Bike excitement

Remember my grand adventure last month that involved me hauling a bazillion pounds of groceries on my back and handlebars?  I promised that I'd set up a rear cargo rack, and I did!  Well, Matthew and I did.  He helped.

This was a learning experience for me, too.  At first I went to Fred Meyer to raid their biking section, and the only rear cargo rack that they had was this.  I naively assumed that since it was all they had, it must be decent.  No. False.  Bad.  It was a piece of garbage that only held value in being a great device to whack against your head after you realize what a stupid purchase it was.  While it does not say so, it doesn't fit all bikes, and even if it did fit mine, it would have been mostly hidden under the seat.  Fortunately, I returned it, and no great harm was done.

Next I used the powers of Amazon.com to find a good rear bike rack.  This is the one.  The reviews were super helpful, and it sounded perfect for me.  And it is.  The one thing I had to take care of was procuring little pieces of hardware because I don't have eyelets on my seat stays (gosh, I sound so knowledgeable).  I ended up going to a bike shop, explaining my problem, and they handed me what I needed (minus a few nuts that Matthew easily picked up at his work).  In retrospect, I probably could have asked them to help me find a cargo rack, but I still am happy that Amazon helped me know what I was getting through all of the good reviews.  Sometimes you just need to know something is good.

As you can see, the cargo rack was needed so that I could attach an egg crate to it.  I found this green crate at Goodwill for $2 (woo!), and then we bought some bungee cords to do some ninja stabilization moves.  And now it is stable.  And holding a heavy bag of groceries.  And my back doesn't hurt.

So there you have it.  Bike excitement.