Jude

Currently car-free. I don't know if I'll stay that way, mainly because living in a coastal city and not having easy access to mountains is really bumming me out, but anyway, for the moment I use only a bike. Anyway, I've been trying to figure out a way to move food around on that bike, stuff that has to stay horizontal as most food needs to. I'm wondering what ideas people here have.

I know a trailer is one option, but let's say I live in a third-floor apartment (which I might depending on how things work out) and don't want to drag a bike AND trailer up and down the stairs all the time. Another idea- some kind of easily removable basket that could go on my rear rack, but I don't know of any such, and I imagine it might be hard to find one wide enough to hold, say, a big pan of stir-fry.

Let's hear your solutions.

Artkansas 

A porteur rack or big Wald front basket comes to mind.

Sundance89

Don't let something like the need for carrying/transporting your food horizontally discourage you. That's easy. You have a lot of options for on bike carriers multiplied by endless containers. You got Wald folding baskets, a rear rack with trunk bag, a rear rack with a pannier and hundreds of different size tupperware containers that will fit (and stack) neatly inside your pannier. You have a flat front basket or a front rack with a cooler strapped down.

This is nothing to throw the towel in for and the finding the right solution for you can even be fun.

Sundance89

Oh, and unless you're a food vendor or a grizzly bear - a trailer is certainly NOT necessary to carry your lunch.

tsl

I've had no problems bringing food home. The typical containers fit flat nicely in my grocery panniers. Pizzas, OTOH, have have to bungee to the top of the rack. Takes two bungees, one in each direction.

Taking food with me is similar. Most of my containers fit flat in the grocery panniers. I sometimes have to split quantities into two containers, which is a potential solution for your stir-fry problem. Casseroles go in my Corningware Portables casserole dish. It has a snap-on plastic top, and slides into a zippered quilted cozy. I use my Blackburn cargo net to secure it to the top of the rack.

Smallwheels

I rarely transport prepared cooked food. If I go to a restaurant I eat there. There is one thing I do transport that is cooked. It is a bucket of three types of appetizers. I have the place wrap it in a plastic sheet and put it into my back pack. It always arrives squished but it doesn't matter. The individual chicken strips, popcorn chicken, and popcorn shrimp, are unaffected.

Last year I went to a pot luck lunch for work and brought two glass casserole dishes full of sausages. I carefully placed them at the bottom of my back pack and made sure I didn't swing it in any way that would spill the contents.

ro-monster

Do what motorcyclists do.
Lay the item flat on your rack, and hold it on with a cargo net:
https://www.cyclegear.com/spgm.cfm?L1...AI_BH13-N0003B
I find these much easier to use than bungee cords. You should be able to buy them at just about any store that sells motorcycle gear.

CarFreeFam4

I strap an apple box on my rack with bungee cords and place the items in it. Works great, and as I have several apple boxes hanging around it was a free solution.

muu

What about spill-proof containers? Got a set of Glasslock containers that are pretty much 100% spillproof, have barely used any other tuppers since.

Roody

For take-out stir fry and even soup, I take a twist top plastic food container in my backpack. I have the restaurant put the food into my spillproof container rather than their own. When I'm ready to eat I can microwave and eat the food right in my container.

Artkansas 

And we assume that you mean another container than the plastic container you carried it in. A nice ceramic bowl perhaps that won't leach chemicals into your food.

Jude

To clarify, I'm talking about, for example, going to a potluck and taking a big pan of stir-fry or a large casserole dish or something like that, not just putting a sandwich in my bag for lunch. That's why a wider area to carry stuff on is what I'm looking for...

ro-monster

That's the sort of thing everyone else in this thread is talking about also. A cargo net works great for that. So does carrying your food in a container and taking the dish separately, then putting the food into a nice dish when you arrive at the party. So does taking two smaller dishes of food that fit into your panniers.

opal

I have tall, 4.5-quart plastic containers that fit vertically into my panniers. For horizontal containers (pies, casseroles with a top, other things that can't be tipped or stacked), I use a crate. I can fit both by loading the panniers first then bungee-ing the crate.

harshbarj

I have a porteur rack and some bungee cords. I carry everything from subway sandwiches to takeout Chinese food without issue. Porteur racks do VERY well with pizza. I have even brought homemade cakes to work for parties.

cycleobsidian

I wish I would remember to do this when I have take out. Then I wouldn't have to dispose of a styrofoam container when I'm finished eating.

Roody

Take a sheet of Masonite that's a couple inches bigger than your casserole dish. Drill some strategic holes in the Masonite. Zip-tie the Masonite to your rear rack through the drilled holes to make a flat surface. Then secure your covered casserole to the carrier (through other drilled holes) with bungee or cargo net, or chewing gum or whatever else you have in mind.

If you don't have Masonite, you can use a sheet of aluminum or Lucite. Even the cardboard from a pizza box would work in a pinch.

This really isn't rocket surgery....

Roody

Yes, I use a lovely lead glazed bowl from Mexico for reheating.

Just kidding. I use the cheapo Tupperware clones from Krogers for storing, carrying, reheating and eating "soupy" foods. I'm not worried about the chemicals, the environment or anything else. It's just the cheapest, safest, and most convenient way I know to take a hot meal to work.

bragi

I usually use panniers, and they work great for me on a daily basis, but I understand what you mean with potluck dishes. Once I took my food to a friend's house by leaving the panniers at home and attaching a plastic file box to my rear rack with zip ties, and then putting the food in the file box. It looked a bit stupid on the way, but it worked great, and much better than the alternatives: taking the bus, bumming a ride from someone else with a car, or putting the food in ziplock containers and using panniers. (Being a guest at a potluck or other social event is a lot more enjoyable if you're not the eccentric car-free guy who's also a pain in the ass... )

Roody

It's not PC, but the potluck committee will cut you a lot of slack if you're male. They always want to assign me to bring some chips, or a tray from the deli. But I am a fantastic cook actually, so I prefer to bring something I made myself.

I bake bread that's to die for--and it's easy to wrap a couple loaves in a paper bag and throw them in my backpack. Then I don't have to worry about packing a casserole in a container that leaches chemicals, or reheating it in a lead glazed dish.

wahoonc

I knew there was some reason Roody and I get along.

I cook and my specialty is yeast breads. One church I used to go the most requested item for pot lucks was my yeast rolls. Those are dead easy to carry, just throw them in a large plastic bag.

Aaron

Wake

Check out SoupByCycle's method:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater

mnutz

I should've brought a backpack for the 2 liter of soda. The breadsticks got a little squished. They still tasted fine though!

Roody

Finally a picture, now people can see how SIMPLE it is! Most of the difficulties in this world are of our own making.

himespau 

have a milk crate you can keep in your apartment and zip tie to your rack for those special occasions? If they happen with a lot of frequency and you're burning through zip ties, apparently topeak makes a milk crate like box that works with they're quick release system (you'd have to get a rack from them though too).