Author Topic: Badass (slightly idiotic) shopping etc. by foot or bike - share your stories  (Read 7298 times)

meghan88

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Saved about $20 today on groceries by biking in -10 C wind and weather.  Could've taken the bus, but saved $ and got exercise and saved time over walking.

Anyone have any stories to share?

*edit* to say that this is about any kind of Mustachian effort to get something - not just groceries - from point A to point B.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2019, 06:10:14 PM by meghan88 »

TrMama

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I don't know about badass, but I've got idiotic locked down. I've been bike commuting forever. Sometimes that means I try to transport more food than my rig can comfortably handle.

When I was in university I didn't have a car. I had a bike and some panniers that I never really learned how to attach properly. For some reason there was a string I never figured out the purpose of. Anyway, 18yo me was a varsity athlete and therefore had little time and a big appetite. So I'd attempt to do a weekly shop from the bike. One day one of the overloaded panniers fell off in the middle of a 4 lane road. Traffic had to stop so I could collect it. Another time I came out to find someone had tried to steal my bike by detaching the front wheel, except I'd locked the front wheel and the frame to the rack. Figured out the wheel wasn't attached when I rode off a curb.

A couple years ago the little market near my office had pie pumpkins on sale. I bought a bunch and left them on my desk. I could only carry one home/day. Took me a week till I could make pie.

This morning I loaded up 2 panniers with my yoga mat and some jars. The plan was to go to yoga then get a few groceries at the bulk store. Except it was a little icy this morning. Wiped out trying to ride over a curb. Two cars stopped to see if I was OK after my superman dismount. Luckily I only hurt my pride and the gym gave me some bandaids for my scraped elbow. Saved a bunch of money on bulk spices ($0.17 for marjoram!).

SuseB

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DH suggested I buy a bulk sack of chicken feed from our local pet food store, which is only about 5 minutes walk from our house. He joked that as I am trying to 'lift heavy things' for fitness training I should carry it home myself (a 20kg/44lb sack). I tried. I really tried. The woman in the store looked doubtful, but I got it out of the store and on to the path back home. I got about 100 yards before I had to phone DH to come and help. (In my defence, I am 5ft 1in and 120lb - and while perfectly strong enough for my build, clearly not cut out for this task!)

However, not to be deterred completely... I now take a wheelbarrow and barrow the sacks home. Still not taking the car!

GreenToTheCore

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However, not to be deterred completely... I now take a wheelbarrow and barrow the sacks home. Still not taking the car!

That is some badassity right there!


I've definitely filled my saddle bags up so high that the tops can't be folded over (Ortlieb). So far my record is 49.3#.
It's fun to see how much you can get home and if it can top your previous record. Luggage scale for the win!

EscapedApe

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A couple years ago the little market near my office had pie pumpkins on sale. I bought a bunch and left them on my desk. I could only carry one home/day. Took me a week till I could make pie.

I laughed out loud in the middle of my quiet cubicle farm. Gonna be a great day at the office today.

EscapedApe

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I've been biking to work every day for the last six months - through rain, high winds, snow, and blistering heat - and I still feel weak compared to this old guy who always passes me on the left every morning.

Trying real hard to be as badass as he is.

BECABECA

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I've been biking to work every day for the last six months - through rain, high winds, snow, and blistering heat - and I still feel weak compared to this old guy who always passes me on the left every morning.

Trying real hard to be as badass as he is.

This reminds me of when I first bought a used beach cruiser and decided to bike 8 miles to happy hour (after not having done much biking in the >10 years since college). I was huffing and puffing and at one point I got passed by a jogger and I never caught up! I was biking hard enough that I felt like I was going to puke from exertion. After the happy hour, I tapped out and got somebody to give me a ride back home.

The next week I tuned up my bike and realized that the coaster break had been moderately engaged the entire time. Once I fixed that, I didn’t get passed by joggers anymore.

force majeure

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I bought an armchair for $20, moved it back home in a wheelbarrow for 2 miles.
Where I live, theres no sidewalk.
Lots of drivers were rubbernecking as they passed by.

