Saturday, June 15, 2013

Two wheeled grocery-gettin'...

Two grocery-fetchers and a commuter.

The bicycle trailer had an impressive lugging capacity. The owner was ahead of me in the checkout lane and I'm assuming she was fetching supplies for one of Broad Ripple's eateries or bakeries, because it's a rare household that will go through six gallon jugs of milk before it goes off.

There's no way I'd want to lug that much weight high up in the baskets (especially the one on the bars!) but that trailer looks awkward in its own ways.

18 comments:

Paul said...

Expediant Engineering. Seen in many of the bannanna republic where vehicles are hard to some by. We are starting to see what we where told he would transform us to.

Tam said...

"We are starting to see what we where told he would transform us to."

lolwut?

Did you just say that bicycle trailers are Obama's fault?

facepalm.gif

Fuck my life.

That is a purpose built trailer by a company that's been building them since Obama was in college.

Heroditus Huxley said...

My two kids (four and a half year old boy and two and a half year old girl) go through two gallons of chocolate milk per week. And I ration them on it. My other half and I use one gallon of plain, white milk every week and a half. My family when I was little used more than that, because we had a lot of homemade bread and biscuits. I can see a family using six gallons up before it goes off.

Now, storage, on the other hand...

Joel said...

If you can't turn it into a parable about how Obama is screwing everything up, what good is it?

Bicycles are bad, Tam. M'kay? Because Obama.

Six gallons of milk? Clearly someone is lactose tolerant. Damned Democrats.

Tam said...

Heroditus Huxley,

Huh! I did not know that.

However, at the risk of stereotyping a fellow Broad Riparian, and fully admitting that people will surprise you, I did not get the vibe that this was being hauled home to a quiverfull IYKWIMAITYD...

Rob K said...

My wife buys it six or eight at a time and puts it in the chest freezer.

Unknown.Rodent said...

Tam,

You would be surprised how effective bike trailers can be. I had a large paper route (250 subscribers) as a kid, it was 2.5 miles from my home. On Sundays the papers were large back then necessitating a ridiculous number of trips if I just used the saddle bags. I built a bike trailer that could haul several hundred pounds of papers. The only issues were starting and stopping, neither was a very quick process.

Anonymous said...

Bicycles are cool but I must warn you, you're inching ever closer to the Hippie section of my blogroll.

Anonymous said...

Way, WAY back when, we bought a Burley for our son so he could come with us when we climbed on the bikes. Wasn't nearly as nice as they are now, and he initially balked at eyepro (no front shielding), but it worked and worked well. Glad to see Burley has continued to develop solutions.

Today, I'm very much older, very much fatter, and very much more addicted to the 4WD, but the Cannondale and I make it out a couple times a week. I can understand the value of a cargo trailer, and sometimes wish for a less expensive, simpler option to carrying groceries. I am one of those who never fail to bring home a dozen extra cans of something with each trip, and that's best served with, unfortunately, the 4WD, not the bicycle.

TJIC said...

> it's a rare household that will go through six gallon jugs of milk before it goes off.

Alaska Hippy Girl recently purchased six gallons of milk because of a "wait, how did that happen?" sort of incident (I don't understand; I only report).

I think we need to make some cheese so it doesn't go to waste. Luckily, TJICistan is prepared for just such an emergency; I've got rennet and cheese presses on hand.

leaddog said...

Having spent a good deal of time in a country where the primary transportation is either foot, a small scooter, or a bicycle, you will be amazed at the things I have see being carried or pulled by bicycles and motor cycles of less than 150cc. 7 people on a 50cc scooter, 6 on a bicycle, 14 on a 150cc motorcycle with a buggy rigged to it, 8 bags of rice @ 50 Kilo.

Innovation like that for city dwellers makes a lot of sense and I can see that it can save a good deal of cash too.

As I was growing up, we went through 1 to 2 gallons of milk a day. Good thing we lived on a dairy farm. It was always fresh squeezed. 4-6 teenagers all of mid to heavy weight wrestler size can pack show after baling hay for 12 hours.

leaddog said...

Chow not show. Stupid auto check.

Hat Trick said...

My brother and I drank so much milk as teenagers (> five gal/wk) that my Dad threatened to get us a couple dairy cows.

Firehand said...

It beats what I saw a guy towing a while back: he had a small wheeled suitcase, had extended the handle and tied it to the back of the little luggage rack and was pulling it along. Packed with something, from the look of it.

Awkward as hell, how he kept it from flipping I've no idea.

Anonymous said...

It's an ok setup, but shifting's probably more important than it is in the Kona Ironman. Wait a minute, that might be the best training idea ever...

Ritchie said...

Rudimentary analysis suggests that the attachment point of the trailer has a significant effect on handling qualities, especially in a turn.

Mike_C said...

Surly Big Dummy.

Not an epithet (nor self-description; that'd be surly not-so-big dummy). A bike for hauling buttloads of stuff without a trailer. A sort of review is here.

Kristophr said...

Mike_C:

I own an Xtracycle Radish ... I'll endorse a Big Dummy as well for cargo-bike purposes.

I'll probably start using it again once our shop gets moved ( 10 blocks from my house ...yay! ).