dygituljunky

Yesterday's was supposed to consist of a grocery store run and run to the craft store for my wife. Well, I stopped at the closest LBS for a bike computer and it took longer than I planned for the LBS to install it ("if I'm here, why not let them do it?")

With the new bike computer up and running, I was on my way, with only barely enough time for the grocery store run. But, alas, yesterday's ride doesn't count because I don't have pictures (I was running late).

Today's ride consisted of a 19.26 km/1 hour of riding/4-hour long round trip to the craft store, the cellphone store, lunch, back to the cellphone store, back to the grocery store for the stuff I forgot yesterday, and back home. Feels pretty good to have gotten that accomplished. I was really amused by people looking at me as if I had two noses and a very enthusiastic manager at the cellphone store who wanted to talk about his 10-mile bike ride with his dogs ().

And, to prove it happened:

dygituljunky

Our church hosts a Trunk or Treat event, i.e., trick or treating out of the trunks of cars (or off of tables for alternative transportation users) in the parking lot.

This morning, I went for a quick run to the store to pick up candy for Trunk or Treat. That whole trip took almost exactly 45 minutes.

I left the candy in the grocery pannier hanging on the bike. I hung the plastic kettle for the candy off of the handle on the back of the trailer. I packed the trailer up with my daughter's first Halloween costume (a cat outfit), the carseat, the kiddo helmet, toys to keep her occupied, a blanket in case she got cold, and two variations of my costume (so I could decide on the variant when I got there). I then called the church to make sure that we had a table available for us and ... DOH ... Trunk or Treat was last night. (The church calendar had a misprinted date ).

I'm really bummed about missing the event since it's the year of first everythings for my daughter.

Reynolds 

23kg dog food bag + 2 10l chlorine cans, 5 km. Later two more trips, 10kg vegetables & 12kg groceries in the front crate, about 10km each.

Lamplight

I also posted this in the trailer thread sticky, but here it is again. I've been wanting a desk or table for my computer and the drawing and writing I do, but I've been car free since I moved here about three months ago, so I hadn't gotten one yet. But last week I got my first trailer, a Burley Flatbed, and so today I finally bought a nice drafting table I had be admiring at an art supply store. I used the trailer the other day for a load of groceries that was probably heavier than this, but this was the first oversize item I've carried. It went well, and even in this bike-crazy town I got quite a few curious stares. But I made it home safely, and the table is perfect.

dygituljunky

I have rack envy... Which front rack is that?

Lamplight

That is a Surly front rack. Actually, so is the rear rack. They are great but SO heavy.

dygituljunky

Excellent. Thanks!

squirtdad

Quick trip to get bunny food and litter, with quick stop at library on way back.... 6 miles or so.

kevbo

I needed to get some treats for the ghouls and gobblins due to show up on my doorstep last evening. Costco is the closest store to my office, so i went there at lunch time. It is impossible to go to Costco and buy one thing. Normally I take the trailer when I go to Costco. Not yesterday. I took these in the garage when I got home. I had the cans on the rear rack when I went back to work. The corn was catching my heel, and the front wheel wanted to shimmy, so I moved them to the front for the five miles home. They rode nicely there. .
Two loaves in a wine box, so they don't end up wheat wads:

dygituljunky

Brought the recycling to work.

The last mile will be in the trunk of a company car due to timing.


(See it bigger)


(See it bigger)

Easy Peasy

Took 2 weeks of cardboard and catalogs to the recycling ctr. The recycling manager, says, "Now I've seen everything!". A fellow recycler commented, "he's an inspiration." : -)

Sixty Fiver

The local arts school is putting on a production of Willy Wonka and contacted me as they heard I might just have the right bicycle they needed for their show and have worked with some of these folks in the past on other productions when they needed vintage bicycles.

The school is close by and they offered to give me a ride home after I dropped off the Worksman (a gift from my old employer) but I told them I had things covered...



