A Mighty Load

Yesterday was our CSA pickup day. I have endeavored to pick up our locally-grown produce via bicycle as much as possible, and yesterday was my biggest challenge in two years.

It was turkey delivery day.

We had a 11+ lb. turkey to pick up, in addition to the squash, potatoes, beets, carrots and other various 40lbs of vegetables. I am sure that the total weight of the load was approaching 60 pounds.

As you can see in the photo, I've rigged up my own cam straps for the xtracycle and used them to put a cooler in place to keep our fowl from thawing. In addition, I had three grocery bags of produce and two dozen eggs. The eggs rode safely up front and the grocery bags were on the side where they belong.

The high center of gravity of the turkey made things a bit more wiggly than they would otherwise have been, but the ride home was uneventful. Lots of uphill, which was very slow, but no problem. I'm glad that Mark at Hiawatha suggested that I upgrade the brakes when we added the xtracycle. I'm not sure the old brakes would have stopped this rig.

I am delighted with this machine and look forward to summer picnics, camping trips and continued daily chores with it.