Oddest / strangest thing you transported on a bike?

[jag]

During my eBike trip the other day I stopped at a second hand store about 5km from my house. The $5 price sticker on a projector screen just called out to buy it. Some months earlier I had eyed a similar projector screen in a pawn shop, but they wanted $50 (new they are $100-200). So at $5 I couldn't pass up.

I carried the projector screen together with some other findings to the checkout. The lady rang them up, and when finished she looked up and noticed my bike helmet. "How are you going to get that home on the bike?" she asked pointing to the 5ft long projector screen. I said "I'll figure something out, otherwise in a few minutes I'll be back in the store donating a projector screen."

After stuffing the panniers with the miscellaneous finds I looked at the projector screen and considered my predicament. Luckily I had a few bungee cords with me. Some trial and error tests finally resulted in a somewhat stable lashing along the top tube, rear rack, and the rest sticking out behind. I started biking home, legs widespread to straddle the screen, with bystanders looking. Now as you know from other posts, I still have some gremlins to work out with my eBike's road handling. Not surprisingly loading it up didn't help stability, but I made it home. It was sure nice to have eBike motor power to carry the load up the steep uphill near my home.

So what are other big, strange or bulky things people have carried on their bikes?

 

[Ypedal]

Ha.. got a big box containing 2 x 20" rims with foam on all sized making the box 24x24x12 !!!

put it on my lap between my arms on the handlebars.. pushed off and motored to work the 5km trip on battery only ! :wink: ( I need a trailer.. ) got some funny looks on the way zooming along at 45km/h !

 

[rkosiorek]

3X 8ft lengths of 4" PVC pipe. i did the same as you and lashed them to the horizontal tube and rear rack. i brought along a couple of red plastic bags that i used as flags at the ends.

lucky me that the bike had a bit of power, i could not reach the pedals stradling the tubes between my knees.

rick

 

[needWheels]

32" inch (glass) CRT TV found next to a dumpster. Weighed over 100 pounds.
Still using it to this very day

When I saw it I immediately rode to the dollar store and bought a pack of bungee cords.
I have a very strong rack on my bike that I have tied in several places with high strength wire to the frame.

The key is balance - if you can balance it on your bike and you have good balance skills (several years of road bike training for triathlons when I was younger) you can carry almost anything.

BTW a week later I was carrying just regular groceries home and the rear axle snapped
I went back and locked the bike at the grocery store and walked home - came back a day later with spare parts to get it home - but it was stolen

Haven't tried more than 50 pounds yet on the ebike though...

 

[GTA1]

http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/elyse-sewell-china-styrofoam1.jpg

For interesting cargo on bikes... go to China... mosts parts.... and there is a spectacle to behold!

Though... I have yet to see a hearst on a bicycle...

 

[needWheels]

http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/elyse-sewell-china-styrofoam1.jpg

For interesting cargo on bikes... go to China... mosts parts.... and there is a spectacle to behold!

Though... I have yet to see a hearst on a bicycle...

Three wheels is cheating
(nothing wrong with them but it's still cheating for weird loads, I could carry a ton if I had the axles for it)

But that guy is on a cellphone which is

They used bicycles to carry off the dead and injured at Tienanmen Square, it was very sad to see on PBS the other night

 

[dogman dan]

Nothing too spectacular, but I have brought home several bikes from the flea market on the ebike using the frame on the shoulder carry. I'm pretty close to the flea, about a mile and a half.

 

[John in CR]

Just this week I hauled the materials for two 6 meter gutters, just to see if I could. The materials consisted of a bag of parts, two 6 meter lengths of PVC gutter, and one 6 meter length of 3" PVC tubing. It was actually quite simple, since my hauler bike is a lowered frame stretched 16" ala extracycle, and I went prepared with a 4 meter 2"x2" bungied secure to my bike as a strongback, so the pvc lengths wouldn't act like spaghetti. I did turn a lot of heads both on the way looked like a double ended jouster, and on the way back with the extra long load. For those who have a hard time with metric, 6 meters is just over 19.5ft . The hardware store is just over a mile away and I kept it slow instead of my usual 40mph, so it's really not impressive at all compared to some of the burdens I've seen on bikes onlines, though I haven't seen any with that kind of length.