After I dropped off the cargo trike I pulled my folder out of the box and had a pleasant pootle home.



The trike spent a lot of time outdoors before I received it this spring and needs some touching up so I told the crew that they could paint it in any manner they liked and all the trike really needs is a new back wheel as while it was on the street someone kicked the crap out of the back wheel or tried to tear it off the post it was locked to.

Am looking forward to seeing how they repaint the Worksman... said they would touch up the wheels and paint the cargo box but would leave the frame alone as it is in nice shape.

dygituljunky

(Pseudo-cross-posted with the "How was the commute today? 2011 edition" thread.)

I brought this home from a grocery store about a mile closer to home from work. Total distance is approximately 9.25 miles or 15 km.

hotbike

A few hours ago, I stuffed my panniers and handlebar basket with all those plastic grocery bags you're supposed to recycle, and took them back to the stop&shop . Both my panniers and the recycling bin at the stop&shop are made of Corrugated Plastic (Coroplast) ! I do this every couple of months, no , like once every 6 months. It's easier than using my car because I can't get the used bags to the car, I have nothing to carry them in. I just stuff them into my panniers right at the end of my kitchen countertop, where they ... (accrue , accumulate, collect , pile up, gather ? ) I can't think of the right word, but the pile just gets bigger and bigger.

hopperja

I took a load of stuff to Goodwill and the recycle place. The bottom bin is the Goodwill stuff (clothing, shoes, toys, etc), the middle bin is glass to be recycled, and the top bin is plastic to be recycled. I'm not sure how much it all weighed.

I made the thing on the front of the trailer to cover my 4 year old son strapped into a car seat. I originally wanted to make a PVC pipe frame for a Bob jogging stroller cover, but when that didn't pan out I just covered the PVC with corrugated plastic. It keeps the rain/wind/cold off of him for winter utility trips.

11.9 miles round trip, 1 hr 10 mins

I've decided to upgrade the handlebars to a more neutral position. I ordered some Velo Orange Milan bars from Greentire Bikes (no link because it's a scam). After waiting for them for three weeks after my credit card had been charged, I was able to cancel the order. They had no intention of filling the order and said they'd refund my money if I wanted. I emailed that I did want a refund (obviously, who wouldn't?). I have to wait 10 days before disputing the charge, but as of now - 7 days after receiving confirmation of the order cancellation - no credit on my billing statement. My advice, steer clear of Greentire Bikes.

I re-ordered the Milan bars from a different company and am looking forward to getting them.

dygituljunky

Wow, I love that cover. I'm going to have to look at doing something like that for my little one. I love the Wike trailer but it fills up quickly with the carseat or groceries, usually not both. If I got a BikesAtWork trailer for my next bike (a delta recumbent trike), I would have to fabricate a center-pull tow arm to replace the factory tow arm...

I think I need to take a welding class...


As for me, one of the bolt that connects my pannier rack to the rear dropout came out when I was at the grocery store last night. I made it home, rattling the whole way but I wasn't confident enough in the other bolt to ride in to work tonight ... today was a sag-wagon day.

hopperja

Thanks for the positive feedback.

If you look closely, you can see a little piece of red on the side at the back. That's because each side is a door, and the velcro holds the door closed. If I had thought about it yesterday, which I didn't but I did when I made the cover, I could have used a couple of small straps (toe clip straps or the like) to hold down the cover. Then my son could have easily gotten in and out via the door.

Why do you need a center pull tow arm? I bolted the tow arm on, and it almost hits the bike at center. I could easily have bolted it a little more to the right (right = if I was standing on the trailer looking at the bike) and it would put the tow arm on center. You'd just need a way to put the BAW hitch on the back of your bent. BAW would probably work with you to figure out a solution...

