Bag for carrying mail
 

Hello all, still customizing a bike I recently acquired. have use it a few times to pick up the mail. but each time had to bring a plastic bag to hold the mail. can anyone suggest something that I can attach to my rear rack for this purpose? I need something that would work with regular letter envelops, and also amazon envelope packages. Thanks

How much mail are you getting that you can’t simply use a knapsack or messenger bag?

Here's my bike for picking up the mail and groceries. Those saddle bags are known as "panniers."

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Bik...DSC2130-XL.jpg
Brent

Amazon has a tendency to pack things in larger boxes than I think necessary. Maybe you want something like this?
Amazon.com: Burley Bee, 1 and 2 Seat Lightweight, Kid Bike-Only Trailer : Everything Else

I don't like carrying stuff on my back especially when the weather is hot. so was looking for an alternative. plus, I would also be using it to carry other stuff while I'm bicycling. Thanks

Then see post #3, although seems like overkill for "envelopes." Even Amazon "envelopes." But since it sounds like you already have a rear rack, get one or two panniers, as suggested.

might be a little too girlish for me. does it come in other colors? Thanks

I'm going to have to wait a bit, until I get into better shape. just got back into cycling a few weeks back. but thanks anyway.

Here's what I do:

What kind of bike did you recently acquire?

If it's got attach points for a rear cargo rack over the rear wheel, then that's what I'd get. You can strap large boxes on it, or just a knapsack. If you get the right cargo rack, you can have a panier on either side for less bulky stuff and still put a large box on top.

Cruisers and touring road bikes would be my choice of bike to have for your use as I currently perceive it.

Kitty is theft deterrent :)

How about a milk crate or some other basket?

Boy that brings up memories!

Not certain this is applicable to the OP, but here is the memory...

Where I use to live when younger there was a old codger that was homeless living in the woods in a cardboard box. He was a fixture seen around town and in the country for 20 or 30 years maybe more. He had a bike with a rear cargo rack and he usually had a milk crate strapped to the rack that he'd fill with aluminum cans and other valuables. After he'd been a while collecting all those recyclables he'd be seen on his bike with a strong pole lashed on either side of the rear rack and the same on the front with a large 50 lb, maybe 100 pound onion sack full of cans and stuff attached to each pole riding the bicycle to the local scrap yard.

This old recluse didn't live close by either. His cardboard box was in the woods about 15 miles away. Few I knew ever talked to him. He was pretty crazy acting and didn't make much sense. But he always had a nice demeanor about him.

Everyone was always amazed at how far away from his box he'd be seen on that bike as he went about collecting his stuff. Once near his later years before his death, someone had trashed his bicycle out of meanness. Someone bought him a new bike that by all accounts had to be a much better bike for what he was doing. However, I wonder if he missed the old bike that he had for ages that apparently served him well.

was thinking about that, but then I would have to carry a plastic bag during times of rain. but thanks anyway for the suggestion.

interesting. thanks

https://www.ebay.com/itm/400821316910

That item is 9 1/2 INCHES X 8 1/2 INCHES X 16 1/2 INCHES

It is only $18 with FREE SHIPPING.

