Anybody carry hockey equipment on their bike?
 

My biggest barrier to being car free in calgary is lugging my hockey stuff (In TO it's fairly straightforward for me to take the subway, get a ride or flag a cab). Does anybody here do this, and if so what is your solution?

For those of you who don't play (and why not? it's lots of fun!) my equipment bag is approximately 42''*24"*24", and weighs 33 lbs, and I have two hockey sticks that are about 60" long.

If there is an affordable solution, I would love to hear it - my ride to hockey involves riding up a fairly long, steep hill (USGS doesn't provide elevation data for calgary, so I couldn't figure it out - maybe 100-200 ft vertical) ((from kensington to 16th ave N for those of you who know the city), so whatever solution would have to be robust enough to be controllable down a long hill with some curves and an intersection at the bottom.

bob trailer
nashbar has a pretty decent/inexpensive one

B.O.B. trailer or an Xtracycle. I have seen kids on BMX riding to practice with all their gear...

strap your hockey stick along your top tube, and get a rack for the bag (though you might have problems swinging your leg over)

Oh yaahh.. Casey Jones style for me. :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones_(TMNT) 1980's is calling me again. ;)



Zero_Enigma

If you have a rear rack couldn't you fasten the sticks to the rack to give you a longer base. Then you could mount your bag on top of that. You may have to experiment a bit to find the best way to fasten everything down in place.

Not exactly on topic but when visiting Hawaii I was amazed to see contraptions on bikes (in use!) for schlepping around surfboards.

In an Italian mountain village, I have regularly seen locals riding with skis and snowboards strapped to their frames. Otherwise, my everyday backpack load in a rack basket varies in the range 20-36 lbs.

I KNEW it had to be a Canadian starting this thread :)

When going to the driving range, I'll strap a few golf clubs to the top tube by their grips, and bungie the heads to the rear rack to keep them from bobbing around. Hockey sticks are similar. A BOB would rock, though, and I've been thinking of getting one myself to carry my bag to the course.

Some of my hockey mates ride with their equipment on (except for skates, helmets and gloves). But they all live quite close to the rink.

I have also been thinking about this problem for a couple of years now, but have no good solution. It's just too much stuff.

Rajman, I did this all the time. I use a mission backpack hockey bag for cycling to the rink and tape the hockeystick down the length of the bike. Get a whole lot of weird looks as I was doing it in London, UK at the time. People are not so used to seeing the kit as they are back home in Toronto.

But, it was only about 3km to the rink. If it was seriously farther I would of gone for the trailer route.

EDIT,

Sorry just read the part about the long hill and decent. In that case it may not be an option as a good side wind can through you a little off kilter. And, I imagine in Calgary you can get some good gusts going. But, could add to the whole excitement of the thing :D, I would go with pinkrobes option of xtracycle. A mate has that down here and its not a bad addon at all.

EDIT 2,

Or how cool would this be!, hookup some kind of an axle and wood/hard base in the bottom of the bag. Stick on some 20 inch wheels to the thing, add a handle that can hookup to some sort of hitch. Get to the rink... unlatch and wheel the sucker in...

The first thing that came to my mind was the Xtracycle, but RayB's idea sounds good too, although here is another twist on that - make two widgets, the first would attach to a pair of hockey sticks and that would attach to the seatpost with a mount like the BOB trailers, the other would have a pair of small wheels - 16" or so, and would attach to the other end of the sitcks, then the bag would mount on top of the sticks and get hauled along behind the bike, you would essentially be turning your hockey bag and sticks into the trailer. If you carry more than 2 sticks, they could be attached on top of the bag.

Wow, there are other hockey players on here, awesome.

I play with guys who ride to the rink.

They wear their equipment and tape the sticks to the top tube. I highly doubt this would work when it's cold as you'd freeze you a$$ off leaving the rink after playing a game.

I'd have to agree that the only way would be to get a trailer. Also, depending on the type of game, you could scale down your equipment which might help. For example, I use a rolley hockey girdle and pants with no shoulder pads for pickup hockey. For league games, I cannot imagine how to get my 'real' gear to the rink on a bike without a trailer.

Wow, there are other hockey players on here, awesome.

I play with guys who ride to the rink.

They wear their equipment and tape the sticks to the top tube. I highly doubt this would work when it's cold as you'd freeze you a$$ off leaving the rink after playing a game.

I'd have to agree that the only way would be to get a trailer. Also, depending on the type of game, you could scale down your equipment which might help. For example, I use a rolley hockey girdle and pants with no shoulder pads for pickup hockey. For league games, I cannot imagine how to get my 'real' gear to the rink on a bike without a trailer.

I don't carry hockey gear but I have carried fencing gear -- which is not as heavy but also fairly bulky.

I have a set of grocery bag panniers, and if I arrange stuff carefully inside my fencing bag, I can just squeeze it into one of the panniers. Most of the bag sticks out of the pannier of course, but it doesn't wobble around too much, and most of the weight is at the bottom of the bag.

I'm not sure if it would work with a hockey bag, but it might be worth a try.

Everytime I think about possibly packing up the bike and riding to the rink for the weekly game I remember one important fact: I'm a goalie. :eek:

I don't even like lugging the gear from the car to the building, let alone from my house to the rink (9.5 mi.) via bike. As a compromise, sometimes I'll leave my gear at the rink in one of the secured league lockers and just ride to the rink on gameday. Otherwise, the bag gets shoe-horned into the backseat of my Cavalier.

But think of the look on peoples faces as you ride your bike in goalie gear!!!

it's just too far for me to ride with all my gear. I live in Harvest Hills and play near the university. A Chariot could probably be modified to do it.

If only I could figure out a way to carry my 44x44x20 bag of goalie gear to the rink. I don't think there's a bike trailer in existence that can handle that. Hell, some cars choke at its very sight.

yeah?

http://www.bikesatwork.com/bicycle-d...rs-in-snow.jpg
http://www.bikesatwork.com/bicycle-d...ing-center.jpg

http://www.bikesatwork.com

lol I live near the university and play near harvest hills! However, I was just thinking about how to get the stuff to the Oval for UofC games... I'm not really considering a looooong haul with the stuff - I'm way too burnt out for a strenuous ride AFTER a game.

Hehe - I have a hard time getting my bag (just normal size) into the back seat of a cavalier.

GSBB? I'm Glovesave,Right.

You have absolutely no idea how tempting the notion is, if not for the bulk of the leg pads. But on a related note, you should have seen the looks people give you when driving with your catching glove on to break it in. I just smiled and waved (with the glove hand, of course) and went on my way.

It's been my experience that alot of things have a hard time making their way into the back seat of a Cavalier.