I am not a bicycle cougar - I like to ride bikes that are my age, not twenty years younger. While this terrible metaphor is extended let me go farther to say that I don’t mind a little junk in the trunk... so long as it’s junk on a trailer - attached to and rolling on a bicycle. Bicycle trailers get a terrible rap, only new mothers and homeless people seem to use them, but they are great ways to save money, burn calories instead of gas, and are an flexible tool for a creative environmentalist.
Whenever I decide to move something massive “carlessly” across Davis, I get onlookers expressing every emotion from disbelief, disgust, and inspiration. I must admit coming to Davis five years ago, I was just as uncomfortable with the bulk transport that happens on bike. Over time, I’ve joined in, moving through downtown with a variety of different laundry hampers, long loaves of french bread, and recently, a 12 person bike rack.
I decided to do some addition by subtraction between my old and new home. Several bicycle racks were donated by TAPS tothe Davis Bicycle Collective, and we had no place for them afer our movement downtown. These old things were taking up space at the Domes and to help with Save the Domes effort, the ministers recently sent a bevy of bike trailers and a few trucks over to clean up.
Trucks did a lot of the work, but I was committed to eschew gasoline for this grueling and dangerous task. I borrowed two bicycle carts, tied down the bike rack between them, and set sail. The transfer required almost a surreal amount of initial momenta, but once we were rolling, I got cheers from ARC bikers and looks of delirium from Davis pedestrians. It’s amazing how wheels, legs, and a good plan can move something that’s big (12’, 200 lbs) with relative ease and without petroleum distillate.
Most of our daily trips aren’t this well planned, and often people run into a time crunch: a party, a deadline, and some need to get a good from point A to point B, and suddenly their bike becomes insufficient and their car steps in. No one that lives in my house has that excuse. We have a house-owned trailerbike and tandem, two bikes that anyone in our house can use for transporting people and goods. When the loads are small, my housemates are much more efficient than I am, they get by just fine with using bicycle racks or baskets on their personal bikes.
I may actually be more into bike storage than biking. My fellow ministers often joke about my need to put 2-3 bags on each bike I own. My approach is quirky, as always. I’m into “pre-vintage”. I’ll leave new bikes and bags to you cougars out there - my bikes have thirty year old hot pink fanny-packs. Storage personalization is key for bikers - everyone has their own way. The polo ministers are quick to accept band-aids and alcohol directly from my mounted first aid kit. The techy ministers use of the plastic bucket pannier is tacky but utilitarian. The fixie ministers obtain expensive hipster purses and call them shoulder bags. The mountaineer ministers don’t even have bicycle storage they just hold their things with their teeth. The salaried cyclotourers in Davis just buy proper Ortlieb panniers (based on an old French word for bread basket), which made in Germany, and made from stitching Euros together into Chinese finger traps.
Not me. Just fanny packs and other 80’s bike tech. A friend and I have been jokingly planning “The Polyester Ride”, which is a sarcastic answer to “the Tweed Ride”, an SF parade where everyone wears clothing from the 20’s and rides 20’s crappy deathtrap bikes. My reasoning: if you want to celebrate bicycle’s actual golden age, you should be riding on the steel classics of the late 80s and early 90s. And of course, dress like my heroes: MJ, Depeche Mode, and the Smashing Pumpkins.
In general, very little about transporting goods, shopping, and hauling with your bike is sexy or stylish. It’s point A to point B. It’s also a design solution, and for non-traditional engineer like myself, it’s a bit of fun, and something to boast about later. (There are limits... I had to use my van to move some couches recently, but soon I plan to remaking a broken row bike as a chariot for these...) To milk the cliche as far as it goes, it’s not about the destination, it’s the journey. And the junk in the trunk you took on that journey.
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