Mar 25, 2010 1
My daily carry.
I ride my bike. Many of you might do the same, sometimes. However, I have also chosen to ride my bike instead of drive a car, for my mode of transportation.
The bicycle is a wonderful tool. It gets me where I need to go in a timely fashion. It gives me the opportunity to breathe in fresh air and move along a road or path without glass around me – I can really feel the world this way. The bicycle has wheels which do a lot of work for me, allowing me to carry my groceries, packages, and even a friend, in a pinch. It is also completely free to operate, does not pollute the environment while being used, and is very inexpensive. Furthermore, it brings me health, the more I use it.
Each day, I strap to the rack of the bike, a pannier, in which I carry some necessities, and some other handy things, and so I thought I’d show you what these are. Feel free to click the picture to see more detail.
My urban daily carry.
[From left to right - Bicycle and pannier above]
- Windproof and waterproof jacket (worn on body)
- Tupperware container for lunch I pack, or for leftovers at a friends house
- Steel water bottle.
- Mobile phone charger
- Headlight (worn)
- Whistle (not worn – this is like a bike bell, but only more effective)
- U-Lock
- Tire pump
- Plastic toolbag with tire levers, patch kit, and bicycle multi-tool
- Cloth napkin – I use this and the following few items so I don’t have to waste disposable ones, and they work better!
- Chopsticks
- Titanium spork
- Waterproof gloves
- Kit with toothbrush, gum massager, tongue scraper, floss and my retainers =]
- Panasonic lx3 digital camera
- 2 moleskine notebooks, pen, pencil
- Plastic bag with matches, swiss army tool, prophylactics, 1GB memory stick, vaseline, 2 sets of earplugs
- Plastic bag with eyeglass cleaning kit
For a while now I have not been living in one place, and so having all of these in my bag gives me a lot of freedom to spend the night wherever it feels right. For the record, these items take up very little space in the pannier and still give me enough room for plenty of groceries, camera gear, a laptop with a DJ soundcard, or whatever it is that I will need.
Don’t think you can’t do it by bike – you can. If this pannier fills up, there is always the other side with another empty pannier and of course I always have bungee cords on the rack, too, for even more things to haul.
DO IT.
_S