I'd like to do less with the car, and was thinking about either a new bike or add on contraption (xtracycle, trailer etc) that would allow me to do things like big supermarket shops, etc. Anyone got any experience of this sort of thing?

I don't have long distances to haul stuff, but would like to be able to carry significantly more, with greater flexibility, than, for example, in a large rucksack.

Cheers all!

Trailers rock!
If you're looking to carry lots, I'd got for a 2 wheeler that attaches to the axle as they affect the handling a lot less….
We've got an avenir mule FWIW.

DrP

Clicky

Clicky

For the record, I have a Kona Ute 🙂

I've been running an xtracycle for a few months and I love it. I've carried everything on it – my family, shopping, recycling and even a garden bench. The extra cargo capacity is incredibly useful and makes you look at things and say "I bet I could get that on my xtracycle". I've no experience with trailers, but for my purposes it was more sensible for me to have something which can be ridden and stored as one unit – I have a singletrack bike, so this is just for the load and family carrying.

I love the xtracycle / longtail concept so much so that I'm going the whole hog and speccing up a custom Surly Big Dummy. Drop me a line if you're likely to be interested in either an xtracycle freeradical kit or a fully built xtracycle monster. 🙂

http://www.extrauk.co.uk/product/detail/Carry_Freedom/Bike_Trailers/5042/

Thinking of getting one of these myself.