arevee

I have been attempting to use a cargo bike with multiple racks an panniers to do regular weekend shopping excursions. One concern I have is that as the bike begins to fill with items, I worry about leaving it and the items locked up unattended.

How do you handle multiple-stop errands?

zeppinger

I don't know your specific situation but there are several strategies.

I try to avoid them all together. Spread your shopping out over the week so that you stop at just one store on your way home every day from work rather than try to do it all on one given day or on the weekend.

What kind of places are you shopping? Multiple strip mall shopping SUCKS! Try finding a single location/area that you can go to, park your bike (empty) and do all your shoppping and multiple stores or just one by foot, then return to your bike.

Again, it really depends on what your shopping for or trying to get done, and where you live.

Artkansas 

I just take my shopping panniers in with me. No problem. I do make sure that I have the receipts.

opal

I try to plan it so that I buy smaller/fewer items first that fit in my backpack which I wear, then go straight home after the stop that fills my panniers. That also means only one "big" stop per trip.

dcrowell

Maybe it's just this area, but nobody seems to think about stealing the panniers or their contents. They only think about the bike. I lock up and don't worry about it. I often leave a $1500 laptop in a pannier. Nobody knows it's there so it hasn't been an issue.

Then again... I may get really burned someday.

arevee

Good idea about doing the multiple smaller trips. I don't like shopping, so it has been my habit to get it all done at once. Habits can be changed.

A further complicating factor is that I own a house in the semi-suburbs and as any home owner knows, houses are full of maintenance tasks involving heavy items. and there are those 40 lb dog food trips. I can definitely imagine life without a house, but for now being houseless would involve too much change.

a home in the 'burbs, even one with a good walk score, makes car free a bit of a challenge.

Roody

A challenge maybe, but it can be done. Just about any bike can carry 40 pounds (in addition to the rider), but the trick is to attach the wieght to the bike in a convenient and stable manner. Consider a heavy duty rear rack, a longtail bike, a bin or milk crate on the rear rack, or a trailer. All will work with big bags of pet food. For other heavy loads, consider (besides bike trailer) delivery, car share, pickup rental from Home Depot or U-haul, pay a neighbor to give you a ride, hire a local unlicensed hauler, etc.

sauerwald

My panniers hook nicely on the sides of a shopping cart, so I can just bring them with me - also helps me to figure out what will fit. At the same time, I don't worry about leaving panniers on the bike with the bike locked up. Never had a problem that way.

gerv 

That's for sure. I'm painting my old-suburb house right now. I had a ladder and a friend loaned me his 36 foot version. He borrowed someone's truck to drive it over. Otherwise it would have cost quite a bit to rent it.

However, I am schlepping paint back from Walmart... one gallon at a time. Luckily it is about 1 km. from the house.

cyclokitty 

If I have to make several stops then I plan the stops. Last week I had to pick up a new printer cartridge from one store, groceries from another and buy several packs of large yard waste bags. The grocery trip was last because I was buying milk but the rest of the stuff came from the same strip mall with good bike racks. Plenty of days I had to bring stuff home then head out on my bike on more errands when stops were too spread out or I'm buying ice cream.

hammandegger

When I'm buying meat, milk or eggs [stuff that NEEDS to stay cold] I go to the closest place and don't worry about cost.

The other stuff, as another poster mentioned, I try to pickup on the way home from work. So like on Monday I might stop at the farmers market and pick up 5 bags of apples and some carrots.

On tuesday I will stop at Aldi and pick up dry beans, oatmeal, mushrooms and onions.

On thursday I will go to walmart and get bananans, tuna fish and baked potatoes.

It helps to have have big panniers.

I use two 35 pound tidy cat buckets on the rear racks, and a pair of cannondale panniers on the front rack.[on a surly LHT].

Rona

I keep my panniers permanetly on my bike and use Walmart/Foodlion fabric bags as liners. The fabric bags get carried around and slid in and out. I don't like the idea of leaving anything valuable to be stolen.

We've had tools stolen, extra tubes, lights and bungee cords. Anything left on a bike is game... but for some reason.. panniers no one cares about. I guess it's because here in the Netherlands, everyone has a set already.

