How do you carry groceries on your ebike?

[craneplaneguy]

Wow, dogman has it figured out! Great pics....

When I was checking out the Burley Travoy trailer I ended up getting for gas getting while on plane trips (8 gallons at a time) I remember the company had a video of a cute girl riding her bike through town with the Travoy behind. She gets to the grocery store and using the 1 second unhitching feature of the Travoy ( a spring loaded thumb latch, quicker to do then typing this) she struts right into the store, using the Travoy as a hand cart, and uses it like a shopping cart. After checking out she packs her purchases (only healthy food, no junk food of course) right back into the heavy duty bag that comes with the Travoy and that also is super quick and easy to remove (though I don't use it for packing my fuel containers around, it's big enough a lot of groceries) she walks out to her bike and wham she's gone. She get's home and lifts off the bag and she's done. That vid sold me.

I have used the hand cart feature many times, when the plane is tied down somewhere far away from where I am going to camp, it makes a great hand cart, perfectly balanced and effortless to use. I really like it, and have no regrets I bought it, it's quick folding feature works great. I have landed someplace around other pilots, and in just a very few minutes (less then 5, about 3) I get the e-Montague out, fold out and attach the Travoy then blast off at 30 MPH to go get lunch and some car gas (while they remain stuck at the airstrip, buying leaded Av gas for 2 or 3 dollars more a gallon and eating out of a vending machine if they're lucky). I save enough by getting my gas this way to eat well, for free in effect. The Burley company needs to make a new sales video of me doing this?

 

[motomech]

I made my own travoy trailer out of a hand truck.....



https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=86115&p=1259972&hilit=+travoy#p1259972

And in the 9 months I have been using it, I have had only one prob., a flat.
Fortunately, the trailer was empty and I just rode home with no problem.
But I found the original hand truck tire impossible to repair, so I replaced them w/ these tire/whl. combos from Harbor Frieght, which I like much better;

https://www.harborfreight.com/10-inch-pneumatic-tire-30900.html

The originals were hard, square-edged and smelly, while these are soft, rounded and don't stink. I bought 3 and now carry a spare.....

.....

and for $5 each, if I ever get another flat, I won't bother to try and repair it.

Overall, I have been very happy w/ the rig, it's tows straight as an arrow @ my 20 mph cruising speed and I can carry an amazing amount of stuff in it.

 

[Hwy89]

Hey motomech, can you post a close up of the hitch and explain how it operates?

 

[craneplaneguy]

One thing about the Travoy type hitch, if maxed out weight wise and if you have a low geared tweaked BBSHD (1300 watts) and really romp on the throttle when pulling out in front of a line of oncoming motorhomes, and you are not aware of the the phenomenon, you can pull a real impressive inadvertent wheelie! I learned this lesson, happily in a non threatening situation, the oncoming RV's were just close enough for the lesson to be firmly imprinted and since then I have learned how to ride when packing a heavy load. It hadn't occurred to me until it happened, and I'm sure the RV's driver was really impressed with my display, but since then I wait until I get off the line and then gradually feed in throttle, and only do wheelies when not towing 8 gallons of car gas.

That makes perfect sense, taking a off the shelf hand cart and making a Travoy type bike trailer out of it, very cool. For my special need (having to fit inside my small airplane) the Travoy was a great choice. Check out the Burley site, I think they have a close up view somewhere of the trailer hitch, and you can buy it separately, it's listed as an accessory I believe. The stock one is made to clamp around the seatpost, but I think there is also one made to bolt down to a rear rack.

 

[craneplaneguy]

The other day I was experimenting in how to fit my fat bike in my RAV4, though I do have a rear bumper hitch for local transport, for long distance travel I want to keep it inside. It occurred to me that pulling the front tire would let it easily fit, but the front brake structure on one side made it real unstable when just resting on the fork. Any kind of small tire would solve the problem, I went up into my shop's misc. area and found a pair of these wheels, scrounged somewhere,(maybe bought at Harbor Freight,) long ago. The bike axle fits, dia. wise, perfectly, and once on the little tire it is way easier to move the bike around and roll it up and into my 4, which has the rear seat removed, so it's like a mini panel truck.

