indyfabz

I routinely carry non-flat items in my Timbuk2 bag, such as 1.5L bottles of wine and my size 12 sneakers. BITD I toted 3 16x20 framed photos from my x-country bike trip to a bicycle-related fest.

zandoval 

Mesh string bag. Rolls up tight for storage and comes in different sizes. String shoulder straps are good enough for short travel.


Amazon Mesh Drawstring Bag

tessellahedron

I have bags like that, what I want is an easy way to sling ten of them over my shoulders at once.

https://smile.amazon.com/Grocery-Car...s%2C198&sr=8-1
closest thing I've seen so far. 10 gallons of water is 80 pounds man! My groceries are like 15 when I buy cans and milk.

I have a feeling I'm either going to be rigging something custom using shoulder straps from multiple bags, or simply giving up and continuing as I have been (like the previous couple times I researched this)

i do appreciate the feedback

chaadster

Yeah, it’s perhaps a bit much, but on the other hand, a vest may be easier to load and more stable when riding than just around-the-shoulder (e.g. bandolier) straps.

That said, searching for “tactical chest straps” or similar may turn up more lightweight, better suited options than I linked to.

Good luck.

dedhed

https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/1193...btest_05&SS3=B

Broctoon

tessellahedron

The old mountain bike had a rack with panniers, so when I got groceries I'd fill those and then put a few bags on the handlebars. Tricky steering but no problems.

now my teen speed is set up the same way, except I can't use the handlebars.

if I'm really shopping I bring the trailer, this is just a solution for slinging a few bags over the shoulders instead of the handlebar.

I thought someone would have worked this out before; I dunno if it's worth trying to rig up something custom. I'll just get less stuff on trips without the trailer.

Herzlos

It sounds like you need to reassess... something.

You're filling rear panniers, a trailer, have a 5 gallon bucket on one drop, and are looking to somehow attach 10 bags to your torso? That's just asking for disaster.

Can you do this in less runs? Do you even need to use a bike? Are you considering the total weight?

You probably just need to go and get a cargo bike and store everything in the front box.

Or at least change your drop bars to flat so you can hang stuff further away from the wheels.

Personally, I'd never go beyond panniers + trailer + hiking backpack, because anything dealing with loose bags is going to be completely unstable.

tessellahedron

there is no bucket on the drops. It's too hard to ride.
this bike is my only transportation.
the bags do swing but for less than a mile from the store to my apartment I can handle it, as long as they're not swinging into my spokes like they would from the drops.
if I plan to spend more than $30 I take the trailer.
adding a couple bags on my shoulders seems reasonable, but with my arms sloped in a road bike position they slide down to my wrists and hit the wheel.

Herzlos

If you're only talking about $30 of groceries, why won't it go in the panniers and a backpack? That's always worked for me.

tessellahedron

Oh it does fit, I'm just really lazy and feel like a dummy every time I spend time watching the cashier load my bags, to go outside and reload them in my backpack, to get home and unload it. Plus I think I could carry a little more.

the phenomenal thing about the trailer is that I roll it into the kitchen and put food away directly.

assuming I get my bike fixed, testing will commence tomorrow. Everything you see in the picture came from the trash, side of the road, or my drawer of old junk.

I think a easy front clip would help but for now the large ring on the left is my clip-unclip point. I'll try just slipping it over my head too. Looks like too many carabiners and the chains could be shorter maybe. This is a first prototype.

Still can't believe no one makes these.

WhyFi

1 mile is 4 minutes at an easy pace, so an 8 min round trip. I think that I could manage two trips, maybe even on different days, if it avoided the fustercluck that you're describing.

WhyFi

No offense, but that should tell you something.

Broctoon

Glad you found an elegant solution, so you won’t have to be one of those dummies who are always wasting their time moving groceries from the plastic bags to a backpack.

dedhed

What the Hell are "durdble straps" ?

Broctoon

It's a misspelling. Meant to say turdbowl straps. You can carry lots of turd in that mesh bowl/bag. You'll also notice these straps attach at the corners through qualtity metal rings. These get their name from an alternate use people have put them to, which involves a piercing through... never mind; this is supposed to be a family friendly forum.

zandoval 

Ha... Your right... There are no straps! Not even DURDBLE ones. As to the OP I am sure this guy is looking for a real carry bag. These little dittys are just good for cramming some groceries in long enough to get um home before the strings eat into your shoulders. They do pack down small and are light weight though...

Broctoon

Quote:

Originally Posted by zandoval

They do pack down small and are light weight though...

