grocery bikes

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My experience with grocery panniers is that they work a whole lot better if they have a strap that goes over the top of the pannier to stabilize the side away from the bike. Mine did not have such a strap, and my groceries spilled out all over the street because the weight shifted to the outside when I went around a corner (centrifugal force). A bungie cord would work well. I got rid of mine after that because I was so disappointed with them, and my food coop was only three blocks away, so I walked.

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?

[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.