 

[motomech]

Hey motomech, can you post a close up of the hitch and explain how it operates?

Yeah, they are Burley parts. There is more detail in the build thread I linked.

 

[999zip999]

Never Never on the handle bars. I was just 3 blocks away so put thr 12 pack on the handle bars. A car came backwards fast out a driveway I turned fast so not to be hit and spun me around and down. Woke up in the hospital 5 hours later. The 80 plus bike is a beast. 8 Staples and the 12pack next to my hospital bed. The last thing I wanted to see.
How about a Yak 16in single rear wheel trailer ? Make it so you can hook it on hook it off as needed Hall tools

 

[Ykick]

In addition to carrying groceries I can stuff up to 2000Wh battery under the tub and ride crazy distances….

 

[LewTwo]

I am retired and my ebike is now my ONLY transportation. I have used most of the solution mention above (baskets, panniers, backpack, etc). In the end I LOVE my Travoy!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038LPO5Y

That is six 2 liter soft drink bottles in the bottom. The handy thing about the Travoy is I pull it into the grocery store and use it for a shopping cart. No one complains ... in fact I have received several compliments and question about where I acquired it from from store personnel. I got mine from Amazon as a Warehouse special. I easily carry up to 60 pounds of groceries home. Of course it is a rather expensive solution and their hitch is way overpriced.

I am using a DIY hitch (actually have several of those now). The primary components being a 1/4 x 2-1/2 long SST bolt/wingnut.

I have also added a 'ammo box' to the rear rack to hold misc stuff (bungees, tools, letters, bike lock, etc).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051F8RPE

 

[amberwolf]

How do those trailers handle repetitive big bumps, like "ocean asphalt"?

A lot of major intersections here in Phoenix, there are large (2"+, sometimes 6"+) "waves" of asphalt caused by vehicles accelerating and braking thru the intersection, especially during summer when it's hot and pliant.

The bigger the intersection, the worse it is and the more waves there are (at least 4 per lane, one each side of the main wheel path/rut).

The one at the north end of metrocenter is bad enough to bounce my heavy trike around as I cross it.

 

[LewTwo]

How do those trailers handle repetitive big bumps, like "ocean asphalt"?

Only one street like that in my neighborhood. I try to avoid it. When I can not then I slow down ... a lot.

 

[amberwolf]

Only way I can avoid them is by using more dangerous and circuitous routes across the traffic-laden streets some distance away from the intersection itself, wherever there are left-turn slots in the medians. :/

Those median slots often have heavy damage to the road from vehicles coming to abrupt stops and/or making abrupt U-turns or hard turns at the point it exits to the opposing traffic direction's street. Sometimes they are worse than the intersections. Plus you have to cross the traffic lanes to get to them with no stoplights, on each half of the street, doubling the danger and the delay. There are places that it could take twenty minutes to cross such a street.

There's usually no way to simply make a right turn onto such a street from the street you were on, and then make left-lane-changes to get to the median turn slot--traffic is too heavy and too fast. So one has to make a right turn and then pull into whatever parking lot driveway faces the entrance to the median slot, then turn around and wait for your chance to cross all the lanes at the same time.

 

[craneplaneguy]

The Travoy has somewhat of an unintended suspension, it has a bit of flex in the tubing that probably absorbs some shock. Nonetheless, I don't jump off curbs like usual when using mine, I baby it as much as possible, that only makes sense. As far as hitting the usual unavoidable crap on the roads or wherever, so far so good. I DO need to get around to sliming my Travoy's tires though, as having a flat would shut my little operation down as readily as getting one on the bike. Another feature not shown about the Travoy, is when unhooked from the bike it can be stood upright thanks to a little folding bottom leg, it's a pretty well thought out design.

 

[motomech]

On mine, even though the steel hand truck frame doesn't flex much, the mild steel handle/attaching tube does.
On irregular pavement, if it's unloaded, the whole thing just kind of skips along. But when it's loaded(never weighed it, but I imagine I can put 50 lb.s of groceries in it), that tube flexes enough that I can feel the bike slow down, then unload and speed up, etc., etc. Although it feels weird, it doesn't feel dangerous. Changing to the soft, round tires helped the ride quite a bit. I run 15 psi in then.
I keep the speed at 20 mph or below, not because it feels like it's getting uncontrolable. But in case there is a traffic situation and I have to do a panic stop.

