Best way to carry stuff on your bike commute: Panniers, basket, backpack or milk crate?

coffee computer bag with computer lunch worm hat aka toque gloves come on i live in canada and it's fall clorox disinfecting wipes hand sanitizer face mask stress ball these are all the things you need to take to work these days in the middle of this covet 19 pandemic just to get through the day now the question is when you're a bike commuter what's the best way to take that stuff well i'm glad you asked that question that is the topic of today's video we're going to test the best way of getting your work stuff to work and what we're going to do today is test four different methods panniers for saddlebags which i've got right here we're also going to try a back basket we're going to try a backpack and the venerable milk crate i'm gonna take all that work stuff load up each of these carrying devices and go for a ride and we'll try to figure out what is the best method for carrying your work stuff got it okay okay first off we're gonna test panniers or cargo bags so the good people at vencido were good enough to send me this bag a few weeks ago so i've been testing it out a couple of things about this bag it's got a clasp on each side to seal it up and a nice tight velcro seal at the top in goes the lunch gloves just in case toque just in case mask just in case stress ball it's pandemic let's seal it up there we go and that's only half the bag in goes the coffee in goes the all-important bleach wipes and the all-important hand sanitizer there we go plenty of room to spare let's hit the road okay so that's the penny pennies are great because once you start riding you just completely forget they're there once you start pedaling you you rarely feel the weight in the back these ones are quite good like i said before they're from vencita and they're good enough to provide me a sample they're pretty roomy they everything fit with room to spare i could probably put more stuff in here if i needed it i was able to stop on the way and of course put on my tooth because it's cold out uh they're pretty good quality these bags are quite good one of the best things about this bag is the affordability they're about 45 dollars u.s which is a pretty good price for uh a decent quality pannier um they've got velcro straps which i don't love actually there are better ways of fixing a bag than just velcro these ones on the top there's a couple of velcro straps on the bottom here as well that attach to your rack so it's a little awkward to get in there and do the velcro up but other than that they're pretty good one of the best things about this bag is that it's nice i've got lots of compliments on it people keep i've had like three or four people say oh i love the color so for for an affordable bag this bencita is a good one and i recommend it you can easily undo the velcro straps and take the thing with you so it's a pretty good commuter option because it's so convenient and easy to use pennies did the job really well next we're going to try my old favorite which is a basket but will it hold up to the commuter challenge i don't know let's check it out now i've had this basket for i'm going to say 10 years and i wish i could remember the brand because it's been great i love it it used to have a handle on the top it's somehow i broke it off over the years but don't let that discourage you because it's a really good basket and the handle was nice because you could just take it off and go what's great about this basket is it just got these clamps on the bottom and they attach right to the back of your bike bam bam and you're good to go so it goes on and off really quickly and really easily and i've loved this basket over the years because it's just so convenient whenever i'm going to the grocery store or something i just throw the things in the back and i go there's no unbuckling anything there's no zippers there's no velcro it's just super simple to get things in there and take off especially if you're going on errands where you're picking up a small number of things but the question is can i take all the stuff i need for my commute let's see computer bleach wipes hand sanitizer coffee of course face mask stress ball and of course my lunch which for all you people who will ask later which is nobody this isn't actually my lunch i'm faking it it really is just [Music] three cans of beans it could be a lunch here we go it all fit in the basket quite well there's a little bit of extra room let's take a ride okay there's the basket and there was one of the downsides of the basket is you gotta lift your leg a little bit higher to get off the bike so a little trickier but overall the basket held up quite well everything fit in it pretty well it's pretty secure on the back um if you're worried about this one being wobbly it's just because it's a bit old a newer one would have a tighter spring you could even secure it onto the rack a little more securely it'd be more permanent that way but it'd be more secure convenience of it is great you just dump stuff in there and go you don't have to zip anything up or latch it the downside i think is that this stuff is uncovered so when i hit bumps sometimes i would feel like things might bounce out upside coffee is accessible i could just reach over and grab it and drink it while i was riding oh the other thing i would say is there's not as much room in the basket as it was in the panties you could haul more stuff in the panties but overall love the basket pretty good option let's try the next one which is the wait for it venerable milk crate probably the most popular bike carrying device in the world now this one is a custom designed bespoke carbon fiber milk crate no i'm just kidding it's a cheap plastic milk crate that i've had in my garage for who knows how long i don't even know where it came from i suppose you could go buy these but