Biking to places other than work?

[BBsw]

There is a Farmer's Market right on my route home. Plus there are a couple of major grocery stores very close to my home.

I was just wondering if any of you ride to the grocery store or shopping? Where else do you ride?

[Tri Girl]

I grocery shop on my bike and do other errands (library, pharmacy, Goodwill, etc). For most errands, I use one or two panniers. For the grocery shopping I used the panniers (small trip), or the big flatbed trailer that I recently converted (big trips).
In the summer it's so hot that I find myself going to the car more often (counter productive- I know), but it's soooo hot and humid that sometimes I just can't bear to get on my bike and get even more sweaty. When I do that, I save for lots of trips all at once.

[mimitabby]

Oh, i'm so glad you asked. Where i live, traffic is SO HORRIBLE that i pretty much hate to drive anymore (not to mention the gas thing)
I ride to the market, i ride to the library; i ride to 3 different supermarkets.
I ride to my mother's house (11 miles south as the crow flies) I ride to the art store.
I am fortunate that i have an older pannier that works for groceries and stuff.
Of course, i don't buy gallons of olive oil or cat litter when i'm biking; but there is a lot of stuff i can carry easily

Go for it! it's really been fun. ( I confess that my last library acquisition was a smaller book, i was thinking about my hill climb home )

[Adventure Girl]

I bike to the gym. It just seems so WRONG to drive a car to the gym to take a spin class!

I've been riding my bike to this gym for about 10 years. Until this year, I would say that my bike was alone in the bike rack about 95% of the time. I live in a town that is not very bike-friendly, and people just don't ride.

In the last 6 months or so, I have noticed that about 50% of the time that I go, there is at least one other bike in the rack. But I've never seen more than 3 bikes there at a time, so biking to my gym is still not very popular!

[Crankin]

Since I am not working now, I make it a habit to ride to the library, natural food store, bike shop, and to local restaurants for lunch at least once or twice a week. I don't do major grocery shopping on my bike, though. At this time of year, I do visit the local farmers to buy produce while it is fresh.
I also ride to the gym, when I am going to do weights, core, or yoga stuff. Usually, my bike is the only one there. It's about 16 miles round trip, so I count it as a regular ride, and on my heavy hybrid bike, with a pannier.

[BBsw]

This is really neat! I can see myself stopping off at the farmer's market on the way home but for other grocery shopping, I don't know. All kinds of possibilities.

[GLC1968]

We bike all over the place right now. Out to dinner, grocery store, pet store, bank, etc. We currently live where all these things are only about 2-5 miles away, so it's easy.

Our new house is near nothing but farms. I'm guessing that most of the errands we'll likely do by bike once we move are the ones where we can hit the places on the way home from work. We'll see.

[sfa]

I live in a good location for biking to get places, so I bike regularly to the library, my kids' schools, the drug store, the playground at the state park and the Girl Scouts meeting place. If I went to the farmer's market, I'd ride there (but it's only open while I'm at work. Phooey.). If we ever ate at restaurants, I'd ride there. About the only place I don't go is the grocery store--it's in a fairly scary area and I wouldn't trust my bike to stay in one piece if I left it outside of the store.

Sarah

[shootingstar]

We don't have a car. That already should indicate how much we bike for pleasure, fitness and out of necessity for transportation.

So yes, commuting home at least 1-2 evenings is stopping by for a few groceries or having a restaurant meal or picnic in park with sweetie who cycles to and waits for me at my bike locker.

It actually feels abit strange to me ..to be NOT biking and walking along carrying a pile of groceries homeward.

Most of our vacation trips during non-snowy seasons, include cycling.

[eclectic]

I finally took the plunge and have done some commuting. My PT summer job is 6 miles from home and has a bike trail all the way. I have ridden it and loved it but the job is at a golf course and it is too hard to tote golf clubs so I can head to the driving range after work

I do ride my bike for errands, however, I have gone to the bank drive thru, the Post Office drive thru and I have a "Wicked Witch of the West" basket on the back that will hold a large size "green" grocery bag which I take into the store - anything that will fit in the bag I can take home.

A little funny aside - my DBF was on an out of town business trip, he walked to the bank and went to the drive thru - the teller refused to serve him because he wasn't in a car. He was told he had to go inside. Unfortunately the inside lobby was closed (as he already knew). After much fast talking on his part and deliberation on the tellers part she finally served him through the drive thru window. Without naming places it happened in an ocean front far Western warm state

[mci021]

I was just wondering if any of you ride to the grocery store or shopping? Where else do you ride?

Going to the farmers market on Saturday mornings is a favorite bad habit of mine. So many fresh baked goods... so little time. *sigh*

I also go to the library, Trader Joes, you name it. The only downside is that I can only buy what will fit in my bag and really, that's not even a downside. I'm restricted to the essentials, which means the soda and potato chips stay on the store shelf.