So the beer supply was running dangerously low so I said I’d whip the bike out and nip to the shop! Bejeesus I’d forgotten how sketchy a bit of pavement riding with a bag on the bars was 😆

Just one bag? You need one either side for the full effect.

Amateur. The real way of doing it is to have the bag in one hand and ride one handed.

There’s a chap who regularly rides to the village shop on his old Dawes tourer. It has three bottle cages (both sides of down tube and one on seat tube). He can often be seen riding home with three bottles of red safely stashed in the cages. Genius.

As much as it aggrieves me to come close to agreeing with something that wankymanlove says, but you never, ever, hang shopping on the bars.

At least as bars get wider, the bag arc has less chance of colliding with the spoke like a Venn diagram of pain.

…like a Venn diagram of pain.

😆 Excellent.

Bejeesus I’d forgotten how sketchy

That’s good to hear. I did it yesterday with one large Kingsmill loaf and two packets of bananas in one carrier bag hooked on the drop bars. As I struggled to steer I thought to “it must be me because people have panniers on their front wheels (I’ve never ridden a bike with panniers) and presumably they manage alright. So not just me then.

A mate of mine had to have his hand reconstructed with pins and grafts and all sorts after a fall that happened cos he had a carrier bag on his bars. Just say no kids…

At least as bars get wider, the bag arc has less chance of colliding with the spoke like a Venn diagram of pain.

Goes something like this (obviously not a shopping bag but same outcome…

I remember doing exactly that wiggles when I was about 14 – the jacket I was carrying got caught up in the front spokes, only I was catapulted over the handlebars and I landed in front of my bike well clear of it. I was with a group of mates (just come out of a scout meeting) and I couldn’t stop laughing – there wasn’t a scratch on me. It was a lesson I never forgot though.

Used to fetch all my bachelor shopping (bacon and bread, coffee and milk) on a Carlton road bike (downtube shifters) -right hand holding carrier bag, left hand on top of the drops. Waved to a mate in this guise once whilst cycling around a small village traffic island, the wave unbalancing the delicate shebang (with a light rain starting up) so the bike left me and slid away sideways across the road. I simply landed on both feet in a short jog, bag intact. Well embarrassing at the time, yet looking back it could possibly only have been cooler if had still been smoking the silk cut I’d recently flicked out 8)

It was hard work carrying a ten litre tub of paint home from Screwfix yesterday. Especially on the fixie and trying to brake with a knackered knee .Couldn’t use the front brake as the paint was over the lever !!

Don’t put the bag on the bars. Hang it off your wrist. Painful to say the least if you have a decent load in there but you don’t get the oscillations.

Got to do the “bigshop” today, I’ll be taking the car!

When I was 9 I rode with a bag of comics on the handlebars, got caught in the spokes and I ended up with 7 stitches in my chin as a result!

Malvern Rider, there’s nothing cool about a Silk Cut.
Marlboro red FTW

APF

Friends dad found a roadie who did just what’s in that vid. Except he’d leant forward to adjust his brake as it was rubbing. Fingers in spokes, flip, ouch.

Good to hear people still do that. It was my regular Saturday morning job as a kiddy. My most recent one was attempting to carry two fold up camping chairs under my arm on the bike. I found starting a bit wobbly.

I may be able to beat my other half down a sketchy section of Lustleigh Cleave, but she laughs in the face of my bag handling skills..

The way she hustles four heavy bags home from downtown with a pleasant grin on her face is enough to make the hardiest rider blush

One of the few things for which a unicycle is better than a bike.

Yup I did the bag in spokes front flip in the middle of the road when I was a kid too……

Only once.

Reminds me of the wife not following my advice when taking the dog out on the bike. Hold the lead loosly in your hand.. leaving your best hand on the bars. She hooked the lead onto her bars, with unfortunately predictable results.
😆

Done this loads of times and never come a cropper. I must be really great at it. Turn smoothly enough and the same forces keeping you stable with the bike leant over keep the carrier bag hanging in line with the bike.

I can dispense high handed advice like this with relative impunity, because we’ve bought a house right next to a Co-op, so I shouldn’t have to do this again this any time soon.

I used to do this all the time as a student. Biked everywhere.

Split the shopping into two bags, one one each side, then steer really smoothly. Bit of practice and skill, no issues 🙂

My best was carrying a large empty suitcase on the bike about 4 miles to a station. Bloody uncomfortable to hold in one hand, best thing I could do was balance it sideways on the top tube under both arms. Still too big to be comfortable but I made it.

Managed to unscrew/flip the lid off a bottle of pop when bag swung into the spokes when I was a kid. Considering the potential alternative outcome losing a bit of lemonade wasn’t too bad.

Did take a tumble riding home from the kebab shop a year or two back. Fortunately I was “relaxed” enough that I bounced/rolled well.

Riding several miles to the train station with a weeks worth of clothes in a rucksack and pushing another bike is about my best achievement.