I know I've seen these in Philly. Well, they might not have been pizzas but a lot of the chinese take-out places used bikes for delivery. Anyway, the reason I'm posting is because there is a fantastic pizza place about 2 miles from where I work. It's pretty much on my way home too (about a 12 mile round trip by car). Right now, if my girlfriend and I want pizza on Friday night after work, we need to hop in the car to go get it because she doesn't ride and wouldn't want to eat at the shop either (I'm working on the riding part, I like to eat at home too though). So, I started looking online at pizza bags and was just wondering if anyone else has done this? It seems like for about $40 I can get a nice insulated bag large enough to carry two pizzas and supposedly keep them warm for 45 minutes even in cold weather (so says the ad). The only problem would be securing the bags to my rack. Any helpful hints? Someone on this site has to have done this already. Most of you are way more creative than me I can't wait for the comments from passing cars and the neighbors and the satisfaction of figuring out one more situation where I can ditch the car.

Maybe make a wider platform for your rear rack out of a cookie sheet or something similar. Cut holes in it to strap it to the rack, then a couple of straps going around each way to secure the pizza bag. I actually did something somewhat similar using the bottom piece of a wire basket/box. It was about 2'x2' flat grid of wires(like a piece of shopping cart), so connecting everything up with the straps was super easy. I haven't tried the set up for pizza, but, now that you've got that idea in my head, it is inevitable.

I am not sure if it would be the right size, but maybe you could zip tie a plastic flat from a nursery (the plant kind ) to the rack and bungie the pizza bag to the flat?

I like the wire grid idea. Two or 3 well placed bungee cords would secure the bag easily. Although, even without the platform I guess the bungees could hold the bag in place using the carboard inside to provide the structure. The only issue left then is bringing the setup to work with me so I have it for the ride home. I wonder how compressible those bags are. If I could roll it up, I'd be set. Otherwise I'm stuck going home first to get it, or riding to work with it on the back of my bike.

Is the pizza case kind of rigid, or is it floppy? I ask that because if it's floppy, the bungee cords will crush the box on the edges where they turn.

Maybe a prettier solution than the rigid wire/mesh platform is to fabricate something out of aluminum stock that you can drill some holes into. Run the members perpendicular to the rack, and bend them up at the ends of the pizza case.

An aside: What effect does the bumpy ride have on a pizza? Does the cheese "creep" off?

Also, in Philadelphia, I think the guys have special bikes manufactured by Bilenky to transport Pizzas. I've also heard of a guy at Domino's that put thumb loops onto a regular pizza bag and kinda just kept it on his handlebars. I'm not sure if that's feasible for your application.

This may is the way i would make a nice, sturdy carrier:
Pop Rivet the seams of the bag every 10" or so (1/8 inch should be fine) the go to ikea and get a cookie sheet/griddle. Next go to your local harware store and get 1/8" threaded rod, washers and nuts. Fix the threaded rod to the cookie sheet/griddle (Nut->Washer->cookie sheet->washer->nut Make sense?) make sure the threaded rod sticks up enough so that it will fit in the pop rivets you made with some room for expansion. Slip the rivets on your pizza bag over the rod and put a washer+nut on the top of the rod to keep the bag in place.

Now you have a full system that can be removed easily from your rack and wont crush your pizza

This may not sound quite right to people but I like to trim things to fit... so my answer to this would be cut the box down the middle with half the pizza remaining in each side, stack the halves on top of each other with the open sides faceing one direction, cover the open side with foil or something and shove them in the insulated carrier. Those things are soft (as far as i can tell from seeing the pizza delivery guys with them) so you can kinda fold up the end that's not being used. Im guessing that would fit on the back of a bike strapped in with bungees. If you're worried about the squish factor, the pizza place might have a couple of those plastic peices they put in the center to keep the box from sticking to the middle fo the pizza.

An inexpensive alternative to buying a bag, is to make one out of Reflectix insulation. Large rolls are available at most big box home goods stores, and probably local hardware stores as well.

Reflectix is like bubble wrap sandwiched between mylar-its pretty effective, and very easy to form, using only tape to connect pieces. Duct tape works ok, but I like to use wide aluminum tape (it sticks better to the mylar).

I've used this system to make wraps ("cozzies") for Nalgene bottles&dinner bowls for use bacpacking/cycle touring. Food & drinks stay very very HOT for a long time-too hot to eat without leaving the lid off for a bit.

A homemade insulated box would probably be lighter than a commercial ("delivery guy") model, as they are also covered in vinyl. If you plan it well, you could make it to roll up very nicely on your rear rack untill needed.

I'd guesstimate a large roll costs 10$, a roll of aluminum tape 4$. You probably have scissors about. The left over insulation can be used about your house for its intended purpose. It's super handy, especially in colder climates, for adding simple insultaion to things like garage doors&such.

Our grocery store sells huge lightweight insulated bags so folks can get their frozen goods home without melting. I bought one to carry frozen dinners to work on my bike. I believe the bags were about $3 each and they're big enough to carry a pizza.

While watching Spiderman 2 last night, I noticed that Spiderman used bungee cords.

Some very good ideas here. On days that we've had pizza for lunch at work, I've taken the leftovers home using a method similar to what "No Exit" described. But, I think that could get quite messy with a fresh out of the oven pizza. I guess I'll never know until I try though. The Reflectix insulation sounds very promising. I might give that a try before dropping $40 on a premade bag that might not work as well as advertised.

a giant peice of plywood, some structural ribs, two plywood slats, bolts/nuts/washers. a drill, and come wrenches.

I bet you can figure it out


(oh, and make sure your rack can handle the load)

Gads Camel you always have great ideas

Hey thanks! Just building upon an idea from a hiking site.

