Luggage

Altura

Ah, Altura. The London commuter’s brand. We stock them. Budget panniers that won’t break the bank.

 

Ortlieb

Ortlieb is more than a bag-it’s a way of life. Gone are the days of wrapping your valuables in carrier bags in order to keep them dry, and then fiddling with endless bungee cords to attach them. Ortlieb bags are easily attached and removed, making cycling just that much less of a hassle. In addition to making cycling gear, Ortlieb also manufactures dry bags for canoeing, so when they say waterproof, they mean waterproof. These are tough construction bags, and all the little plastic hooks and straps that attach them can be replaced separately if they do break.

Ortlieb does a dizzying array of things in addition to cycling panniers. To just about any problem in cycle luggage, Ortlieb has an answer. Want to carry your laptop? Do you want to bolt your map to your handlebars so you don’t have to fish around in your bag every five minutes? Do you want to carry all the gear you’ll need to cycle around the world? On your recumbent? On your trailer? Ortlieb can has the solution to all these conundrums and even more.

Waterproof camera bags, handlebar bags, fold up wash bowls so you can do your washing up when you’re cycling through somewhere 100 miles from a laundrette… I should stop here, but you get the picture.

 

Carradice

Made right here in England, Carradice (we say it Kahra-DEE-che just to be jackasses) brings some old skool class to commuting and touring. Carradice makes saddle bags and panniers out of cotton duck, a canvas like material, waxed so that it’s waterproof. They make the traditional little saddle bags-the ones you can fit an inner tube, keys and a banana into-if your sleek fixxie bike doesn’t have any eyelits for racks, or if you don’t want the weight of a rack on your bike, Carradice makes rucksack sized saddlebags, into which you can fit a lot more. You can also purchase bag supports so that the bag doesn’t sit on the back tyre. They even make a quick release one, for getting on and off the bike quickly. Carradice bags mate nicely with Brooks saddles and accessories to make beautiful chappish babies. Jolly good show!

 

Deuter

Some people just want to carry a rucksack. But traditional rucksacks come with a host of annoyances for the cyclist. They bounce about when you stand on the pedals and cycle fast! Your back gets all sweaty! Stuff pokes you in the kidneys! Moist!

Fear not, Deuter rucksacks are here. Deuter rucksacks have lots of lateral straps that go across your chest and hips to stop the bouncing, and to evenly distribute weight across your back. Deuter “airstrips suspend the bag away from your back, allowing air to circulate and preventing pokiness.

Deuter makes big rucksacks for commuting, and sportier little rucksacks for sportier cycling, jogging or climbing. They even have bags with protective pockets for laptops. Deuter also make bags that are compatible with hydration systems. Bare fresh!

 

Baskets

For some people, a bicycle is not even complete without a basket on the front. Where else can you carry your West Highland Terrier?

With Basketry there are essentially two ways of attaching them. The old skool way is to get a basket and strap it to the handlebars. If you intend to carry anything more than a newspaper in the basket, you’ll need to install a front rack or a basket support to stabilize the load. Zip tie the basket to the rack and Robert is the proverbial sibling of your parent. We stock baskets (big and wicker or little and metal), racks, basket supports, straps and zip ties.

The New Skool method of attaching baskets is to buy a bracket that sits on your handlebar, and a basket that clips on and off the bracket. We sell brackets and a range of accessories by the Rixen Kaul. Just push down on the red button, put the basket on the bracket and cycle away. When you get where you’re going, push down on the button again and remove the basket. Or leave the basket on the bike with the special locking brackets. Rixen Kaul make a variety of baskets and bags that work with the “Klik Fix” system. They even make a wicker basket. A compromise in terms of utility doesn’t mean a compromise in terms of style.

 

Racks

Most carrying systems start with a rear rack. Basic, simple, sturdy racks start at £25. We stock ones with a platform on the top, which acts as a rudimentary mudguard and stops your sandwiches dropping through into the back wheel. A step upwards gets you a dogleg (to stop panniers getting caught in the back wheel), with a little more strength and a little less weight. We recommend the Topeak SuperTourist. For serious expeditions, we recommend the Tubus Fly. Stainless steel, tough and really rather cute.

