grocery bikes

[tulip]

Wow! Can you say what brand and type your panniers were?
Did you put the bungee cords across the middle of the top of your pannier parallel to the bike, or cross-wise?

Mine were Nashbar, but they look alot like yours. In my case, the pannier needed additional support over the top of the pannier, to keep the top closed and the groceries tucked in. I did not use a bungee because I decided to walk for groceries, but I thought it would help the situation. Some sort of elastic net might also do the trick.

[Blueberry]

I hope Lisa's are like mine - stiff metal frame. I've seen some that didn't have that, and I could certainly see needing to stabalize the load. I've not gone that far with mine (the store is close...), but I've not had a problem (except with a case of wine divided between 2).

CA

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Tulip- thanks for the tip, I can see where that might be something to watch out for.
If the bags you got were these:
nashbar panniers then mine with be 1" taller (not much I realize, but something) ...but I dont use paper bags, I use those heavy duty reusable grocery shopping bags they sell cheap these days, sort of like this one:

so it will be easy enough to tie the handles closed on top.
I'll keep an eye out for trouble though on the cornering!

And CA in NC- yes mine are the same as yours, the Novara ones, and they do have pretty good aluminum frames around them. They seem pretty sturdy.

[xeney]

I had the same Nashbar grocery panniers and we had the same problem. Reusable grocery bags did not solve the problem unless you only filled them about half full and then tied them at the top.

I switched to the wire baskets and never tried a pair with a wire frame. The Nashbar panniers feel fairly stiff but they don't hold up under a load. My husband occasionally uses them for the farmer's market but we've had a lot of veggies fall by the wayside.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I had the same Nashbar grocery panniers and we had the same problem. Reusable grocery bags did not solve the problem unless you only filled them about half full and then tied them at the top.

I switched to the wire baskets and never tried a pair with a wire frame. The Nashbar panniers feel fairly stiff but they don't hold up under a load. My husband occasionally uses them for the farmer's market but we've had a lot of veggies fall by the wayside.

Whoa, glad I didn't get the Nashbar ones! I can't imagine they'd be much good without some kind of metal frame reinforcement in there somewhere.

The Novara ones I got do have sturdy aluminum frame rods both going all around the top plus a pair of roads running diagonally down to the bottom as well, so I suspect that would be a good thing.

I can hardly stand waiting any longer for the rack and the brifters!

[PscyclePath]

Lisa got a derned good deal on those... All the grocery panniers I looked at were priced individually, and my Jandds were $55 each.

I've not had good luck with Nashbar panniers, either. I didn't get the groceryones, but back when I was starting out with the commuting thing about a year ago I bought a set of their DayTripper saddlebags. First of all, they're pretty small as panniers go. They didn't have hooks to connect them to the rack, but came as a single set that folded over the rack (sort of like the saddlebags in the old cowboy movies) and sort of held on. I replaced them with another set in pretty short order, and they've been in the "spares" box ever since. I buy a lot of stuff from Nashbar, but not panniers any more...

[Geonz]

Remember, the Xtracycle isn't a new bike... it goes on the one you have

If the $55 / pair ones are enough room, great... but by the time I priced out everything I'd need to make my bike haul the stuff I wanted, it wasn't too far from the Xtra, and the complete ease of just tossing things in there and its mysterious mojo drove me to sell the car.

[mary9761]

The kitty litter buckets will hold one of the reusable grocery bags worth of groceries. The lids hold the items in

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

UPDATE:
Ok well the first step is done in converting my Rivendell Rambouillet into my errand/grocery bike.
It went in the LBS and is now back, having been switched from its original bar end shifters with hard-to-reach brake levers....to new 9 speed Ultegra brifters with short reach. (Yikes but they cost a pretty penny!)
This will do two things-
First, it will enable me to have the same shifting system on both my bikes. I've had a really hard time remembering which levers go in which directions for which gears between the two very different shifting systems.
And second (and most importantly), I have always found it really hard reaching the tips of my fingers securely around the brake levers with the bar end shifters and regular brake levers. I have to go down a very steep hill when I leave my house, and it ends abruptly in a T at a busy highway. It's always given me the creeps not getting a good grip on the brakes, especially when wearing winter gloves....but now it will be a breeze, just like it is on my newer bike.

