Another Commuter Question

[fatbottomedgurl]

I plan to start riding to school (classes 2x week). On the way home I want to do some grocery shopping. Do you gals have suggestions about baskets/ panniers? I think I could just strap a milk crate on the rack and fit a couple bags in there but my center of gravity would go up. I don't want to spend a fortune on big panniers. Someone here said her groceries fell out of the Nashbar bags. What works for you girls?

[divingbiker]

I've got a pair of grocery bag panniers from REI that paper grocery bags fit in perfectly.

http://www.rei.com/online/store/Prod...HP_CYCLING_TOC

I use one to carry my clothes etc when commuting to work.

[CorsairMac]

I carry everything in a backpack. I do my grocery shopping at Costco in the truck so whatever I pick up at the store is usually last minute items or small things. I don't like panniers coz I didn't like the feeling of the bike's weight shifting everytime I came to a stop and leaned the bike to put my foot down. But I'm probably more the exception than the rule.

[mimitabby]

I have a pack on t he back of my raleigh bike but when i got my new
Bianchi my husband groused about putting that stuff onto the new bike (too much weight) so I ended up trying a back pack and to my surprise, I like it a lot! it's not like hiking with a backpack, you hardly notice it is there!

[Deanna]

I have panniers similar to those that DivingBiker posted. GREAT for shopping. Be sure to balance your load.

[farrellcollie]

I have the REI bags - they work fine - Performance also has them and they were just on sale - plus the performance ones have a reflective stripe - which I covet because the reflective tape always falls off of rei ones. I commute at night from teaching a night class and I use them for carrying books etc as well as groceries.

[Rebeccah]

I've got a pair of grocery bag panniers from REI that paper grocery bags fit in perfectly.

http://www.rei.com/online/store/Prod...HP_CYCLING_TOC

I use one to carry my clothes etc when commuting to work.

I got a pair of those at my local REI, and they work great and hold a lot. The minor inconveniences about this particular model I found were:
1. I had to be careful how I positioned my feet on the pedals, or I would sometimes hit my heel on the front corner of the bags. Not a problem when they're folded up.
2. The snaps for holding them in the folded-up position are on the front and back, about half-way down in the open position. In the folded-up position, they are closer to the bottom than the top. This gives a poor mechanical advantage for actually keeping them closed.
3. In the folded up position, the tops of the bags are a few inches above the top of the rear rack. Combined with the top gaping open slightly (see #2 above), I found I sometimes got my foot caught on them when dismounting from the bike.
4. Although not as heavy as metal baskets, they're still a bit heavier than I like to drag around all the time. Combined with the dismounting issue (#3), this means I took them off for most of the time, and only plan to put them back on again when I'm going shopping. Plus, I got a handlebar bag for carrying smaller amounts of stuff.

Overall, a worthwhile purchase, though.

Rebeccah

[fatbottomedgurl]

Okay the waste baskets are about as "Fred" as you can get. Perfect for my anti-consumerism anti-brand personality. I would just have to get up the nerve, but heck, I could buy two at the 99 cent store and save 40 bucks. hmmmmmm....

[HipGnosis6]

Okay the waste baskets are about as "Fred" as you can get. Perfect for my anti-consumerism anti-brand personality. I would just have to get up the nerve, but heck, I could buy two at the 99 cent store and save 40 bucks. hmmmmmm....

Hee hee... milk crates can at least be played off as "old school"

and for the antiestablishment bit in all of us, you can steal one from behind the market to stick it to the man a little bit