 

[markz]

4 bags tops on the handlebars with even weight on both sides.
Perhaps a 2L milk and cans on one side, then 4L milk and softies on other side.

If I need more, I drop off at home, and go back for more, but that hasnt happened yet. I'd more likely wait until the next day and buy some more. Just gotta go to grocery store every day or so.

This method helps with "consumerism" which is, not buying items you don't essentially need.
It also helps at Costco with just filling up a beefy box with decent handles on it, but I drive for that run.

 

[dustNbone]

Good ol' fashioned big ass pannier bags for me. I can drop a well packed grocery bag straight into each of them with room on top for some other crap. I've reclaimed my rack with a triangle battery since the pic was taken, so 4L jugs of milk and cases of beer, etc go up there and get bungeed down. I don't think I've been on more than a half dozen non-ebike grocery trips since I built this a couple of years ago. It's so much less stressful than dealing with the traffic and parking a car in the gong show that is a typical shopping plaza. I live about 2km from the grocery store I do most of my shopping at, so taking the bike is genuinely the fastest way to get the job done.

 

[tigcross]

since you asked...
[youtube]wmW33ejRJ1k[/youtube]

 

[jcool3]

Wald 535 twin wire baskets mounted permanently.
I also mounted my controller to basket wall with the battery pack itself inside one of the baskets. Battery pack is easily removed
when I leave bike.
Mounts at rear of bicycle instead of rear rack.
Offers a level wired platform extending over the rear wheel for piling stuff or crates on top
Twin baskets on each side of rear wheel
Low center of gravity.
Twelve inches deep, tapers from 17x7" at the top to 16x5" at the bottom on each side

 

[ddk]

cargo?
trikes win ever time. :lol:

 

[The fingers]

That must equal of at least 6 of my Wald basket's worth.

 

[amberwolf]

Yeah; I used baskets on all four corners my old pedal bikes, and kept them on DayGlo Avenger until I started using the big metal box pannier (more secure, better balance/ride), which I also used on CrazyBike2.

But the trike...it definitely conquers most (if not all; there's some heavy-duty bakfiets out there) bikes, in cargo-carrying. Not many carry a St Bernard and still have room on top for cargo. :lol:

(no dog actually in the crate in pic, but they do fit in it):

 

[dogman dan]

Truly the SUV of the e trikes. The bench seat really makes sense for you, since pedaling is not really much of an option for you.

At the moment, I'm actually going to the store without motors, since the rental I'm in is literally 3 blocks from two different groceries. This leads to many small trips being easy too.

Once I get my house back (rebuilding after the battery fire) I'll go back to the method I had been using, a knock off of a bob trailer on an e bike. This is for a ten mile round trip to a grocery. I never got quite hard core enough to carry home the dog food, but I can easily fit a half a grocery cart of stuff in the trailer, and on the rear deck of this rig.

To make the bob trailer work, I added permanent hitch pins to the frame. Normally a bob trailer uses pins that replace the rear axle nuts.

 

[TheBeastie]

Wow, lots of creativity here.
I just go the most simple with the biggest pannier bags I could easily find combined with the em3 ev frame bag for my battery pack having the battery pack out of the way frees up a lot of space.
https://em3ev.com/shop/em3ev-triangle-battery-bag/ I have had other frame bags but the EM3 has been by far the most durable for me.

The other thing I do is quasi-plan my shopping, if I am going to take the car I buy those really bulking items that take up a lot of space and dont expire like toilet paper, these bulky things are incredibly inconvenient for medium sized level shopping on the ebike.
I must buy my groceries 60% of the time via ebike and thats because I hate car parking.. Being able to lock up the ebike right in front of the store and walk in and out is more convenient.

 

[fechter]

Wald folding basket on pannier frame:



The bungee cord is mainly to reduce the rattling when folded. Also handy for keeping things in the basket when not folded.

 

[orange streak]

Only two wheels!
Glad I designed and made my cargo box. 16" wide by 34" long made from lightweight aluminum composite, aluminum channels and rivets.