My Bike Commuting Evolution: Carrying Cargo

In the past few years, my cargo carrying methods have progressed from a simple backpack re-purposed for commuting to the current system of either a messenger bag, or Burley Travoy for day to day use, and front rack w/panniers, a handlebar bag, and Burley Nomad for touring. Along the way I have tried several different methods, and combinations. In this post I'll discuss these different methods, what I liked and disliked about each, and why I settled on what I'm using now.

 
First up is a backpack. This is a method that most commuters I know, including me, have used at some time, and many still use. It's quick and easy, can be used without having to add anything to your bike, and can be used on any bike. All you have to do is stuff what you want to carry into the pack, climb on your bike and go. If what you are carrying is small and relatively light, then this method works fine. However, if you're like me and need to carry a variety of things with you, then the backpack will quickly become unsatisfactory and even useless for the task at hand.

 
If you do use a pack, try to get one that is comfortable, stable, and low profile. Several companies make packs specifically designed for riding, and most are worth checking out. You want a pack that doesn't swing around on your back like an irate child while you're riding and doesn't affect your ability to look back over your shoulders. They will all make your back sweaty while riding when it's warm, but some are better than others in this regard. Check around as much as possible and try a few out if you can before laying down money for one.

 

Chrome Mini-Metro

Next is the messenger bag. These are designed for on bike use (at least the good ones are) and serve their purpose quite well. They're balanced and stable, and make for good bags to use for commutes to school and office. I got one to replace my backpack on trips where a trailer is overkill. Since I have a defibrillator sewn into my chest, backpack straps irritated the area around this and it got quite painful. I got a Mini-Metro from Chrome, and use it quite a bit. I got this particular bag because the strap runs from right to left across my chest so doesn't rub against the defibrillator. Messenger bags have the same limitations as packs, but are great for their intended purpose.

 
Next up was a rear rack. This is by far the most common way to carry cargo on a bike, and many urban and commuter bikes come with racks already attached. I have had a couple of different racks over the years. The last one I had was from Topeak, and I liked it a lot. The particular model was the Super Tourist DX for discs. I liked this rack because it is durable, and is part of a system that is quite well suited for commuting and light touring. I had a trunk bag for the system which easily slides on and off of the rack and secures into place. This bag easily held the items I carry daily, like a flat repair kit, cliff bars, rain jacket, wallet, keys, lock, etc. When paired with panniers, I could carry most anything I needed to. Another nifty item I had for this system was the Trolley Tote. This is essentially a milk crate with wheels and a handle that folds down and attaches to a Topeak rack. It works great, and is quite handy. However, the one I had rattled quite a bit, which annoyed me. There are probably fixes for this, but since I was leaning toward getting a trailer at the time, I didn't really look into it much.

 

Ortlieb Front Rollers

If you're serious about commuting, panniers are practically a must if you're using a rack. A lot of companies make panniers, but, in my opinion, (and the opinion of many other people) Ortlieb makes the best. I have a pair of Front Rollers that I use on my front rack when touring, and I love them. They're waterproof, tough as nails, and really easy to use. No matter what type you get, make sure that they will carry everything you need them too.

 
Another option for carrying small items while riding is a handlebar bag. This attaches to the handlebars and is good for carrying small items you want close at hand like snacks, glasses, phone, wallet, etc. I have a Tourguide DX from Topeak that I use when touring, and really like it. Just be aware that a handlebar bag takes up real estate on your handlebars normally used for head lights, so, if your commute involves riding in the dark, a handlebar bag may not be a good option unless you use a work around, or a generator light.

 
After a while, I removed my rear rack in favor of a Burley Travoy trailer. I was using my front rollers and trunk bag on the rear rack when commuting, but didn't use rear panniers on tour, because I use a Burley Nomad trailer. I also used the Nomad when errands called for a larger capacity than my panniers and rack could accommodate. The Nomad works great for touring, and can carry most anything that I want it to, but it is a pain for daily use, because it doesn't attach and detach from the bike very easily, enter the Travoy, and my current set-up.