i feel like no one's ever paid money for these ever just seem to appear everywhere all over the world people use them on their bikes to secure it i am using not quite duct tape but the next best thing a bungee cord and i know you're going to tell me you should never use a bungee cord on your bike because it could snap off your mother will probably tell you that you lose an eye using a bungee cord but honestly i use them all the time and i've never had a problem so i'm gonna take the chance today let's see if this works of course it'll work it's a bungee cord it always works so you could probably use something more secure you could you know bolt it to your rack or use even cheap plastic cable ties but one of the things i like about a carrying device is it's that it's removable i don't want this milk crate on my bike at all times hence the bungee cord but let's see if it holds up let's see how much stuff we can fit in here we'll start with the computer my lunch my coffee and all the other commuting essentials pretty good actually there's lots of room it's a little bit bigger than the basket the last basket i had but will it hold up on the ride i don't know let's give it a shot so [Music] yeah you got to lift your leg even higher with the milk crate it's uh still in one piece it didn't fall off actually pretty good it carries a lot of stuff it's actually pretty solid this crate it's plastic but it's pretty tough i think i feel like it would last a long time i would say the bungee cord even though i was just talking up how great it was it's a pretty bad way to secure it this was moving around quite a bit on the bumps i thought the whole thing was going to go tumbling off so if you're going to use the milk crate make sure you find a better way to secure it just google it you'll figure it out but overall i'm quite impressed you know especially for for a solution that's pretty much free it's a pretty good option all right one more thing to test okay the last thing on my list to test today is it feels kind of boring but it's a backpack and this is probably the first choice of most people who are commuting is put all your stuff in a backpack and go for the ride nothing fancy about this one it's not a cycling backpack it's just a backpack like a school bag almost it's got good capacity but whatever you can any backpack will do let's see computer can go in there no problem bleach wipes coffee there's a downside is you probably can't reach your coffee oh wait unless i put it in the side innovation on the spot lunch hand sanitizer stress ball face mask let's do this up copy the side pouch because of course you want to be able to reach your coffee while you're riding and the backpack goes on not that exciting but it's functional let's see how it works on a commute okay so there's the backpack now what can i say about the backpack you've all used a backpack before it does what it needs to do but i would say it's actually a little less convenient than the baskets because you have to pack it zip it up put it on whereas with the baskets you just load it up and you're ready to go the backpack is often the default or sort of the easy method that most people use when they're trying to transport stuff on their bike especially when you're when you're new to bike commuting you just go to the backpack because that's what you know i would say it's not the best option because you're carrying that weight on your back and it may not be a lot of weight but you don't even realize how much it matters until you get it off your back and put it into something on the back of your rack it just makes a huge difference you just you feel so free when it is on my back if it's hot it gets sweaty if it's cold it gets sweaty too because i'm usually wearing a thicker jacket i just i just prefer not carrying stuff on my body when i'm on my bike so anyway it's a decent option but i would say there are some limitations to it that a lot of people don't even think about okay so those are the four methods that i wanted to talk about and they all have their advantages but i know you're going to want me to pick a winner let me say this specifically for commuting when you have a set amount of stuff you need to carry and you know you'll be riding through all conditions snow rain sleet hail i think the best option is a pennie why because it's the best mix of all these things it's got good carrying capacity you can seal it up away from the elements it's pretty convenient it does come off your bike you can carry it up into your office and it looks good if you get a nice one like this vencita that being said there are great advantages to the other ones too especially the baskets the baskets are very convenient i would say less for commuting and more just for running errands in the neighborhood if you've got one on your bike at all times you can just pick it up and go they're also good options especially if you're price conscious and i'd actually think the worst one is the backpack if you plan on commuting if you're new to it you're not sure what to do i would say it's worth the investment go for a good pan yay so that's it i hope that helped um i found it kind of fun it's nice to try these things sometimes i i've used all of these over the years but i still surprise myself sometimes when i actually think about testing them like this and i hope it helps make your bike life a little bit simpler anyway thanks for watching please subscribe down below if you haven't already it does make a big difference and i'll see you next time

Channel: Shifter

Views: 442,508

Keywords: Bikes, Bike, Cycling, Urban cycling, Bike Commuting, Panniers, Saddlebags, Bicycles, Basket, Bike Basket, Cargo bike, Bike commuter, Transportation, Urban Transportation, Hauling stuff on a bike, Pannier bags, Pannier rack

Id: w8MX-qMZ9Ao

Length: 12min 18sec (738 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 03 2020