I am certain that you can find hundreds of other vendors that offer somewhat similar items that may be LARGER sized (carry capacity) for a very reasonable cost. Perhaps, you may find something like these at Target, COSTCO, Walmart, SAMS, Dick's, KOHLS, but sometimes these may be more seasonal inventory. Amazon, ebay, & web sellers / retailer web sites, likely will be your best option for New items that are the perfect size and utility that you need. You get accurate dimensions and user reviews and detailed 360 degree views and best of all, you do not waste your time and waste gasoline driving all over town, searching these local stores ONLY TO FIND NOTHING IN LOCAL INVENTORY. Searching local GOODWILL store might be just wasting gasoline driving there, but you might get lucky and find a decent, clean, lightly used, backpack, or one of those cordura/nylon/poly ZIPPERED ACOUSTIC GUITAR "GIG BAGS" for about $4 or $5 bucks at GOODWILL.
No joke, seriously, you can find a brand new decent, LARGE enough ACOUSTIC GUITAR "GIG BAG" for about $16 TOTAL with Free Shipping ON Ebay. SEARCH ALL CATEGORIES of Ebay for: 41" Guitar
Also: 41" guitar bag, 41" gig bag, 41" acoustic guitar bag, 41" acoustic guitar bag
Also just SEARCH ALL CATEGORIES of Ebay for: guitar (then Click onto several of those mega-sellers that sell those NEW Chinese stratocaster copies for about $65 total with FREE SHIPPING and sell those NEW Chinese telecaster copies for about $70 total with FREE SHIPPING........city-green is one such seller, yallstore is another, mulchoice is another, millionshare is another, .....those are the names that I remember off of the top of my head.......I have ordered from all of them over the past five years. Hey, you guys & gals that wanna learn to play guitar or teach yourself to play guitar, those inexpensive strat copies and tele copies are extremely good as to quality out of the box, set-up is playable, the neck is straight and the fretwork is superb and the nut, and machine heads(tuning gears) are good enough to hold tuning...as good as anything you'll find on Squiers. The neck is baseball bat like and has no finish, unlike 50's, 60's, 70's & 80's era guitars which will have a clear or amber laquer, or polyurethane clear coating finish to the guitar's neck. You can always buy a can of marine polyurethane in clear (minwax, valspar, brand doesn't matter as long as it is marine polyuerthane....it will self level and smooth out when applied by brush, where it will be 98% perfect. Sand the neck slightly with very fine sandpaper to shape it more in a V shape if you don't like the chunky fat C shape(that applies to decent intermediate guitar players who understand.....beginners: the neck contour does not matter as if you can't play well enough to play live gigs solo & with a band, that doesn't apply! I cannot recommend any NEW low cost acoustic guitars as being decent enough out of the box, EXCEPT for NEW Yamaha acoustics. True, you can in find many other Acoustic cheapies, that includes many well known brand names and the no-names, that can be made to play acceptably by replacing the nut and saddle, and getting the action to acceptable level and filing sharp fret ends, etc, but unless you have a qualified friend capable of evaluating and making such modifications, you'll end up likely with something poorly set up and difficult for a beginner to learn to play on. Cheapie, inexpensive New $65 strat style copies have the old classic six saddles which are fully adjustable in both height and fore and aft to get the intonation and action set precisely. Now, if you're a beginner, immediately UNSCREW the "Whammy Bar" and place it in a drawer and do not re-install it UNTIL SUCH TIME THAT you can play decent enough to play live open mic gigs, or at least start a garage band & begin practicing with others in your living room or garage.... you've gotta be able to play songs before you go trying to be JIMI with the "whammy bar". The amplifier that I recommend is the VOX pathfinder 10, it is about $80 total with free shipping from Sweetwater, and others.....check all of them, one may have it priced better than the others. This amp is small but it's clarity is superb on the clean and it is perhaps the best sounding inexpensive small amp of all time. Be forewarned because it can also "crank", even though it is tiny. You don't need an amp to begin learning as you can hear enough faint strumming chords etc to know what songs that you're trying to learn. Anyway here is the $70 telecaster copy that city-green has.
It is excellent, not a string thru but top loader, the all maple neck is pretty good but no finish on the neck. The "Yellow" version body is beautifully finished as any $350 mexican fender, and better than a $200 squier, the BLACK version's body is finished nicer than a squier also, the Sunburst finish is about squier like in finish quality.
squiers have a better neck pickup and better bridge saddles and are produced by fender, so they are a real "tele". these chinese cheapies though are incredibly decent even if they were three times the price. Those cheapie chinese strat copies are even better values because they have excellent bridge saddles, pickups that are at least as good as those on a $200 new squier.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/402711958515
Those 41" gig bags for acoustic guitars have twin straps like a school kid's backpack.......there are no rules saying that you cannot carry something other than a guitar in it.

Good info, will pass along to my guitarist friends.:thumb:

So you're looking for something that is also natively waterproof. That's going to change the suggestions a bit. If that's a hard requirement, might have been helpful to include in the OP.

thanks for everyone's suggestions. found a pannier bag on amazon that'll fit the bill.

How many drugs were involved in typing this novel?

Beckman panniers?

I have a set (‘99 vintage), but someone stole the custom racks along with the bike they were attached to.