 
The Burley Travoy is a purpose-built commuter trailer and is very well designed for its role. It's easy to attach and remove from the bike, will carry most anything you would want it to on commutes and errands, with the addition of various different attachments it's customizable, it tracks well, and is as usable off the bike as it is on the bike. The Burley website has a lot of information on the Travoy explaining its various uses and configuration. The Travoy is one of the few things that I have ever found, which lives up to its manufacturer's claims and hype. I use mine daily, and it has yet to let me down.

 
The only two possible issues with the Travoy are aerodynamics and price. Riding into a headwind is never fun, but when pulling a Travoy it is even worse. Due to the upright nature of the trailer it catches a good bit of wind, and you can definitely feel a difference, but since I'm not trying to set speed records on my commutes, I just shift to an easier gear and continue on, so this doesn't really bother me, but it is something to keep in mind. The other issue is price. The basic trailer retails for $300.00. I got mine at REI and used a 20% member's discount but it still cost 260. With the addition of both market bags and a rain cover, the Travoy ended up costing about $400.00, which is a bit of an investment, but about the same, or less, as the cost of a decent rack, trunk bag, and set of panniers. To me, it's worth it. I bought mine months before embarking on my current car-free experiment, and, due to the opportunities that it opened up, had already begun relying on my Jeep less and less, which was saving me money on gas. Having this trailer was one of the major things which has allowed me to try going carless, so the savings on gas money since I bought it have already paid for the trailer. I still have a front rack on my bike for touring, but rely solely on my messenger bag for casual rides and some commutes, and the Travoy for everything else.

 

Current Commuting Configuration

 

In the next 'evolution' post, I'll discuss the various accessory and component choices I have made in the evolution of my commuter/touring bike. 

 
Until then, remember, rubber side down, and enjoy the ride.

The Start of My New Ride

My new steed's frame is finally in.

 

It's a 56cm 2014 700c Surly Disc Trucker, and is the frame upon which I am going to build my new touring bike.

The planned components list is as follows:

• Deore M590 Crankset, 22-32-44, 175mm
• BB7 Brakes with 160mm rotors
• Cane Creek 40 headset
• Shimano XT RD-M771 rear derailleur
• Shimano Sora FD-3503 front derailleur
• Shimano XT 36 hole disc hubs front and back laced to Alex TD17 rims
• Shimano XT M770 9 speed cassette 11-34
• Tektro RL 520 brake levers
• Dura Ace 7700 bar end shifters
• On One Midge Handlebars
• Stem to be determined
• Continental Tour Ride + 32 tires
• KHS Saddle and post from Bertha

Accessories include:

• Tubus Ergo Front Rack
• Axiom Rainrunner Trekk+ disc fenders front and back
• Niterider Lumina 700 front light
• Niterider Solas rear light
• Topeak Road Morph pump

 

I have the rear wheel, cassette, saddle, handlebars, shifters, brake levers, derailleurs, and tires.  The crank and headset have been ordered and the frame is waiting at the Bicycle Exchange so that those can be put on before I bring it home.

 

I am actually quite excited and anxious to get this built before August so I can begin equipping and tweaking it for a tentatively planned ride of Adventure Cycling's Underground Railroad route in October.

 

I'll post more about the build as it comes along.

 

Till then,  Rubber down and stay safe.

My Bike Commuting Evolution: The Birth of a Bike Commuting Fanatic

People start commuting by bike for many different reasons. When I first started, the idea was to get more time on my bike. I had a Specialized Hardrock, and a Titus full-suspension mountain bike. I occasionally rode the Titus on the weekends while the hardrock sat around collecting dust. I wanted to ride more, but loading the bike up on my jeep and driving somewhere to ride was hard to fit into my schedule, so I decided to start using the Hardrock for commuting.

My planning for this new idea consisted of setting aside one of my rock climbing packs for use as a cycling pack, and researching possible routes to work. Routing to work was a bit complicated, because of my job. I work for a small home improvement company, so the jobsite I need to get to changes a lot. At first, the idea was to commute using my bike only when I would be working in a certain area where we did most of our work. With my "planning" done. I started giving it a try.
 