Now I wish I'd taken a picture, but I need to get a bunch of pvc tubing for a solar heater I'm building for the pool, so I'll be sure to get pics next time.

John

 

[spinningmagnets]

A Fed-Ex shipment from the Golden-Motor factory:

And then gas prices spiked up...

 

[icecube57]

Ive acted as a drafting lead buddy hauled about 5 cyclist on the trail by me. That crap is dangerous . My hand was cramping trying to keep my throttle steady without swaying to much while pedaling like a maniac. But im a sorta wide person and my bike is big too. I was doing about 25mph and they were on my rear tire like stank on "tish".. They were actually riding close enough that their front tire was almost past my derailer. They were like you helped us get an extra 10 miles with no effort.. im like i bet... thats 6-7AH i cant get back lol.

 

[Anonymous]

.

 

[Sid]

During a local festival that jams up most of downtown I needed to pick someone up. I actually removed the front wheel of a bike, put the dropouts on the rack support, and tied the wheel to the handlebars of the bike I was towing. Towed it about three miles that way. Loved the looks.

 

[Chalo]

So what are other big, strange or bulky things people have carried on their bikes?

A six-piece rock band with amplification and lighting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayHQz7z-SUA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kECdoEfv8pg

I had no power assist, unless you count the unfair advantage of me being 6'8" and 350 pounds, or the tendency of a few of my companions to grab on and push when things became slow going uphill.

Earlier, I had used the same rig to haul my wife's eight-piece band with no amplification, but with a real piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI5tK0CDl_0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DRGPSP4ulg
(we show up at 1:45 in the second video)

There are more than two wheels on the special trike and trailer I built, so I guess it's not exactly a bike.

My buddy used it to move a bike shop:

http://austinbikezoo.org/node/51

Do these things count as big, strange, or bulky?

 

[rkosiorek]

FOR YOU CHALO I CAN MAKE AN EXCEPTION.

rick

ps - private message to chalo - bout time you show'd up here. god help if robbie hatfield does

 

[jag]

There are more than two wheels on the special trike and trailer I built, so I guess it's not exactly a bike.
http://austinbikezoo.org/node/51
Do these things count as big, strange, or bulky?

Great trailer! What's your gearing to get going with that rig?

In Edmonton, there's a bus-size bike trailer, but unlike your valiant efforts pulling it single handedly (double leggedly?), the frame is outfitted with 40 or so bike cranks, a transmission system, so everyone on board participates in the propulsion.

 

[Chalo]

There are more than two wheels on the special trike and trailer I built, so I guess it's not exactly a bike.

Do these things count as big, strange, or bulky?

Great trailer! What's your gearing to get going with that rig?

It has a three-speed hub. Gear inches are about 20", 15", and 11.25". That is, in middle gear my speed over the ground is literally the same as the speed of my feet turning the pedals, and in low gear my feet are moving faster than the tires on the ground.

In Edmonton, there's a bus-size bike trailer, but unlike your valiant efforts pulling it single handedly (double leggedly?), the frame is outfitted with 40 or so bike cranks, a transmission system, so everyone on board participates in the propulsion.

I've helped Austin Bike Zoo build some machines with better propulsion capabilities than my stage trike.

 

[Patriot]

On my MTB....


A 12ga Shotgun strapped across the handlebars, and a couple Pheasants hanging off the sides of my rack.




Not sure if these existed when I was a teen (in the 80's), but it sure would have been handy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25-csaz0cBE

 

[fifthmass]

My Civil War reenacting stuff including a musket (in a canvas gun sock) :wink:

Bill

 

[jag]

20 years ago I did one transport on the bike that i remember so well and I won't ever do again (I hope). I had been to a military surplus place and laid my eyes on a big hunk of magnetostabilized transformer. This is the pre-electronic version of getting clean electricity from the (dirty) wall outlet. My (primitive) understanding is that the transformer is designed to saturate the magnetic material under most conditions. Output voltage is is therefore relatively constant, defined by the saturated field more than the varying input voltage.