With four or five of those bags and a harness made of chains and clips from the trash/gutter, you could probably carry a lot of groceries. Should I add "very awkwardly"?

tessellahedron

I have like 10 of those bags. They give them away at promotional events for universities and local governments, bike fairs, stuff like that. They're excellent bags for their purpose. The strings and grommets are indeed durable. When I've overloaded the hell out of them the part that starts to fail are the seams of the bag itself, or if the knot in the string tightens and shrinks it can pull through the grommet and you have to re-tie it.

but for a 5 minute ride home a grocery bag has the same capacity and is durable enough. I can carry a lot of bags in one hand but I have no idea if that means I can carry a ton of bags on a carabiner on my back.

I affected a second temporary repair of my axle yesterday (first failed at 165 miles) so at least limited testing will commence later this morning.

I think plastic bags are pretty great as long as they're carefully recycled and not allowed to blow away. The fact that so many local governments are banning them in response to the litter really diminishes my estimation of the average American's degree of social responsibility.

while your logic appears at least partially sound ("if it worked some one would have done it"), I'd bet someone once said that about the idea of a bicycle.

Herzlos

Can't you get the cashier to load the stuff into your backpack? That'd save you all the hassle.

By all means try it, but those caribiners are basically just keyrings so I wouldn't have any confidence in them holding a carrier bag full of shopping.
I also don't see how that'll be comfortable or you'll be able to stop it sliding about

Maelochs

Why are the rear bags full? have you considered .... emptying them?

Unless I am on a tour and everything is on my bike and I am passing through a town ... I don't need two panniers full of gear to just ride around .... a simple seat bag works fine for tubes and tools and such.

I am interested in why your rear panniers are always full.

Maelochs

This is All In Your Head.

I shop with panniers, and I do not let anyone pack my panniers. Bread on the bottom, all the weight on one side? No thanks. I wheel my cart out of the store, clip my panniers to the cart, load them, and take the cart back to the storage area. Then I ride home and it is no stress. if people think i look weird packing my bags, they probably think i look weird anyway ... and frankly i don't care.

if for some reason only clipping bags to your body is the only acceptable solution---and That won't look weird, no way----then get some two- or three-inch webbing, make a belt and suspenders and chest and back straps and sew on loops for your carabiners. No stress and you say you have done it before. With the ready availability of quick-release buckles, you could have every strap abler to unclip independently, so you could take the harness off easily in any space and with any load.

Whatever.

tessellahedron

I did exactly that today! But I bought too much canned food and it all fit in the backpack (I spend the same dollar amount each week), leaving me nothing to test with.

I filled some test bags at home and found the bags from the two stores here are different lengths by more than a trivial amount. Anyway, I tested with what you see, 1lb yellow bag of pretzels to roughly represent bread, the center bag of cans is 4.8lbs and the right side bag of pasta is 3.9lbs.

and the test was a success! While it certainly lacks the stability and comfort of the backpack, it's easier to load and take on and off.

the nearly 10lbs of test weight was on the high side; the strap cut a little and was tough to get adjusted. I think a weight of 7lbs would work better and at 5lbs zero difficulty.

With the strap pulled up on the left shoulder the bags hung low on the right, bumping my leg slightly but not stopping me from riding. With it more centered I got one bag on one side and two on the other. They swing less but having them swing on each side, out of sync, is disconcerting. So pulling the strap down, getting the bags as high as possible, all three hang on the left. In this position they only swung a little and didn't hit anything.

with the strap in that third position, the bags hang almost exactly as if they were on my shoulder but not sliding down. So, the problem of not being able to carry bags on my arms or shoulders in a road bike position has been resolved, at least for me!

I think the excess chain and extra carabiners that I was going to remove can just stay because they didn't swing around or cause a problem as expected. The carabiner strap definitely may need more modifications but I won't know until after lots more testing.

I meant full of other groceries. I try to keep them empty and available for use just as it sounds like you do.

Lazy, remember... but you're right and if this thing works well but not perfectly I may try to put together something a little less trashy, more reliable, e.t.c. if it works perfectly I'll just keep using it.

I've stress tested key rings to failure before. They began to elongate sooner than I expected but it took tremendous force to actually pull them open to failure. You can see it happening, and we're taking about forces many times greater than even the tensile strength of the handles on a plastic bag.

Herzlos

The last point is a good one. I'll be stunned if you can do more than a few trips before one of the bags burst when you go over a bump. If you're already overloaded you're not going to get any cushioning from the tires and those bags aren't really designed to deal with sudden forces.

I actually think your best bet is just to get a trolley and walk. If it's only a mile then it's only going to take you an extra 10 minutes and you don't need to be as worried about how to load up and ride in a vaguely safe way.

tessellahedron

bags do have to be loaded correctly or double bagged. The bags I tested were loaded pretty heavy to exceed real world use. I did this for years on a mountain bike with the bags on my shoulders, arms and bars, plus I now have the trailer for bigger trips so no walking.

I was gonna call this the "lazy in-between" but I realized yesterday a great advantage of the grocery strap over a backpack: I can wad up the grocery strap and shove it in my pocket or one of the small compartments on my panniers.