Delivery?

I do plan on making a bike with a long enough rack to grab some pies with soon....just gotta find that perfect old 10-speed with rack eyelets. Something I can turn into a nice beater bike.

Where's your sense of adventure, Roody? Actually, this place doesn't even deliver so it's not an option. And delivery still uses some gas and involves another car on the road which I was hoping to avoid. After all, the root cause of the problem is me being lazy and self-indulgent.

My rear rack, which is just a standard one from the bike shop, has a flat piece of metal along the top, and this flat top of the rack has a few holes in it. A piece of 1x4 board fits on the top of the rack, and you can attach it to the rack with some bolts through the board, through the holes on the rack, and then with locking nuts underneath. If you attach such a 1x4 scrap of board to your rack, the problem has been reduced to what you now can attach to that board. That opens up the possibilities of other kinds of fasteners. (I have done this myself, so this is not just theory.)

So here is an idea. Attach the 1x4 to the rack. Get a piece of quarter-inch perforated hardboard (pegboard) cut slightly larger than your pizza box. Screw the pegboard to the 1x4. Put the pizza box on the pegboard platform. Hold it on with bungee cords hooked into the holes of the pegboard (remember that the pegboard is larger than the box).

I use this idea to attach my classic milk crate to the rear rack. The pegboard platform provides a little more support to the bottom of the milk crate. I need the support because sometimes I actually do haul home some milk in the classic milk crate.

My gocery store sells these too. I'd suggest trying them before dropping $40 on a "pro" pizza bag.

As for holding it... would you want to carry the oversize pizza rack all the way to work and back so you don't have to make an extra trip, or would you ride home, affix the wide rack, then go to the pizza place?

In any case, all you need is some 3/8" plywood and some velcro. The plywood can be cut to a square slightly smaller than the pizza box. Drill holes about 1" diameter or more through which you can thread velcro around the rack's ribs. basically, one end of the velcro strap will be permanently fixed to the bottom of the plywood. The strap then loops around the rack in four places (four corners), through the holes in the plywood to the top, and catches the mating velcro strips on the top. This will secure the plywood to the rack. Then, just use long velcro straps that loop around the pizza box (use 2 or 4 straps) to hold it in place.

This design *could* be modified with hinges so that the plywood folds down on the edges when you're not using it...

And I noticed this weekend that they're only two bucks each.

slightly (at a tangent) OT

Domino's in the city(queen st ec4 london) deliver pizza by bike up to 15 at a time.

they use 10 custom bikes and trailers from Pashleys (https://www.pashley.co.uk/products.html) which they figure saves them GBP200 per week in fuel costs alone.

Read London Cyclist magazine Aug/Sep 2005 for a more full report. You may be able to get a copy from office@lcc.org.uk

Otherwise the commuter behind you could get a pizza-face

lol - better than pizza legs cos they're still au naturel (hairy as...)

and no these aren't my pins

Step 1 of the pizza bag creation has been completed. I took Camel's idea and purchased some Relfectix insulation ($25 for a 2' x 25' roll) and some aluminum duct tape ($15 for the roll). With this amount of material, I should be able to make multiple pizza bags (in case my first effort doesn't go as well as planned) and a few other insulating bags, namely one to fit my Arkel Bug for carrying home other hot food items if I ever need to. I should have plenty left over for other projects making this $40 investment a much better deal than the off-the-shelf pizza bag.

The plan is to make the bag large enough to fit two pizzas but with velcro straps on the sides to take up the slack for when I'm only carrying one. I'm still not decided on the exact construction but I'm thinking of making a sleeve that slips over the box and is then inserted into the bag. The bag will have a flap that folds over and closes with velcro. Inside of the bag, I'll glue a board with a threaded stud sticking out of it to secure it to my rack with a wing nut. Ideally, this whole deal will fold up and fit into my Bug or at least compress down small enough (possibly utilizing the side velcro straps) to not look too strange while riding into work. From the shouts and honks I get every day, drivers notice me enough already

Youch...pizza-legs...how'd that happen?

no idea - not my pins

anyway about the dominos pizza by bicycle

https://www.fisheroutdoor.co.uk/publi...on=item&id=375



Want hot pizza? Get it home delivered by bike

Want hot pizza? Get it home delivered by bike Domino's Pizza today rolled out the formal launch for a bicycle pizza delivery scheme in its new City of London store. This is modelled on the bike delivery service provided by the Domino's Pizza stores on Manhatten Island where bicycle delivery beats every other form of rapid response through congested streets. Domino's Pizza is to encourage more of its franchises to take up bike delivery. It is estimated that a bicycle pizza delivery in the City of London will shave up to five minutes off delivery times and could save the store thousands of pounds a year in fuel and maintenance costs.

There are also health benefits for the delivery riders, not to mention the financial benefits to Pashley Cycles, one of Britain's last remaining bicycle manufacturers. Pashley has modified its Mailstar bikes to carry pizzas instead of post.

Andrew Mallow, operations director of Domino's Pizza said:

"Getting hot pizza to customers safely and on time is what the Domino's Pizza business is all about. Congestion in London has always been a big challenge but we've seen how successful bicycles have been in New York and hope to replicate the scheme here in the UK."

The bicycle delivery scheme was trialled for two months in the City of London store over the Christmas period. It was deemed so successful that Domino's is encouraging its franchisees to introduce similar schemes UK-wide.

Amir Zarinabad, franchise owner of the City of London store, said: "Our drivers love it because they have seen improvements in personal health and general well-being. Customer response to the scheme has also been positive. They certainly seem to appreciate the speed of delivery, which is much faster than by moped or car in heavy congestion."
BIKEBIZ always first with bike news

13 April 2005