Best bike to haul cargo with

If a person wanted to live a car-less life.....and be
able to haul cargo such as groceries and other heavy
stuff on.... what TYPE of bike is best suited for that?

wrote:
If a person wanted to live a car-less life.....and be
able to haul cargo such as groceries and other heavy
stuff on.... what TYPE of bike is best suited for that?

For heavy duty hauling, consider a SUV:
http://organicengines.com/products/the-sensible-utility-vehicle-aka-the-suv/.

The SUV hauls, er boxes:
http://organicengines.com/wp-content/images/SUV_and_Pedicab/SUV_in_Action/trailerwboxes1.jpg.

--
Tom Sherman - Behind the Cheddar Curtain
Impact is not a synonym of affect or effect

wrote:
If a person wanted to live a car-less life.....and be
able to haul cargo such as groceries and other heavy
stuff on.... what TYPE of bike is best suited for that?

Even within what you describe, it varies according to preferences,
physical ability, distances and conditions that will be ridden, etc.
Also, all of these factors are vary mutable as you get more used to
being car-free, become more conditioned as a cyclist, etc. Sometimes
when a person wants to jump into using bikes for primary
transportation, getting a good setup that's highly functional and
comfortable immediately without having to go through multiple bikes can
be a challenge.

In most cases, I think loaded touring bikes are the best overall genre
of bike for general transportation. I'm car free and it's important to
me to be able to ride fairly long distances at a moment's notice for
transportation's sake and to have all my riding be fairly fast, and
loaded touring frame set up a bit on the roadie side is what I use. A
lot of bikes marketed as transportation oriented are very biased
towards upright positions, flat bars, etc, but these don't really make
much sense for someone needing to do a 5 mile commute in 20 minutes
every morning. Loaded touring bikes are durable, more stable than
race-derived road bikes, can fit fat tires and fenders, carry weight,
and are just a bit slower than any other type of road bike - and that
difference gets pretty much closed if you run less heavy duty wheels on
it. Sport touring frames and bikes, another pretty rare species
currently, also can do it well depending on how much weight you're
talking about.

Another kinda tricky to deal with factor of bike transportation is
security. My primary bike's full value is currently pretty up there,
which is well worth it to me, and by locking smartly I'm comfortable
locking it under most circumstances, but not all, and that's a problem
sometimes. If I lived in a large, theft-prone city, I'd want something
with much less money in it that could still get the job done well,
giving up some stuff that's plenty worth it under other circumstances.

Current loaded touring bikes, and transportation-oriented bikes in
general, tend to have stuff on them they really shouldn't, like road
triples, integrated shifters, modern road bike positioning, and other
stupidness. Custom builds are basically the only way to go for this
type of bike, but it gets expensive.

wrote in message
...
If a person wanted to live a car-less life.....and be
able to haul cargo such as groceries and other heavy
stuff on.... what TYPE of bike is best suited for that?


Roadbike plus trailer:
http://www.bobtrailers.com/

mC

wrote in message
...
If a person wanted to live a car-less life.....and be
able to haul cargo such as groceries and other heavy
stuff on.... what TYPE of bike is best suited for that?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Here is a link to a clever trailer setup, that I just happened to find on
rec.crafts.metalworking:
http://www.rqriley.com/b-pusher.htm It's a set of plans for a trailer that
has electric power, and can push the bike, or be towed, and can carry cargo.

"Nate Knutson" wrote:

In most cases, I think loaded touring bikes are the best overall genre
of bike for general transportation. I'm car free and it's important to
me to be able to ride fairly long distances at a moment's notice for
transportation's sake and to have all my riding be fairly fast, and
loaded touring frame set up a bit on the roadie side is what I use.

I was kind of hoping someone would say loaded touring
bike as I don't have such a bike and want one. And am
looking for a reason to get on I guess. Ha!

seriously tho..... I had consider that maybe speed and
distance were as important factors as cargo capacity

"Nate Knutson" wrote:

. I'm car free

Why are you car free Nate?

what area you live in?

And what brand/model touring bike you have?

"MykalCrooks" wrote:

Roadbike plus trailer:
http://www.bobtrailers.com/

good point!

gives you best of both worlds!

wrote:
"Nate Knutson" wrote:

. I'm car free

Why are you car free Nate?

what area you live in?

And what brand/model touring bike you have?

because it's cheap, fun, healthy, not particularly difficult if your
life is set up around it, human scale, screws up the planet quite a
hell of a lot less, etc. i live in olympia, washington, usa most of the
time. my main bike is a trek 520 loaded touring frame from 1993 with
nothing stock on it. current trek 520's are an okay starting point for
transportation stuff, but they have stupidly stretched out positioning
that really doesn't work for a lot of people for the purposes they're
buying the bike for, and they've also got road triples, which are
geared too high for carrying serious weight. using a stem extender may
be necessary to get the bike to fit, which is kind of lame. otoh, the
bike has solid components and they come at a much cheaper price than
what it would cost to build up something comparable custom, which would
probably be necessary.

a lot of people currently are getting surly long haul truckers for all
around use, and they work very well. the only problem is the expense of
the build.

Wrote:
If a person wanted to live a car-less life.....and be
able to haul cargo such as groceries and other heavy
stuff on.... what TYPE of bike is best suited for that?
Surly Long Haul Trucker, Surly or Tubus racks, and quality waterproof
panniers from Lone Peak or Ortlieb.
Trailers are OK if items are too bulky for racks and panniers.


--
daveornee