Odd Bike Cargo

[liberty]

Just curious: what is the oddest/largest thing you've ever carried on your bike and why?

[Dianyla]

My own rear end. To hopefully make it less odd and less large. :p

[HillSlugger]

A tenor saxophone, strapped across a front basket, back when I was in high school. Why? In theory so that I could practice...but I rarely did.

[7rider]

Just curious: what is the oddest/largest thing you've ever carried on your bike and why?

Most odd/large things I attempted to carry usually ended up in a crash.

Once, when a kid, I tried carrying home a 10 lb. sack of potatoes from the grocery store in my left arm. Had no rear (right) brakes on the p.o.s. bike, so I crossed over with my right hand to use the left brake. Lost my balance and went down in the road with a bang! This was the days before helmets were commonplace. Smacked my head good, sent potatoes flying everywhere, and heard the squeal of tires behind me and got up to see a little red Chevy Chevette stopped almost sideways with a woman getting out and yelling at me in Portugese! What a scene!

This past May, on Bike-to-Work Day, I tried to carry my bag o' goodies from the organized rest stop to my office. But I didn't have room for the bag in my backpack and didn't have straps for my rear rack, so I held it in my hand, dangling off the flat handlebars of my commuter. Of course, the bag got tangled in the wheel, jammed into the fork, and I went sailing over the handlebars flat on my back!!! :eek:

You'd think I'd learn! No more carrying odd stuff for me unless I am VERY well prepared for it!

[Aint Doody]

Just a pizza. Sounds pretty dull after Regina.

[KnottedYet]

Bag of dog food. Also dull after Regina.

But I waaaaaant one of these: www.xtracycle.com

[7rider]

Mine are hardly exciting.
Just stupid!

[mimitabby]

after the wind storm, I rode out on the road on Eden's Fuji. We had lost our garbage can lid again, it blew away, so when I saw one (which was unfortunately the wrong size) I brought it home, holding it sort of over the handlebars..
It was a scary ride because I wasn't used to the bike. But i made it home
and now we have a garbage can and a garbage can lid that don't fit.

[Triskeliongirl]

I used to live car free during summers in woods hole, so I bought a baby trailer and used it to do my grocery shopping and laundry. The funniest is when folks would peek inside to see my 'babies' only to find my groceries!

[Blueberry]

How 'bout a week's worth of recycling in a bike revolution trailer? We used to live on a private street with no recycling pick up. So, once a week or so, we made the trek over to Wrightsville Beach to the recycling center.

Also carried DH's rear wheel from his road bike after REI botched a repair job. Came back with that and a week's worth of groceries from Target. Oh yeah, and a pair of Chacos:cool:

[mimitabby]

here's a really good one, but it's not me.
We have a guy who does cat rescue. He comes to the shelter with cat carriers loaded with cats and kittens tied to his bike, front and back!

[Barb]

I used to carry my tenor sax all the time!!! Think of a suitcase only about 3.5 foot long!!! I just carried it by the handle and rode 1 handed. The rear brake hand of course!!!!

[MomOnBike]

DH and I have taken our instruments, viola (me) and French horn (him) to rehearsal. The viola is bungied onto the underseat rack on my recumbent and rides very nicely there, thank you. The horn rides in a Burley trailer.

Cars give us LOTS of room, especially on chilly nights - and we've laughed about having Child Protective Services called on us for taking our "baby" out in that trailer in the cold. :D

[CycleChic06]

A case of beer. Not me, but my co-worker who I often ride the T. He gets off the T with this case of beer and then has to ride his bike home from there. It was pretty funny seeing him ride down the bikepath balancing this huge box under his left arm. He said he made it, but almost dropped it a few times.

[lph]

Great stories!

Regina, I am never carrying plastic bags on my handlebars again... I have two root canaled front teeth from doing that when I was 14: turned a corner, stood up to pedal, got the bag stuck in the front wheel and did a faceplant in the asphalt. Major (psychological) trauma :eek:

If I have to carry plastic bags I thread them well up my wrist, where they can't interfere with the wheel.

[roguedog]

Hmmm..

I once rode home with my puppy under one arm from the Davis farmers market. Balanced her so her back legs were on my hip whilst I held her front.

hmm...

How bout riding to class with my parakeet on the handlebar. He loved it. he'd get all aerodynamic and hunch down :))

hmm..

For those of you with grocery stories.. how bout a watermelon in a doublebagged plastic bag. think it was 7-10 lbs or so.


Hmm..

Anyone been to Asia???? OMG they carry whole families on bikes in crazy traffic.


Oooh i like the xtracycle. I've been wondering how I might combine golfing and biking!

[Aint Doody]

I wish you had a picture of the parakeet! I can just visualize that--how funny!

[SJCzar]

Many years ago a friend and I were very into playing the non-electronic hockey game that had the players which you moved by pulling and pushing in a series of levers on both ends. The game was about 4 feet long by two feet wide. We decided that we really needed to bring it over to her house since we were spending the night there. We each took an end and rode with it between us. It did take a bit of skill to keep the distance equal without knocking one or both of us off our bikes....and of course we didn't get the bright idea to try this until 10:00pm and without lights on our bikes.

[alpinerabbit]

A violin and a viola, each in their separate cases. With just a strap around my chest to hold both of them.

[uk elephant]

As seen in my avatar....taking the cat to the vet, in her cat carrier, strapped to a backpack, strapped to my back. As soon as we got off the road with the heavy traffic onto the bike path through the allotments, she calmed down and just watched the birdies. And it couldn't have been too traumatic because she still likes going in the box.

Oh, and doing fieldwork in Botswana I transported three big crates of mouse traps (live capture traps...about 200 of them) balanced on a very clunky old bike...

[Maureen Valley]

Oh...I just have to reply to this one. The looniest thing I ever hauled on my bike (old Schwinn mountain bike....early 90's) is a HUGE load of firewood for my campfire. I had parked my little class C motor home in a park....and the source for firewood was about a mile away.

By the time I got back to my campsite....my back tire was flat as a pancake.

Duh.

Best to all:
Maureen

[mimitabby]

As seen in my avatar....taking the cat to the vet, in her cat carrier, strapped to a backpack, strapped to my back. As soon as we got off the road with the heavy traffic onto the bike path through the allotments, she calmed down and just watched the birdies. And it couldn't have been too traumatic because she still likes going in the box.

Oh, and doing fieldwork in Botswana I transported three big crates of mouse traps (live capture traps...about 200 of them) balanced on a very clunky old bike...

I'd love to see a bigger version of this picture, UK!

[bmccasland]

On a regular bicycle - some poster board that tried to become a sail. As I recall, I somehow had it balanced across my handle bars and I discovered that I couldn't go very fast. But did not crash.

On a funky delivery bicycle (looked sort of like this: http://www.industrialbicycles.com/platform%20trike.htm)
- instead of a front fork and wheel, there's a large platform on two wheels, a reverse tricycle, and you TRIED to steer the whole platform.
So on this thing, I carried 5 gallon buckets of water with larval salmon. I was working at a large fish hatchery at the time, and we had an odd assortments of bicycles to get around.
I discovered that 1) the bike is hard to steer, 2) even harder on curves, 3) worse yet going up or down hills while making a turn. Some baby fish died as a result....

[Jones]

A fresh out of the oven, home made Dutch apple pie. It was still hot when I got to work and every one, including my DH was very impressed that I rode to work with the pie instead of driving. I just kept syaing "what kind of bike commmuter would I be if I let an apple pie stop me?"

Jones:)