Luggage on Your Commute

spen666

Just wondering how much luggage people take on their commute.

I regularly see people riding in central London with what appears to be 2 full panniers and a rucksack or rack top bag as well.

What is it that people are carrying and do they carry the same things to / from work every day instead of leaving it at work?

alien

oh you saw me then..

2 D locks (parking too far from office to leave them there)
Laptop + stuff
clothes + shoes

= way too heavy bike. ho hum. the only way I can see to reduce it is to get a folder that I take in (= -5Kg in locks and less worry about losing the bike).

roger_merriman

I see people walking with suitcases etc, seems to be a london thing

lost_in_thought

I had 2 panniers today, one contained gym kit and one was my usual work pannier - handbag, notebook, work clothes, washbag etc.

The gym kit doesn't fit in with the work kit, and I don't always have it, so it has its own pannier. I will sometimes bring an empty second pannier if I'm planning to do some shopping.

I also had 2 wheels today, but don't generally carry those around!

spen666

alien wrote:

oh you saw me then..

2 D locks (parking too far from office to leave them there)
Laptop + stuff
clothes + shoes

= way too heavy bike. ho hum. the only way I can see to reduce it is to get a folder that I take in (= -5Kg in locks and less worry about losing the bike).

Not knowing anything about your work- this is not a criticism,


but ....


why do you carry laptop to/ from work?

why not leave it at work?

always_tyred

Personally, when I need to work late, I work late IN THE OFFICE rather than carrying the office home with me. Given that commuting and extensions thereof makes up the majority of my riding, I like to travel light so I can actually enjoy it.

This morning - smalls in a plastic bag, phone, couple of cards, keys - all in the back pocket. No bag.

I keep a couple of pairs of shoes, trainers, gym kit, shirts, jacket, coat and a suit at the office. I need a courier bag to shuttle fresh shirts and gym kit to work and that's it.

There are days when I really wouldn't want anyone to open my desk drawer, mind you.

_Brun_

Minimal toolkit, shoes, lock if I'll need it that evening.

I keep meaning to leave a pair of trainers here, then I'll be able to commute completely unencumbered.

spen666

Always Tyred wrote:

Personally, when I need to work late, I work late IN THE OFFICE rather than carrying the office home with me. Given that commuting and extensions thereof makes up the majority of my riding, I like to travel light so I can actually enjoy it.

This morning - smalls in a plastic bag, phone, couple of cards, keys - all in the back pocket. No bag.

I keep a couple of pairs of shoes, trainers, gym kit, shirts, jacket, coat and a suit at the office. I need a courier bag to shuttle fresh shirts and gym kit to work and that's it.

There are days when I really wouldn't want anyone to open my desk drawer, mind you.

I'm similar- I have suits, shoes, shirts etc in my office, bring my smalls in with me once/ twice a week ( more than one pair at a time - I'm not a scutter I'll have you know)

lost_in_thought

spen666 wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

Personally, when I need to work late, I work late IN THE OFFICE rather than carrying the office home with me. Given that commuting and extensions thereof makes up the majority of my riding, I like to travel light so I can actually enjoy it.

This morning - smalls in a plastic bag, phone, couple of cards, keys - all in the back pocket. No bag.

I keep a couple of pairs of shoes, trainers, gym kit, shirts, jacket, coat and a suit at the office. I need a courier bag to shuttle fresh shirts and gym kit to work and that's it.

There are days when I really wouldn't want anyone to open my desk drawer, mind you.

I'm similar- I have suits, shoes, shirts etc in my office, bring my smalls in with me once/ twice a week ( more than one pair at a time - I'm not a scutter I'll have you know)

STAB HIM, QUICK, STAB HIM!

Erm.... have you met stab him?

stuarthop

Depends on the day, normal work day 10.5 miles each way carrying a 20litre cammelbak with trainers, clean t-shirt, jeans/cargo shorts and bike spare/tools. (no dress code for work so i don't need a suit ect).

On weds night and some thurs and fridays, I usually end up cycling with a 50ltr rucksack, due to the adition of wetsuit, bouyancy aid, boots ect to go sailing after work, means a longer days riding too, 10.5 miles to work, 10 miles to sailing club then 13 miles home.

Tend to find the extra weight of the big sack barely slows me down now but it used to quite a lot.

Citizen Smith

Due to splitting my week between Reading, London office and home, I pretty much have 2 fully laden panniers every day.

1. Specifc laptop pannier (powerpack, mouse, phones + charger, notebook, etc.)
2. My work clothes + shoes + towel & toletries

londonbairn

I leave my shower stuff, towel, suits, laptop charger & shoes at work, I bring in a fresh shirt, boxers, socks and laptop everyday in a small backpack, it's actually very light.

