Originally Posted by Velo Mule

Normal bikes are not particularly good at carrying larger loads. When I was in my early 20's I slid off the road in my car and hit a guardrail that was emerging out of the ground. It was a Mazda RX-2 if you wanted to get an idea of the scale. About the same size as a Toyota Corolla. No damage to the body, however, I needed a new McPherson Strut. I rode 10 miles to get to a junkyard that had the strut assembly. I brought rope with me in hopes that I could somehow tie the strut with the spring, spring perch, spindle and all to the rear rack of the bike. After trying all sorts of different ways. I finally settled on tying one end of the rope to top of the spring, by the perch, and the other end to the bottom of the strut where the spindle is located. I then slung the rope over my head with the strut assembly on my back like a big spring loaded messenger bag.

10 mile back home required stops to make adjustments and move the strut to move the sore spot around. I got grease stains on my cycling jacket and jeans. The jeans could become "work on the car" jeans. I washed the cycling jacket by hand to try to remove the grease. As a 20 year old, buying a cycling jacket was a reach in the first place. I didn't want to repeat the purchase. It cleaned up good enough, but still had a dark stain on the back where the pockets are located.

Sorry no pictures. Selfies with Instamatics were not a thing back then. It wasn't a proud moment and 126 film plus developing wasn't free.