A couple of weeks ago MLW announced that it was time to make a chuck roast. This is always a moment of celebration in the house - My Lovely Wife is a magnificent cook, and when she applies her skills to a large item like a roast it means that the goodness lasts across several meals. I am a particular beneficiary of this, as I love leftovers, and I seem to be of a singular preference for that in our household.
My role in these things is often to fetch items, and this meal was no exception. I was beginning to gear up for my Sunday ride when she asked if I could run to the store and pick a few things up. It was a short list, and so my first thought was that I could quickly run into town, grab the items on the list, and then go for a ride upon my return. And then it occurred to me: maybe I could kill two birds with one trike...
Ok - so the metaphor there needs a little bit of work, but you can probably see where I am going with this. I asked her if she needed the things on her list right away, or if it would be okay if it took an hour or so. She agreed, and didn’t even roll her eyes at me (or if she did, she was kind enough to do it when I wasn’t looking - either way, I’m a very lucky man).
So I decided it was time to set my Catrike Expedition to work as a grocery getter.
Now I realize that people in urban areas have been using their bikes to run to the store for several years now, and that those numbers are increasing as the amount of urban cycling increases overall. In that respect, this idea is not a new one, and in fact, when I lived in an urban-ish area in the 2000’s I used my Cannondale and a repurposed child trailer to do periodic grocery hauling myself.
Enjoying this post? Check out our Cycling page for links to other cycling articles on Applied Life
But we don’t live in an urban area now. We live about six miles out of town on the open prairie, and getting to the grocery store is a 12-mile round trip. Comparatively speaking, my trip to the store back in our urban-ish days was less than three miles all told. This is not a complaint - we actively chose to live out here, and this is not a decision I regret - but it does mean that a ride to the store is a greater time commitment, and that it requires planning - there’s no running back again for "one more thing".
In this case, it also meant that I needed to do some planning in terms of carrying capacity. I reviewed the list that MLW provided:
And determined that I should be able to carry all of that in my pannier bags if I emptied a few things out of them first. Mostly this meant that I wouldn't be carrying additional insulating gear (which I’ve been keeping in there as the weather gets colder), and that I would have only one spare tube for the front and rear tires. So, you know, if I got two front flats I’d have to call for help. None of that would have been necessary if I had a trailer to pull behind my trike, but some jackass has been dragging his feet at getting that project finished...
That all set up, I double-checked to make sure I had my wallet along with me - there are few things more frustrating than riding 6-8 miles to do an errand just to find that you have not brought along a vital component to completing said errand; or, you know, so I hear... - and started riding my way into town.
This adventure occurred on the 15th of December. The temperature was right around 20°F, but it was sunny and the wind was blessedly, atypically still. In short, it was a perfect December riding day.
The ride in was uneventful, and the shopping itself was, you know, shopping. I’m sure I attracted a bit of attention with my riding gear. I’m not a MAMIL - I’m middle aged, but I don’t go in for specialized riding clothes. However, I was wearing Columbia noisy pants (nylon hiking pants) and a bright orange insulated jersey (Lycra I don’t need, but visibility I do). But as is true of midwestern small town life, if people took notice they whispered about it amongst themselves.
The challenge came in when it was time to pack my produce on to the trike:
Fortunately I had calculated correctly, and everything fit. But once it was in there, I could certainly feel it.
While celery and herbs don’t add much by way of weight, the wine and the beef broth - two containers of each - certainly did. I packed the broth on one side and the wine on the other in order to balance things out. This wasn’t exactly perfect - the broth was about 4lbs (2lbs per container), and a 750ml bottle of wine is about 3lbs, for a total of 6, but I put the broth on the side with my spare tubes and tools, so it was probably pretty close. Once I was all loaded up I zipped the bags shut and hit the road.
When I say that I could feel it, I mean that I could definitely tell that there was more weight on board for the return trip. It wasn’t unreasonable, and I’ve carried far more weight on the back of the trike without significant issue. But you definitely knew it was there. And it shows on the stats for the ride as well. My ride speed from Cyclemeter is in the graph below:
The ride in is 6.36 miles, and that sharp drop-off in speed around mile 6 is almost certainly my arrival in the parking lot. To even things out, I compared the first five miles to the last five, leaving out miles six and seven. My average speed for the first five miles on the way in was 15.4mph, while on the way out it dropped to 12.3mph. So the extra 10-11lbs of groceries dropped my average speed by about 3mph.
This was, all in all, just about a perfect day for this comparison. Usually wind is a significant factor in riding on the prairie. The fact that the day was essentially still means that the difference in speed can largely be attributed to the difference in weight. One could argue, I suppose, that I might also have been more fatigued on the way back, but this grocery run was shorter than my average ride for the year thus far (14.27), and I often find that my speeds either maintain or go up as I get warmed up, so I don’t think fatigue was a significant factor.
To me, that 3mph drop seems a reasonable trade-off for the utility use of the trike. When I put together my argument for recumbent trikes being the ideal rural bike, this was exactly the sort of thing that I had in mind. The Expedition handled the weight well, and I was able to manage the load at a reasonable return speed. 12.3mph isn’t going to set any speed records, mind you, but it’s pretty good for managing an additional 10-11 lbs over and above what I carried in.
And, as always, I just love it when I get the opportunity to use my trike as transportation. I don’t have the illusion or expectation that I will ever be in a position to cycle for most of my transportation, but on this occasion, at least, I used no fossil fuels, put no wear and tear on my car, and managed to get some exercise. In my book, all of that comes together for a win.
And incidentally: the roast was excellent!