grocery bikes

[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!