Shopping by bike is growing in popularity, and for good reason. The cost of everything is increasing, from fuel to food. So to keep within the budget, more folks are hauling their bikes out of storage and putting them to good use as utility bikes. If you can do your shopping by bike, then you save money on fuel for your car, at the same time you get fit and fight fat.

 
There are plenty of practical problems to overcome when shopping by bike, but all of them can be easily addressed. Your bike needs a way to carry a load. A rear rack and panniers which are good for shopping are one alternative, and a bike trailer is another. But how do you keep cold and frozen goods from getting warm or thawing when underway? That’s a question full-time RVer and Texan Barney Ward asked me:

 
I seldom use the bike to go to the grocery store, since I buy a lot of frozen or refrigerated items. Most of the year down here they would thaw to dangerous temps before a bike would get them home to the freezer or refrigerator. For example in the four-week-long winter here on the coast, a night down to 45 degrees is considered a very cold night. At 8 am this morning it was down to 73 degrees outside.

However, when I had stix-and-brix for a dwelling, it was quicker to run to the local hardware store by bike trail than by car. I learned to carry some “interesting” loads on my bike. A large wire basket attached to the rear rack helped a lot.

 
Excellent points, Barney. No point courting food poisoning from food that gets dangerously warm. Fortunately, there’s a way to keep cold foods safe on the commute from store to home—soft coolers. They’re the shopping cyclists’ best friend when the temperature climbs.

 

 

 
I’ve come to really like soft coolers, and have two which are the same size as the internal dimensions of the Nashbar Townie panniers. The purple one in the photo at the head of the article holds a considerable load of cold and frozen foods. It fold flat for easy transport to the store, but opens and is ready to load in a few seconds. The smaller cooler in the first photo holds four frozen orange juice concentrate containers or four cold cans of your favorite beverage, and even when full loads easily into my rack trunk. I keep the empty small cooler in the rack trunk or pannier whenever I go riding, just in case I want to pick something up on the way back.

 

 
The larger cooler slips right inside the Townie pannier. When in the grocery store, I just put the pannier-cooler combination right into the shopping cart and load cold and frozen foods into the cooler as I shop, being sure to put the lid over all to retain as much cold air as possible. If I don’t buy enough cold and frozen foods to load the cooler completely, I put vegetables and fruits on top of the other foods and under cover of the lid. By stuffing the cooler full, the items keep one another cold. If it’s really hot outside, I take freezer blocks to the store with me and keep them in the cooler for an added bit of insurance.

 

 
Once I’ve paid the cashier and reloaded the cold items, I zip the lid down and slip the cover over the pannier. The bright color of the rain cover helps reflect the sun’s hot rays. From the time the goods leave the freezer/cooler in the store to getting back home and into the refrigerator or freezer, it’s about two to two-and-a-half hours, but the frozen things are still frozen and the cold things still cold. The stuffed cooler, along with a reflective rain cover has kept items cold and frozen in temperatures up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. It helps to put the cold-loaded pannier on the shady side of the bike, but isn’t essential.

 
When shopping with a car, I calculated it takes about as long to return from the store as when I’m shopping by bike. Why? With a car my route and routine differs, with more stops made between grocery store and home. So riding a bike is, in many ways, more efficient, and doesn’t increase the amount of time the groceries are exposed to the unforgiving environments outside a freezer or refrigerator.

 
If you use a bike trailer, it’s a simple matter to place the loaded cooler inside, as shown in the photo below. Pull the netting door down in front, but leave the clear plastic window rolled up if weather permits. This promotes air flow and helps keep all the load cooler.

 

 
By the way, it’s worth reading Barney’s blog, Old Fat Man Adventures. He’s always looking for fun in his kayak, on his bike, fishing, and on the golf course. Get to know Texas and the rest of the border region at his side—you’ll learn a lot.

 
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