Can I use just one?
 

I am thinking about using my bike to do my grocery shopping (work from home, so don't have a real commute).

I am looking at these for the purpose:

http://www.arkel-od.com/us/all-categ...-foldable.html

Just one of these will easily hold the amount of groceries I usually buy at one time, and the company sells them individually.

My question is can you mount just one? Will that unbalance the bike. What are my options?

P.S. I would guess the max grocery weight for my usual haul would top out at 20-25 pounds.

It's not possible to unbalance a bike. You'll automatically lean a bit the other way to compensate. I ride with an 8 pack of soda on one side of the bike along with my other crud often. I can't tell the difference.

I have ridden with one bag for 5 years now, no issues. Usually it's only 3 or 4 pounds of stuff, but sometimes lots more. This morning I had an 8 pack of soda and an old lead-acid UPS battery for the recycle bin in my bag.

Theoretically I suppose you could put enough stuff on one side of the bike to make it lean so far that the front wheel would want to caster (pull) towards the opposite side. I'd guess you'd have to have it leaning more than 5 or 10 degrees over, which I'd think given that the bag is within a few inches of the tire would mean that you'd have to put a heck of a lot of weight on it, like 80+ pounds. When I put 20 or so pounds on one side, I can barely tell that the bike is leaning.

This still wouldn't make the bike unrideable or even necessarily less controllable; it would just pull a bit to one side and you wouldn't be able to ride with no hands on the bar.

You can carry quite a lot just on one side of a bike without noticing any change in handling. It's when you stop a really heavy load on one side needs to be remembered.

That looks like a very nice pannier. Here's another option, get two of these if you want to carry more and be balanced, or just buy one.

http://www.rei.com/product/780449

You can absolutely use just one. I do it all the time. I have had an 8-pack of coke bottles, a gallon of milk, and a U-lock and cable on one side with nothing on the other. I was nervous about it and thought that it would affect the handling, but I didn't even notice.

If I paid close attention, I could look down and see the bike slightly tilted, but I could not feel it at all.

If I were you, I would go the extra 20 bucks and get the Arkel utility basket. It has some outside pockets for keys, cell phone, and what-not and is a little bit bigger.

I find my grocery buying limited by volume of panniers, not by uneven weight distribution. Some of the more delicate stuff fares better if you can pack loosely into two panniers instead of stuffing everything in one.

--J

Thanks for the information guys! I think I'll pick up just one and see how it goes!

FWIW I have a Wald folding basket on my bike for hauling bulkier stuff. It's pretty nice.

There will be a point, I'm sure, when it'll start bothering you when it gets too heavy. Then you just add another basket.

The picture below shows that you could carry your groceries home in your refrigerator and still have no problems with the unbalanced load.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=168680

I have two panniers (Ortlieb Backrollers). I usually ride with just one, though, and even when loaded down, I don't notice after the second turn of the cranks.

What Juha said is true, though -- groceries eat up a lot of space. You may need two. That's when my second pannier comes into play -- grocery runs. Even then, I'm often strapping something big (like a dozen rolls of TP) on the top of the rack.

I have one grocery bag pannier, and it works just fine. I've put a gallon of milk in it, and then filled it up with other stuff, with no problems.

What others have said is correct, though. They fill up fast. I now put another, smaller, pannier on the other side too. I'm still trying to work up the nerve to strap a 30 pack of High Life Lite to the rack.