While most guys my age cruised the beaches for babes, I had this attraction to surplus shops and junkyards, and of course I couldn't resist the 25kg magnetostabilized transformer. Only problem was that I was on my roadbike (no rack), and only had my school backpack (luckily a sturdy type -- Engineering books are also pretty heavy). I took the train (with bike and everything as I usually do) to my parents house up the coast, but the closest station is 30km away. I was used to riding those (or sometimes all the 160km), so I put the backpack on and jumped on the bike. 10km ok, 20km painful, finally arriving at 30km I had a back pain all weekend, and couldn't really enjoy my stay until I had to go back to school again.

Two years ago, my dad sold the house. I had to sadly bring the magnetostabilized transformer, (which had been sitting unused for 18 years), to the recycling. (Together with many other transformers, his collection of shellacked wire for motor windings from the 1930's, another prized 4kW very heavy E-core transformer with dozens of isolated secondary outputs. (I had rescued it from a language recording studio where it powered 30 or so reel-to-reel tape recorders) (silent tears)

 

[Doctorbass]

Why to transport when you can just haul !!

Mine succeded to haul an entire 16000pounds schoolbus!! :wink:

Doc

 

[dogman dan]

Nice doc! When does the carnival with your bike come to New Mexico?

Oddest strangest thing I ever transported on a bike was clearly myself!

I used to quail hunt from a motorcycle, ( not shooting, just getting to the spot) and it was cool how it was allways my turn at a stop sign with a shotgun hanging off my shoulder on a sling.

 

[fitek]

I once rode my motorcycle past a guy in the desert who was hauling some guitars, an amp, and some other stuff in one of those kiddie trailers. Not sure where he was headed but he didn't seem to mind...

I took the attached photo a week or so ago. People looked at my bike funny, like it's a bomb or something.

I think the strangest items, however, were when I came across a garage sale while riding through Sunnyvale. I wasn't prepared to carry anything, but I bought welding leathers, goggles, helmet and other welding supplies plus another bicycle. So I just put on the welding gear and threw the other bike over the handlebars. Not too strange, but probably a weird thing to see cruising down Mathilda on a warm July afternoon.

 

[jag]

I think the strangest items, however, were when I came across a garage sale while riding through Sunnyvale. I wasn't prepared to carry anything, but I bought welding leathers, goggles, helmet and other welding supplies plus another bicycle. So I just put on the welding gear and threw the other bike over the handlebars.

Possible horror B-movie title: The bicycle devouring welding monster

 

[ElectricEd]

Another horror B movie.
I bought a new Austrian scythe the other day and in the evening rode around to a friend's place with it over my shoulder.

Death on wheels. :lol:

My next trick is to do it again with a black cape.

 

[liveforphysics]

20 years ago I did one transport on the bike that i remember so well and I won't ever do again (I hope). I had been to a military surplus place and laid my eyes on a big hunk of magnetostabilized transformer. This is the pre-electronic version of getting clean electricity from the (dirty) wall outlet. My (primitive) understanding is that the transformer is designed to saturate the magnetic material under most conditions. Output voltage is is therefore relatively constant, defined by the saturated field more than the varying input voltage.

While most guys my age cruised the beaches for babes, I had this attraction to surplus shops and junkyards, and of course I couldn't resist the 25kg magnetostabilized transformer. Only problem was that I was on my roadbike (no rack), and only had my school backpack (luckily a sturdy type -- Engineering books are also pretty heavy). I took the train (with bike and everything as I usually do) to my parents house up the coast, but the closest station is 30km away. I was used to riding those (or sometimes all the 160km), so I put the backpack on and jumped on the bike. 10km ok, 20km painful, finally arriving at 30km I had a back pain all weekend, and couldn't really enjoy my stay until I had to go back to school again.

Two years ago, my dad sold the house. I had to sadly bring the magnetostabilized transformer, (which had been sitting unused for 18 years), to the recycling. (Together with many other transformers, his collection of shellacked wire for motor windings from the 1930's, another prized 4kW very heavy E-core transformer with dozens of isolated secondary outputs. (I had rescued it from a language recording studio where it powered 30 or so reel-to-reel tape recorders) (silent tears)

Family transformer fetish?