So I ran a couple of errands yesterday for the first time on my new Surly Cross Check with front and rear Surly Nice racks and an Ortlieb Sport Packer Plus on the front left. I went to the bank deposited a checks, I went to the post office, dropped off two packages.

Bank and post office went good, then I went to Smart and Final and picked up 2x35 packs of 16.1 liter Crystal Geyser and it just went FUBAR. It started raining, the water was too damn heavy for my bike. I couldn't even lift my legs off the floor or steer with the waters slipping, flopping, and falling all over the place. I only secured it with bungee cords, so I guess that's partly why it failed but I just felt so embarrassed, especially cause I sold my car to buy the bike and still spent $600 more. I tried and tried for maybe about 30 minutes before I gave up and called home for help.


So my younger brother, who has talked crap about my going car-free, picked me up.

Anyways, I need a little encouragement/advice on how to haul heavy loads.
[mods feel free to move this to car-free living]

Get a cargo trailer or at least large panniers. You just can't go car free with a plain bike. You need either a proper cargo bike, a trailer or a full set of large panniers.

Go find a kiddie trailer at a local thrift shop, or on craigslist, and use that to handle larger loads. I used to use it a lot when going to and from the grocery store. Some will accomodate a little heavier load, and can be easily modified to fit a rubbermaid tote so that things don't get soaked next time it rains.

Exactly.

Drink tap water.

This
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It's all in how you load it...

If you dont have the funds to get trailer or bigger bags, for now at least buy some ratcheting straps ive been able to strap boxed up bikes to my rack with em also post this in car free forum theres alotta help there for stuff like this

Some funny stuff on this thread.

It takes some practice, and planing, thats all.
No one is perfect at it starting out, all fail in one way or another.

You are on the right track. Just keep on working on it.

P.S. The trailer idea is a good one for big heavy loads.

Keep it up and like other have said look for a cheap kiddie trailer and you will need the ratcheting straps keep them with your bike at all times so you can strap stuff easily to your bike or to the trailer. Your brother will probably want to borrow your straps when he needs to haul something in/on his vehicle. =) I hauled heavy old 3 bicycles in my kiddie trailer. Worked great. If you are really handy you could build a trailer, but I would just buy a used one its easier. I paid $5 for mine but I was a bit lucky. I paid $10 for the crappy one I had before it at a garage sale.

I have a full set of Ortlieb Sport Packer and Bike Packer Plus. I just can't take large boxes on top of the racks. I thought it failed because it was top heavy but it might have worked if I had loaded the water bottles individually into my rear panniers.

thats hilarious.

I do use a water bladder for my main hydration. The excessive warehouse store water was at my Mom's request but your advice could be useful if I want to haul a 24 pack of beer.

I also have a removable deck i put on top of my rack sometimes thats wider and has strap hole drilled into the edges make loading unusual sized things a lot easier. combine that with a cargo net and you could probably haul 40 lbs of watermelons

If I'm looking at the right product, you had something like 9.25 gallons or 78 lbs of water strapped to the top of your rack. That's way too much. Most racks aren't even rated to carry that much weight. Even if the rack can handle the weight, as you discovered it's going to ruin your balance and stability.

If you're going to carry that kind of weight and volume with any regularity, a trailer or cargo bike is the way to go. Even if you can make it work on a regular rack by unpacking all the individual bottles, it's not going to be much fun.

The Surly Front Nice Rack is rated for 70lbs and the Surly Rear Nice Rack is rated for 80lbs. I knew it wouldn't be a fun ride but I thought it'd be possible. I think it was just the weight distribution that made it impossible.

I'm reasonably sure I did the math incorrectly or I'm not imagining this scenario the way it actually occurred, but using a weight of 2.19 pounds per liter of water means you attempted to carry about a ton and a quarter on a Surly Cross Check. If I'm wrong, and I'm assuming I am, I would appreciate being corrected. If I'm right then quite frankly I'm dumbfounded.

Yeah, large boxes are a pain. A trailer makes it much easier to secure large boxes and keeps them low so your bike rides pretty normal even with a 100lbs load, you just need to pedal harder but it's stable.

Yeah, definitely check out the "Living Car Free" and "Utility Cycling" forums if you plan on going car-free. There is ton of info and tips there. I'm only car-lite but thanks to those forums I'm even "liter" than before!

Oh, and you probably don't want to wear out your nice panniers doing shopping

It's Surly, it's steel. It can do it

A.

im pretty sure he meant 16.1 oz

About 70lbs.
2x35x2.19x.47=72

I'm not very technical and I'm not sure how much a ton and a quarter weighs exactly but yea, it weighed a lot. someone else did the math at 78lbs which is just underneath the weight capacity for the rack. I think the problem is seriously just the weight distribution. Had I put the water bottles individually into panniers low to the ground, instead of on a thin rack top plank, it might have worked. Someone also said to get a board and ratchet straps to get a more stable surface and tie-down.

Wait, seriously cause I use a Sport Packer and a Back Packer almost every day, one for a bike lock and cables, a pump, gloves, maybe an extra sweater and the big one for a laptop, books, etc. I figure if Ortliebs can handle world wide treks, then they should be able to handle short commutes/public transit rides.

Soft panniers don't handle loaves of bread, eggs, or thin glass bottles particularly well, other then that they're fine. Maybe some kitty litter box panniers?

Wheeew!

It's all about loading it up properly and knowing what you can load.
70 x 16oz bottles of water - 73 pounds (not counting the packaging.) You need panniers to distribute that lower, or a full on cargo bike or trailer.

Check out this haul:
Those panniers are full of gatorade bottles. That's a 17 pound sack of dog food across the top. The whole bundle is lashed with some rope. All said and done I had about 50 pounds of crap loaded up; but I kept the heaviest stuff lower using the panniers.

utility cruiser loaded 2..jpgutility cruiser rear angle..jpg

I did a tour in Baja with well over 80lbs of gear... with the bike, over 100 lbs total. Didn't even think about it until one stormy night when I decided to hotel it... I couldn't carry the loaded bike up the stairs... (didn't have a gear low enough to ride up the stairs either... )

Had a great time on the tour though... some 1000 miles in about 15 days or so. Some of that gear was food and water mind you. I don't just pack heavy.