At first, it was a little scary. At the time I was living on the Southside of Indianapolis, and commuting to Broad Ripple, where most of my work was. The average commute was 15 miles one way and took around an hour and a half. The mileage, and time weren't that big of a deal, I was saving about seven dollars a day in gas, was only adding about 30 minutes each way to my commute times, and was less stressed at the end of my commute since I didn't have to deal with as many idiot drivers as I did when driving to and from work. The scary part was the first half of the commute, from my house to Fountain Square.

Those first few miles were through the south side of the city, which is still, to me, the worst part of town to ride in. Most of the honking idiots, and dangerous drivers I was dealing with were in this first few miles before I hit the new bike lanes in Fountain Square. After that is was a relatively peaceful ride on bike lanes, residential streets, and the Monon to Broad Ripple.

Shelby Street Bike Lanes in Fountain Square

Since I first started riding in the city, the bike lanes have been extended further south, but the drivers in that part of the city haven't gotten any better, and it's still, in my opinion, the worst area of the city to ride. After a couple of close calls with idiot redneck drivers, I decided to hybridize my commute. I would drive from my house to Fountain Square, park in a parking lot which was used for just such a purpose, then ride from Fountain Square to Broad Ripple and back, then drive from there, home.

During this early period, the equipment I was using started to get upgrading. The first thing I did was to get different tires for my bike. Knobby tires work great on dirt, but are horribly inefficient on pavement, so I bought some more street-friendly tires for my Hardrock and noticed an immediate improvement in speed and exertion. I also bought a rear rack and some cheap panniers which made carrying the tools, clothes, lunch, and other things I needed at work, and on the ride to and from, much easier. I started settling into my new hybrid-commute and was loving it. Then two things happened which pushed me further away from using my jeep for commutes and errands.

The first event was neither good, nor my choice. My Jeep started falling apart. A series of breakdowns, and needed repairs necessitated my having to rely on my bike more and more. I started using my bike for the full commute again, as well as for runs to the grocery, and even to the auto parts store for the parts I needed to fix my Jeep. Luckily, I had already started commuting by bike, so my being forced into doing it more wasn't as bad as it would have been were I not somewhat prepared. I still hated the south side parts of my rides, but was getting used to them. Then I got the opportunity to eliminate the southern parts all together.

The main reason I had stayed on the Southside of the city was to keep my children in a better school system, but they were both getting out of school, and a job/living opportunity was handed to me which allowed me to move to Broad Ripple. This cut out the hazardous south side part of my commute and put me in a more bicycle friendly area, so my use of a bike as transportation increased exponentially. I was still using my Jeep for some things, but was using my bike for more and more daily errands and commutes.

As my experience with city riding grew, I decided to invest in a bike which was better suited for riding in the streets while carrying things, which led me to start looking into urban and touring bikes. While preparing for this huge equipment upgrade, life threw me another big surprise. My life of smoking, stress, and a not so great diet, culminated in a massive heart attack, which came very close to killing me. While recovering from this, I reevaluated a lot of things, including what I wanted in a bike. Since I couldn't exactly aim for speed, and adrenaline fueled trail rides, I began looking more and more into bicycle touring. This new found interest quickly became an obsession and led me to bikes and equipment much better suited for leading a car-fee life. I bought Bertha, and began acquiring a variety of equipment to make commutes easier, and touring possible. Over the next couple of years, I tried a lot of different combinations of bike and equipment, and was starting to settle on a final setup.

My final push into a car-free life came in the same form as my initial start. I had been slowly getting farther and farther away from relying on my Jeep, and then the Jeep became completely unreliable. A major breakdown a few months ago, forced me to use my bike as the primary form of transportation. At first I viewed this new arrangement as temporary, but quickly came to see it as preferable, and have decided to see if I can completely ditch gas powered transportation, and rely solely on my bike. Which is where I am at this time, and is the reason for this blog.

I'm planning to do a series of posts under the category of 'Commuting Evolution.' The topics I want to cover include, the evolution of the commuting bike, the evolution of cargo carrying, and evolution of recreational riding. If other topics come up I'll throw them in as I think about them. As I mentioned in this blog's first post, my hope is that my writing about my experiments and dead ends will serve as a way for others to avoid some of the pitfalls and expenses that I have experienced, and make their transition to a fully or partially car-free life easier.

Until next time, keep your bike rubber side down and enjoy the ride.

