Bike commute 2024 edition

[lorenbike]

Originally Posted by benb

I was looking at the Soma Front Rack and a Wald basket today. I also have a Space Horse for this, so it's good to hear the front works better.

I have a 16" laptop. This last couple years if I bike commute I've just been wearing my backpack, but it makes it more likely my back gets sweaty and it's not that fun.

I have a rear rack and used to have panniers and I absolutely hated that setup. The handling wasn't great, and if you have a big laptop it's almost a guarantee you end up with the bike off balance because you've got this one heavy item. Carrying only one pannier seemed even worse.

Not having used a front rack what about getting out of the saddle? Out of the saddle was very sketchy when I used the rear rack + panniers.

The panniers were also just fiddly to load and unload and mount/unmount off the bike.

Backpack in a basket seems like it saves a lot of time. Most of the time I am not targeting changing my clothes so I don't actually need to carry a ton of stuff. The vast majority of my commutes over the years were 10+ miles so I was wearing bike clothes and showering/changing. That really ends up meaning you need to carry a ton more stuff.

I am absolutely convinced if the distance is short enough street clothes + regular shoes + a quick lockup + getaway is way more than worth it as it eliminates the maximum amount of "extra time" stuff that you don't need to do when driving a car.

My commute is not much longer on bike than car (assuming best case scenario for the car.. in average or worse the bike easily beats the car), but if the bike option involves a shower and changing clothes on each end the bike option suddenly takes an extra hour over the car option.

My rear rack is Blackburn and the quality is pretty meh... the Soma looks quite a bit more expensive does anyone have any experience with that one? What about Surly?

I have an older version of the Lucas rack and like it for the money. A few years ago the mounting strut snapped near the fork crown which was terrifying. They sent me a replacement which was much beefier. You can tell that the new Lucas rack also has extra supports now that can clamp mid leg.

I had an older soma frame once that, also, failed but at the dropout. You can also tell that the newer frames have since improved the dropout design. No replacement though for that frame.

I’m still sort of bitter towards that company but I’d probably buy the rack again for the price. Not sure though how secure it would be supporting a larger wall basket.

[Ken Robb]

I have a huge "HOSS" model seat bag I bought from Rivendell years ago that would easily hold my laptop and a lot of other stuff. I trimmed an old Realtor "For Sale" sign made of very light but rigid honey comb-like material (COROPLAST?) to lie flat in the bottom of the bag. I even used it on a bike with fenders but no rack as well as on a bike with a rear rack.