It's funny, I have a basket on a Pletscher rear rack on my Raleigh 20. One day I had my four year old son riding in the basket and I lost a bolt where it attaches by the rear axel. Despite it being an old rack carrying ~50 pounds of weight and missing a bolt, we were able to make it home OK.

dygituljunky

Thanks for the details on the doors.

Here's the dilemma: on a bike or tadpole trike, there's only one rear wheel so the BAW tow arm doesn't hit anything when you turn left. On a delta, the arm hits the left wheel on a left turn. If BAW is willing to come up with a solution for a hitch to avoid hitting the left rear wheel on a delta trike, I'm more than happy to lean on them for the work. Until I can get the delta I want (Greenspeed Anura), this is a non-issue, especially since I don't have a BAW, either. But it's also good to know about options...

I probably could have made it fine with the one bolt; I DID make it home with just some rattling with a fairly heavy grocery bag on the missing-bolt side on Thursday. I just didn't want to take the risk of further failure causing a lot of damage to the bike or to me. I now have a pocket full of bolts from my LBS so I'll replace the bolt and be back on two wheels for the commute in to work tonight.

On another note, the other thing I need to do is get some more steeds in the stable in case one gets stolen or damaged. This very real possibility has been worrying me as of late since I'm using the bike more.

Oh, and so I'm not thread-jacking, the sag-wagon utility run was for bolts to get the HPV back in service.

hopperja

No pictures today, but I did a 7.6 mile utility ride today.

I had to ride to a neighboring town to pick up a drywall texture machine from a friend of mine. It was 3.8 miles there up a long steep hill, took me 38 m 38 s to get there. The way back was much more palatable - again, 3.8 miles, but only took 16 m 20 s due to the help of the hill. When we started it was about 32 degrees F out, and had warmed up to about 35 by the time we got back.

We also hit a new PR for speed with the BAW trailer... 34 MPH with 150 pounds on it. It was very stable. With all the weight going down such a long, steep hill I'm glad I had disc brakes.

owenfinn

Managed to get this 170 cm 25kg carpet onto the rack and about 15kg of assorted stuff into the go-getter bag.

My wife was mortified but hey - I was a hero when I got it all home.

Easy Peasy

^^ Fantastic!

I just rode to Best Buy for a new phone and later to the dentist.

dygituljunky

Yesterday I rode a plastic tub and a garbage bag full of clothesover to the Salvation Army ... in the rain. I then ran to the bike shop to get a light and was headed home to switch the empty plastic tub for the carseat. Just after I passed the daycare, BANG, there goes my rear tire. So I walk-of-shamed back to the daycare, sat the twirpus in the plastic tub, and walked home.

Round trip 30-ish km, 1 hour and 45 minutes, excluding the walk.

But, dagnabbit, I forgot to take pictures.

owenfinn

Here`s one more shot of the carpet haul as we stopped to make sure it was secure.

It was about a 7 mile ride. I thought the steering would be jittery but it really rode remarkably well.

hopperja

Took two cartons of glass to the recycle center, with some cardboard and a small box of glass as well. I had my 4 year old son strapped in a carseat on the rear.

I've found a high visibility utility vest to fit perfectly around a carseat, giving the back of the seat a noticeable surface with some reflectivity.

When we left, we went to the park. While he played, I surfed the internet on my Asus Aspire One 722 (early Christmas present) tethered to my Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V phone. While the phone is only 3G, I was pleasantly surprised as to how fast pages loaded on the Asus. Having such a fast and portable computer gives me all the more reason to get out of the house more often.



Enjoy!

hopperja

I have a Raleigh 20 that I've completely rebuilt. I have a beverage crate (18" long x 12" wide by 4.5" deep) affixed to the stock Pletscher rack. I've put my 50 lb four year old son in the crate (with a leather belt for back support) for 20 mile rides. When we do this, the seat rails are handles for him to hang on to. One time we actually rode with one of the rack stays not attached because one of the bolts had fallen out. Despite this, the rack has held him well. As they say, they don't make them like they used to!