So.... I could not test ride the new brifters yesterday due to rain...but today I will take it out to go to the PO and bank- just to basically test the new brifters out. The bike doesn't look photo worthy yet because there are no rack/panniers on yet and I've left the handlebars untaped in case I want to adjust the brifter hood positions first before taping.

I took off my old saddlebag and its mount a while ago, but I'm trying to get DH to put my new rack on today sometime. Then I can mount the panniers and be set to go!

[Biciclista]

I know it's raining, but we still want to see photos asap!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

The test ride of the new brifters went well, but my DH will have to tweak the derailleurs- the lowest back gear keeps jumping out to the two next higher gears when I'm crankin' up the steep hill....not pleasant! DH knows what to do though- he keeps my other bike working great. My gear spread is reallly wide and they have to be tuned to a hair trigger point for the complete spread to work right.

So now I need to have DH put on the rack AND tune the derailleur.

But other than that, I had a great little errand run to Ralph's, the PO, the bank, the dentist, and the hardware store.
I LOVED being able to really grab onto those brakes on the big downhill.

[dex]

I LOVED being able to really grab onto those brakes on the big downhill.

Isn't that awesome? I never get over it. Actually, the very first time I felt that security when I switched to short-reach brifters, I got so excited I wanted to find more BIG, STEEP hills to ride down...just because I finally knew I'd be able to stop myself if needed. Heh.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I have to do more test riding of the GroceryRambouillet tomorrow.
DH tweaked the derailleurs to correct it's jumping abruptly out of the lowest gear several times yesterday going up the hill without its rack and panniers on yet. The lbs guy, who mostly did a fine job, had the new cables a bit too tight for one thing...he was trying to pre-compensate for new cable stretch, as he informed me when we picked up the bike.
DH put on the new rack today and we put the panniers on. Rack and panniers went on without a glitch. Rainy and windy all day and it was almost dark by the time we finished.

So, with my old large canvas saddlebag of 'essential road riding stuff' completely removed (don't need maps or first aid stuff, and my grocery bike flatfixing/tube/pump kit will be a cell phone ), along with removing one of the 2 bottle cages....(on this errand bike I will never likely be farther from home than maybe 3 miles...certainly walkable if I have bike trouble)...

and then adding the new rack, two empty panniers, the new uber heavy U-lock/cable combo, and putting my old ching-ching bell back on....

It now weighs 6 pounds more than when it was setup only for road riding with the large saddlebag (29 lbs then), and it weighs ten pounds more than my steel Luna road bike currently does when it's loaded for a ride.
The whole shebang weighs 35 pounds with empty panniers. That doesn't sound like a huge amount, but when I go to pick it up, it feels like a TON in the back!

Oh well, I refuse to be intimidated just yet. Tomorrow i will take it gingerly down into town (no shopping yet) and ride it around the empty school parking lots and up and down a few gentle hills around town to test how she flies. There may be gear jumping issues still, or the steering may act and feel very different with the new weight in the back, or some other unforeseen issue I need to know about. If all goes well, I'll then head home again and the last test will be the steep 1/4 mile hill up to the house with nothing in the panniers. Wish me luck getting up the hill!
DH, ever practical, reminds me that if I had to I could probably walk the bike full of groceries up our hill at the end. He's right of course. And that wouldn't be the end of the world, either. It's all saving gas and helping the planet and building up my body strength.

I might have to make some changes tomorrow, so not worth a photo just yet I think.

[Biciclista]

well, okay, we'll wait for the pictures. 35 lbs does sound like a lot to me. but if it gets the job done..

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Did my first test ride this morning, with empty panniers....

Steers great, gears shifting s-m-o-o-t-h-l-y (thanks to wonderful DH), and
I made it up my hill with it being 10 more pounds than my other bike... with no big problem!!! YAY!! It only actually felt like maybe it was an extra 5 pounds or so. (but it wasn't, I weighed it on the scale)

Will try to tape up my handlebars today so I can take a decent photo of it.

Now I can start testing my limits by buying small amounts of food and other junk I frequently buy in town. Now I can go mail cumbersome packages at the post office and not have to give up when they don't fit in my backpack!

WHEEEEE!!!!! I'm tickled pink!


(and 'monster quads' here i come!)