Tool to make shopping by bicycle easier / safer

[Huppie]

Hi guys, long time lurker and MMM reader. If you think this is inappropriate or does not belong here please send me a pm and I'll remove it.

I live in bicycle heaven The Netherlands and tend to do groceries by bicycle when possible. I found this can get dangerous when you bike around with full grocery bags on your steering wheel, so if I expect to have a lot of groceries I sometimes become a car clown :(

Now my brother (a product designer) and a friend invented a hook to hang one or two regular shopping bags (e.g. big-shoppers) to a standard bicycle luggage rack to make doing groceries by bike easier and safer. You can just take it with you / leave it inside your shopping bag so you don't forget it when you go shopping.

It's called the Hook'd. It's for sale here. Here's a video of how it works.

I figured I'd post it here because if it helps reduce the number of car clowns and encourages more people to jump on a bike that's a win in my book :)

P.S.
I know panniers are a solution for some people but I found panniers make it too hard to get my bike in/out of our appartment's storage (it's a small crowded storage space.)

[Miss Piggy]

Looks super-simple, which is nice. But my immediate reaction is "wow, that seems unsafe..."  Since it's early in the product lifecycle, that's just something to think about...how can you quickly convince people like me that this is indeed safe and my bags won't be flopping all over the place?

[johnny847]

I forsee problems with this product. It's not the possibility of flopping around that Miss Piggy mentions that I think is the issue though.

Unless you put some kind of rigid enough flat object, like a piece of a cardboard box, inside the bag, then depending on what groceries you buy the groceries could squeeze past the rack and get stuck in the rear wheel spokes, causing you to suddenly lose speed and fall over.
At the very least this product should include a disclaimer about this problem.

[GuitarStv]

I know panniers are a solution for some people but I found panniers make it too hard to get my bike in/out of our appartment's storage (it's a small crowded storage space.)

Most panniers unclip and can be removed in a second or two.  Take them off (the exact same way you would have to with these hooked grocery bags) before you put your bike in storage.

Other solutions that work well for grocery shopping:
- Milk crate fixed to top of rear rack
- folding side baskets (Wald 582 or any of the many clones available)
- backpack
- handlebar basket
- bike trailer


At first glance this hook'd idea appears to be worse than all of the above.

[Huppie]

I'm sorry I missed the reactions over here. Good questions @johnny87 and @Miss Piggy.

According to my brother they designed the Hook'd in such a way to mostly prevent it from getting stuck in the spokes.

Most bags have handles with the same length. The way the bags get attached ensures the outer handle is pulled inwards a bit, pulling the bag away from the wheel a little bit. This effect is a bit stronger when the bag is filled. Also, most city bikes here in The Netherlands have a mudguard that covers the wheel which also helps prevent the same issue. It's best visible in this picture.