I don’t think that title quite works grammatically. What I meant to say is that someone sent me a couple of nice gifts to be used on the bike.
These weird-looking panniers, which stick up in the back high enough that the old man will never be able to Riker-maneuver his sole remaining leg over them – but it has to be that way because…
…they fold down, you see, and in theory will hold a ton of groceries. The awkward part is that they replace saddlebags that are already half full of things I’m not comfortable going without, like water and a spare tube (bulky, with these fat tires) and a big intimidating chain and lock and other sundries that won’t fit in the tool bag. So where do they go, I asked myself.
Turns out that the second gift kind of made an answer to that question non-negotiable…
Now, this is cool and addresses a problem I’ve wrestled with ever since the bike arrived four seasons ago. It’s a handheld electric tire pump with enough power to actually inflate a fat tire. This is serious: a CO2 cartridge won’t do it, a little hand pump won’t do it before the heat death of the universe. My only practical method of inflating a bike tire has always been the electric inflator in the back of the Jeep. Not convenient to the side of a remote dirt road when I’m on the bike. I have never had to replace a tube on the side of the road yet but I have limped the bike home with a puncture at least three times just having been lucky. It’s been on my mind: my luck isn’t usually that consistently good. So I really wanted one of these things, and the gift was remarkably timely here at the beginning of the warm season when I’m playing hopefully with the bike every day and praying for the rain to stop.
But it did create yet another storage issue…
…it wouldn’t fit in my conventional underseat tool bag. Bother!
So now I had enough theoretical storage space to evacuate Ukraine but it was all folded up, so there was no place to actually store all the stuff I usually (and very much want to) carry with me! Huh!
Well…
With those folding panniers sticking up like that the top of the cargo rack – which I normally use to actually carry cargo – becomes kind of useless. So – I can’t believe I’m really asking this – could I get a(nother) cargo bag sized to fit the top of the rack? Turns out that yes, I can. So I sent away for one before I talked myself out of it.
This is starting to feel a little silly. Sure hope it all works when I’m through.