ReinderDijkhuis

Dude! You can get dried beans at your Aldi? Back when I was single, I used to be so annoyed that my Aldi didn't have them, because buying canned just eliminated the price savings from going to Aldi in the first place, compared to going to a supermarket that was otherwise more expensive but sold dried beans.

Now that I'm married and the wife and stepkids mostly don't like it when I cook from dried beans (I can tolerate them being harder than canned ones, but they really don't like'em that way), the issue is moot anyway. Still, I could have shopped a lot cheaper back in the day if my Aldi'd had them.

Ekdog

A supermarket without dried bean? Really?

Rona

really. No dried beans at our Aldi in Hoogezand or in Groningen. I guess the Dutch market isn't ready for dried beans. We do get Trader Joe's treats at Aldi though because there are no Trade Joes in the Netherlands. Not to mention, Aldi here has awesome bike gear. https://aldi.nl/

Pobble.808

This works for me too. Easier than detaching/reattaching panniers, easier to put stuff in when in the store, and lighter to walk around with.
Seems like no one wants to steal panniers here either -- but for the opposite reason

Roody

If your dried beans are hard, it's either because you have hard water, or you don't cook them long enough. Before cooking them, try soaking them overnight in salted water (go pretty heavy on the salt). Drain and rinse them before cooking, and go easy on adding additional salt.

If that doesn't work, put a small pinch of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in the cooking water. And make sure that you never add an acidic ingredient (like tomatoes) to the beans until they are almost done cooking.

--Chef Roody

Ekdog

I read an article once in a cooking magazine about this. They compared all of the different techniques for soaking and cooking beans. According to their study, you're right about soaking in salted water; that gives the best results.

They debunked the part about not adding tomato while cooking, however. They said there just isn't enough acid in a tomato to affect the results. Adding baking soda is not recommended because it destroys vitamin B-1.

The quick-soak method gives good results:

After sorting and rinsing the beans, in a large pot add 10 cups of water for each pound (2 cups) of dry beans. Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 or 3 minutes, remove from heat, cover and stand at least 1 hour (quick-soak method), but preferably 4 hours or more; maximum 24 hours. (The longer soaking time is recommended to allow a greater amount of sugar to dissolve, thus helping the beans to be more easily digested.) Whether you soak the beans for one hour or several, discard soak water; rinse beans and pan. Return beans to pan, add fresh cold water to fully cover the beans, 1-2 teaspoons oil or shortening and 2 teaspoons salt, if desired. Simmer the beans gently with the lid tilted until they are tender, to avoid breaking the skins. If you wish to further season your cooked beans, adding vegetables and spices to the cooking water will enhance their flavor.

https://centralbean.com/storing-and-soaking/#soak-water

I use a pressure cooker. It's much faster, gives good results and saves energy.

Chef Ek

smasha

+1. brown rice in 20 minutes!

i soak my beans overnight (8-12 hours) and then just rinse 2-3 times a day if they don't get cooked right away. sometimes they start sprouting before i cook them. sometimes i just eat sprouts.

kombu (seaweed, err, sea vegetable) also softens up beans, and makes the beans easier to digest, for people who have problems digesting beans.

Titmawz

As far as shopping goes, I only can buy enough food that I will cook for the day =)

ReinderDijkhuis

Upwards of 48 hours, in my case, so the soaking time is not the answer. The water here is *very* hard and I had no idea that that affected the effect of soaking. I will try adding more salt though. Thanks for all the advice!

Roody

The salt will probably help. According to one article I read, the beans will absorb the sodium from the salt in preference to calcium in the hard water. It's the calcium (and other "hard" minerals) that makes the beans tough. If the salt doesn't work, you might have to use bottled water.

ReinderDijkhuis

Bottled water would probably eliminate the cost advantage of dried beans over canned, though.

Nightshade

Depending on the physical bulk of the items being shopped for a closed bike trailer is a better way to do multi-stop shopping.

One thing is sure is that whatever you buy it must not be left visible in the open on the bike when parked !!!

Doconabike

I guess I've been lucky over the years. I've been shopping by bike for almost a decade now in several large cities and no-one has ever stolen anything from my panniers. People generally leave my groceries alone if I run into another store. I haven't "tested the system" with anything of much value, but the convenience factor of leaving groceries on the bike a laissez-faire attitude worthwhile. I imagine that one day someone will eventually steal something, but it's been great so far to just not worry about it.