I've had this idea of grocery shopping on a bicycle for months. First I had to a get a suitable sturdy bicycle that nobody wanted to steal. I bought one on Craigs list for $20 and spent a lot of sweat equity and some money fixing it up to be a commuter. Then I decided I wanted to rig it so I could drop our paper recycling waste basket on it and ride to the recycle station. Nobody made a pannier (bicycle saddle bag) big enough. So I decided to build one out of wood, using the ample stock of wood I got from a sailboard packing crate a few years ago. The box I built is shown on the left.For the bicycle commuters out there, it has a 1900 cubic inch capacity. I have not seen a commercial pannier anywhere that big. Because I custom built it, I could make it fit my bike exactly while clearing my pedaling feet. Commercial panniers are a compromise because they have to have a universal fit.
So here is my bike just back from the grocery store!
I am especially proud of the 12 pack of diet coke on the rack. It was a little dicey swinging my leg over the bike to get started, but once I was rolling, it rode really well. I felt so good not burning any gas to make this trip. Oh, I forgot to mention, I stopped at Lowe's first to return some unused hardware and buy some other stuff on the same trip.
Look at all the stuff I got on my grocery shopping trip. While I was loading the bike, a man came up and introduced himself. He was the security guard that rode around the grocery store parking lot. He said it looked like my pannier holds a lot of stuff. He wanted to know where I bought it. I told him I made it and his eyebrows raised. He asked me if I would consider making one for sale. I took his email address and told him I might consider it. I am going to make a second pannier for the right side of the bike and might make another one for this guy. Building more of these should go a lot faster since I worked out all the design and kinks on the first one. I'm also going to put lots of red reflective tape on the panniers to make it easier to see me.