Bertha

To get things rolling with this blog I figure the best place to start is by talking about my bike.

So…I introduce to you, my primary mode of transportation—Bertha.

Bertha Undergoing a Post Ride Inspection

Bertha started life as a 2012 KHS Urban Xcel.  The Xcel is billed as an ‘Urban’ bike, and makes for a good commuter and recreational bike right out of the box.  You can get the full specs on the Xcel at the KHS website.

I bought Bertha a month or so after my heart attack.  I had been using a Specialized mountain bike for my commuting, and was in the process of paying off my KHS 300 road bike when my heart decided to try to kill me.  After what the doctors call my “event”, I decided that I was going to need a bike that was a little better suited to casual city riding than either my mountain bike or road bike.  After a lot of research, and thought about what I wanted in a bike, I settled on the Xcel.

As I mentioned before, the Xcel is an ideal commuter.  It came with a steel frame, Shimano 27 speed mountain drive train, disc brakes, and a more relaxed geometry and upright ride than a road bike, but also with 700cm wheels and a longer wheel base than a mountain bike.  It’s heavier and slower than a road bike, but is much more comfortable, especially on long rides, and the steel frame is more durable than aluminum, and absorbs some of the bumps of city streets.

Over the last two years Bertha has gone through several configurations, I’ve changed the handlebars twice, had a couple of different rack configurations, have changed the shifters and brake levers, and have done several stem changes.  Her current configuration is as follows:

• Stock, wheels, derailleurs, crank, brakes, and saddle.
• On One Midge handlebar
• Shimano Dura Ace bar end shifters.
• Tectro RL 720 brake levers.
• Tubus Ergo front rack.
• Hitches for Burley Travoy, and Burley Nomad trailers
• Axiom Rainrunner Trekk reflex +disc fenders
• Front and Rear lights
• Topeak frame mounted pump
• Continental Tour Ride tires
• And 2 water bottle cages.

This set-up works great for me for both commuting and touring, and is the configuration I have been using for several months now. 

I started upgrading the wheels and components, but have put off installing them, as I have decided to build up a Surly Disc Trucker to replace Bertha.  I will probably start a series of posts about the build for that bike as I get going on it.  In the meantime, Bertha is serving me quite well, and I am happy with her configuration and performance.

I will do a post soon about my experiences with different cargo carrying methods which will go into more detail about the trailers and rack configurations.

Until next time, keep your bike rubber side down, and enjoy the ride.

The Beginning

Like many of us I started riding a bike as a child, and continued to ride for recreation into my adult years.  Just over three years ago, I started commuting by bike off and on, and quickly fell in love with doing so.  Then, almost two years ago, following a massive heart-attack, I took up bicycle touring.  In that time I have acquired quite a bit of gear for commuting and touring, and have logged a lot of miles on my bikes.

Up until about three months ago, I rode when I could, and commuted by bike when I felt the distance wasn't going to be too bad, and the weather was perfect.  Then about three months ago, my 98' Jeep Cherokee, which I had bought new, finally gave up the ghost, and I was thrown into relying on my bikes for all my transportation.  Since I already used my bike a lot, and had all the necessary gear for commuting and running errands, the switch to bike-only transportation wasn't as huge a shock as it would have been, had I been thrown into it unprepared.

At first I thought my new auto-free life was going to be temporary until I could get back into a car.  However, once I was forced to start relying on my bike, and not being able to rely on a combustion engine, I realized that I didn't miss the hassles of driving, and quite liked using my bikes in the place of my poor old Jeep. So, now I am committed to not getting another gas sucker, and instead, relying on my bikes.

Since I spend so much time explaining to people how I am able to live a life by bike, I have decided to also write about it as a way to show others that it can not only be done, but that it can be fun, and in some ways, rewarding.  To that end, I have started this blog.

I have no formal plan for the layout or direction for this blog, so it will probably bounce around for a while.  Anyone who reads it and has questions about any aspect of bicycle commuting, or suggestions for topics is free to contact me, and I will see what I can do to address these questions and Ideas.  Quite frankly I could use the help. 

So, thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you, and hope that something on this blog will help someone else along the way, and we can all enjoy the ride.