 

Once you have your rack, fitting will probably take you about 30 minutes. Remember that most types of rack come with a selection of different fitting components, for different bikes. This means that you will be left with extra bits when you have finished. This is ok! You're welcome to borrow tools from us to fit your new rack, choose a warm day though, we don't have enough space to let you do repairs inside the shop any more. We can also fit your rack for you – see the workshop pages for details on how to organise this.

 

We also do a number of front racks, from frames which fit on the fork and carry panniers, to flat racks that sit above the front wheel. We also stock classy wooden flat-bed front racks for an old “Porteur” aesthetic. Be the envy of every butcher’s boy in town.

 

 

Trailers

Twenty years ago bike trailers were a strange, esoteric sight: basic canvas and tent pole affairs mostly home knitted, powered by serious bearded gents on their way to save the planet single-handed, or flouro unicycle jugglers off to breathe fire over ungrateful tourists. Now that we’re all trying to do our bit to delay eco meltdown, let’s salute the ground breaking serious bearded folk and Gaia hippies and start to pull our own weight. These days trailers can be a serious business asset. Think Darwins Deli sandwich delivery. Think further: plumbers, builders, carpenters, photographers, in fact anybody who used to feel they had to tie up capital in a Transit van… now we’re rolling congestion charge free.

 

Load Carrying

A single wheel trailer is still popular yet for a stable tow we really like the two wheeled. Y trailer. £200 and up. Lightweight, simple to hitch, easy to stow. Yep you guessed right I’ve got one. Moved metres of laminate flooring, pulled a full bike tool kit and bike stand. Skip hunted with it, spent too much money at the garden centre because of it. Whether you need to do some serious touring or need to transport your turnips from the allotment you’ll find more reasons to hitch up then you’d have thought.

 

 

pics courtesy of jjatssdotnl

For the insane amongst us Surly are producing a monster trailer, approx £700! Truly bonkers!! I want one. It carries 300lb that’s 136 kilos in real money.
I mean I’ve always exceeded the recommended limits on other trailers by about 199% so imagine what you could TRY and pull with the Surly monster? (Don’t do what I do with trailers unless you’re a lawyer).

Kids Trailers

Yep idiot boy here realised in a rare moment of sanity he was making life too complex. Why carry the kid on the bike and tow all the child equipment (pram, scooter, duplo and assorted manimals and a selection of quality sticks) when you can tow meatloaf and all his gear in the one trailer? When Burly was a worker cooperative we sold lots of em. They were a quality trailer. Sadly since they’ve “off-shored” and de-co-oped we’ve looked to Chariot. Produced in Canadia land they rock eh! By no means a cheap ride but they will open up day trips that the very thought of doing by bus for would’ve made you blanch at. They can be converted to a stroller with transformer élan. The wheel of our Maclaren pram self destructed (15kg limit! What world do they live in?) and the stroller option made us swallow the trailer cost.
Quality pram £250 plus and you can’t legally tow it behind the bike. Kiddie trailer £400 plus and it’s a super dooper pram. You wouldn’t be exactly welcomed on the bus with the stroller but you can jog with it faster than the 345 bus.

We’ve the single kid option (spoiled brat model) but you can get one for two that will also fit the remarkable amount of kibble necessary to expose your spawn to the outside world.
We do get disapproving looks from people who think we’re putting our boy at an unacceptable risk. Well, what can you do? Look at the facts, the figures? Or think like a tabloid editor who believes their own scaremongering? (a fellow cyclist warned me that I should have a yellow flag. What was wrong with the orange one I had I really cant say).

AZT a German car safety organisation tested seats versus trailers and was surprised by the results. Remember anybody representing the auto industry isn’t going to be recommending not buying the 2nd car for the school run. Trailers are by far safer than seats. Especially crossbar mounted ones. The modern harness systems coupled by the low height are really adding to your child’s safety, pushed rather than thrown, trailers offer the best protection. The motorist who may endanger a fluorescent yellow trailer festooned with lights and flags is the same one that mounts the pavement drunk on the school run! What to do? Move to an Amish community? No way! We kind of like the modern world and want our youth to be part of it, familiar with its vagaries, happy and interacting in our neck of the woods.

 

Top tip… keep your kids out of the most statistically dangerous environments: kitchens and swimming pools.