Luggage & groceries!

[Patrick Moore]

Waiting for Chauncey to deliver the new (God willing) Riv Road clone, with custom rackset, I've been reduced to shopping with my 1999 Joe gofast with Camper Longflap. Today's ride was an extended detour to the nearest Sprout"s and local grass-fed, free-range meat/egg Keller's. 

I'm sorry, but certainly the Camper LF, and even the Large Sackville, is no match for big Ortliebs when it comes to serious grocery shopping. I filled up the CLF at Sprout's and had to use the Velo Retro musette (I keep 1 stashed with the tool kit for each bike) for the ~3 lb of various sausages, 1 lb gr beef, and 2 personal-size packs o' chips. Fortunately, home is 3/4 mile from Keller's.

With just rear Rollers -- the setup on the new bike will allow for Sports lowriders in addition -- I could have carried it all with a great deal of room to spare, and the bike would have been far less top heavy -- holding 6-pack in right hand as I kept hold of bike with left, I had the bike 3 times fall over on its side due to weight imbalance, in the checkout line, as other shoppers looked on diapprovingly. One-hand rescues in each case, and the drawstring neck prevented spillage, but still, not conducing to the air of effortless mastery that I like to project.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Clark Fitzgerald]

It's hard to beat the big Ortlieb rollers for groceries. Just grab them and load up. I like putting bread and chips on the very top, so it will just barely buckle. This week I had probably 40 lbs in them on the front rack- it had so much inertia that I actually moved the quill stem about 15 degrees when I pulled into my driveway. The stem must've been a little loose.

[Patrick Moore]

My Rivs, at least, complain if I put much more than 15 lb more or less evenly distributed between L and R; though 20 -- 10 each -- is alright. Heavy loads do much better in the rear, either in Rollers or in one of the big Riv saddlebags -- I've carried up to 45 lb in rear panniers on a light road frame (v good rack), 40 on the various Rivs; usual rear load maxes out at ~35, though.  But much better than front.

Dave Porter added front lowrider bosses to my original issue Sam, and I tried putting 40 lb (perhaps it was 50; at any rate, a very large number of gallon milk jugs filled with water, to test things) in lowrider panniers. I could barely steer, and turned around within 1/4 mile of home.

Might as well complete the anecdote train: Long ago, had a cheap Schwinn World Traveler or somesuch. Installed huge Wald Newsboy basket and slung in a couple of cinderblocks -- test; don't generally carry contruction materials on my bikes -- for a total of (IIRC) 53 lb. Talk about unwieldy! I did ride it for a hundred yards or so.

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