Haven't commuted in this week as a lovely lady has whisked me off my feet and I sacrificed the cycling to go to the National Theatre and what not. WIll be back on the bike on Monday! 8)

Sailorchick

I have work clothes, spare T-shirt, towel and toiletries in my panniers. I leave a couple of pairs of shoes at work so I don't have to carry them around.

cee

spen666 wrote:

Not knowing anything about your work- this is not a criticism,


but ....


why do you carry laptop to/ from work?

why not leave it at work?

I can understand taking a laptop home with me...as i do it every day. There are many reasons for doing so...but the main one for me is that if i get called at 2 o clock in the morning to support one of our clients, I can do the majority of work remotley...so this stops me having to get out of bed and go into the office.

For me that is the reason I have a laptop for work.....if it was just going to sit on my desk..I would have gotten a desktop machine and perhaps a tiny laptop for taking on client visits.

londonbairn

Laptop is crucial, sometimes need it to login and get some archived stuff for people, but usually my Sony X1 covers my working needs (i.e. email & PowerPoint)

FyPunK

1xpannier. Contains... 1 clean rolled up shirt, 1 dinner, spare socks and stuff, pf kit with co2 pump, plastic bag for when it rains and elastic bands to keep it on seat. Spare set of little lights just incase its gets very stormy and wet.

Kieran_Burns

you don't need to carry a laptop home if you have a home desktop and VPN / RDP onto a support machine at site.

my laptop stays here, and i only carry a shirt, towel and smalls with me (plus wallet and keys). i did have more but there was no need

Aidy

I tend to carry a fairly minimal amount in a large saddle bag.

Eventually I'll probably end up acquiring a bike with pannier capabilites, and use it to cart clothes in/out once a week...

cee

Kieran_Burns wrote:

you don't need to carry a laptop home if you have a home desktop and VPN / RDP onto a support machine at site.

my laptop stays here, and i only carry a shirt, towel and smalls with me (plus wallet and keys). i did have more but there was no need

that would be fine...except some of our clients security policies forbid that kind of thing and have specific mac addresses against their support vpn access points.....


*edit...ok, i could ts to a machine at work and then use a home machine as a console to that box, but by then the lag is so bad it takes longer to do the job, so i would be better going to the office.....

Fireblade96

I have 1 fairly well laden pannier - laptop, power supply, papers/notebook, work shirt/socks/pants, snacks, PF kit, lightweight waterproof jacket. Lights too if I risk working late. Suit & shoes live in the office.

Since the majority of the time I work from home, the days I do go into the office I have to lug the laptop/papers etc with me.

Now that I've bent the pannier bike, I'm working on Plan B (travel lighter). Which may be superseded by Plan C (fix pannier bike) if I have time this weekend.

spen666

FyPunK wrote:

1xpannier. Contains... 1 clean rolled up shirt, 1 dinner, spare socks and stuff, pf kit with co2 pump, plastic bag for when it rains and elastic bands to keep it on seat. Spare set of little lights just incase its gets very stormy and wet.

This always puzzles me. What is the benefit of putting bag on seat?

Bag gets wet so you still get wet backside

Porgy

My pannier looks full even if it's empty, you couldn;t tell without lifting it or looking inside.

However, it usually is full:

Work clothes,
D lock,
external disc drive/ laptop - disc drive at wekeends, laptop only occasionally - usually stays at home
pile of paperwork - naively thinking I can get some work done at home, never do.
compact digital camera - for work, but I always keep it on me
bike tools
some bananas/ seeds for journey/ bottle of water
marked down items bought from Sainsburies next to my office for home consumption
mobile phones
wallet
book/ magazine for reading lunchtime
packed lunch - on journey to work only

Mind you - not all at the same time. Obviously.

alien

spen666 wrote:

alien wrote:

oh you saw me then..

2 D locks (parking too far from office to leave them there)
Laptop + stuff
clothes + shoes

= way too heavy bike. ho hum. the only way I can see to reduce it is to get a folder that I take in (= -5Kg in locks and less worry about losing the bike).

Not knowing anything about your work- this is not a criticism,


but ....


why do you carry laptop to/ from work?

why not leave it at work?

because I'm a consultant and it's my laptop, not theirs. :-)

psifive

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has to lug a laptop around! It can be a pain but I often have a spare hour after the kids are in bed to catch up on a bit of work at home.

I normally carry: Laptop, phones, chargers, work clothes (not shoes as I leave them at work), tools and spares and something to eat.

davmaggs

surely the bag is for when the bike is parked up. Can also cover rear light from greedy eyes if it's not removable. Nice to have a dry seat for the first few minutes of the ride home rather than having to sit in a cold puddle.

I've just gone mad a spent a load of cash on some Vaude panniers. I've gone from travelling light to becoming more like a tourer since a change of office ruined my previous strategy of dropping off a stack of clothes off each Monday.

whyamihere

I could easily fit all my stuff into one pannier, but I use two for weight distribution. Having all my uni books, clothes etc on one side of the bike makes for some interesting handling characteristics, so I have half the weight on each side with each pannier less than half full.