshop

wahoonc

That is always fun!

Aaron