GuitarStv

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This was our household grocery getter for quite a few years . . . a mountain bike about two sizes too small for me.  Notice the 20 lb bag of potatoes on the rear rack.  Not too bad once you're moving, but the top heavy load makes the bike funny to handle at slow speeds.



I've been biking to work every day for the last six months - through rain, high winds, snow, and blistering heat - and I still feel weak compared to this old guy who always passes me on the left every morning.

Oh, that's you every morning?


:P

TrMama

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I have a hunch I should leave this thread before it gives me any more bright ideas.

Last summer I wanted some big wire hanging baskets so I could grow veggies on our balcony. I could only find them at the nursery near my office. So during lunch one day I biked over and bought them. Bungied the nested baskets to the top of my rack. had the rolled up coir basket lining (about the size of a yoga mat) sticking out of one pannier. Since the baskets were empty, I opted to load them with tomato seedlings for the trip home. They got some nice sun sitting in the bike rack at work all afternoon.

A few days later I was riding home and noticed a huge rubber plant pot on the side of the highway. The next day I made sure to pack extra bungees. It fit nicely upside down on my rack. Used it to grow potatoes all summer.

EscapedApe

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I bought an armchair for $20, moved it back home in a wheelbarrow for 2 miles.
Where I live, theres no sidewalk.
Lots of drivers were rubbernecking as they passed by.

This makes a great mental image.

TomTX

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This was our household grocery getter for quite a few years . . . a mountain bike about two sizes too small for me.  Notice the 20 lb bag of potatoes on the rear rack.  Not too bad once you're moving, but the top heavy load makes the bike funny to handle at slow speeds.

50lbs of kid on the rear is fun.

meghan88

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OMG, I love these stories.  Thank you!!  The one about the pumpkins made me LOL.  And the plant baskets and potatoes/huge grocery loads, 50 lb kids ... just awesome.  Chicken feed and armchairs in wheelbarrows ... magnificent. 

There was this one time that I bungeed a 66-lb bag of parging cement to the back rack of my very old mountain bike for a one+ kilometer ride home.  We (me, bike, cement) managed to make it home without incident.  I often over-shop too, and regularly find myself with an extra reusable bag hanging off the handlebars, and it's always "fun" trying to keep it out of the front wheel, especially when it's windy.

Here's to bloody-mindedness and not giving a rat's arse about what people might think.

HappyCheerE

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I hand-trucked home a bookcase from an antiques shop. Only about 3 blocks, but the store owner wanted to lend us his car! We were amazed he'd trust strangers that far. I felt pretty badass wheeling that thing over curbs, and got a lot of puzzled/admiring looks. $10 furniture rocks. (And the $15 folding Aldi's hand truck has been worth its weight in gold for moving and plenty of other random jobs!)

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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I have a few.

I once personally told the children that they could buy a pinata for a birthday party, and only afterwards remembered that we had biked. No, not with the trailer. I had it sort of wedged into a large pannier with the ribbons down so they wouldn't rip off in the wind. My older child had to put some things in his backpack, which he had only worn so as to bring his teddy bear. (He was six or seven IIRC.) In addition to the overstuffed panniers, I was pulling a Burley Piccolo with a kindergartner on it.

My husband and I wanted to buy an eight-foot stepladder but were too cheap to rent a truck, so he carried it home from Home Depot, a distance of perhaps a mile and a half.

And this story from overseas. My grandparents were preparing to move from one developing country to another. Perhaps they were in Singapore. They had a dining room table to sell. A lady came to look at it and said she would buy it. Grandfather just couldn't see how she was going to get it home. She returned later with a friend. The two of them perched the table atop their heads and walked off.

robartsd

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I bought an armchair for $20, moved it back home in a wheelbarrow for 2 miles.
Where I live, theres no sidewalk.
Lots of drivers were rubbernecking as they passed by.
I've moved a propane grill about a mile by walking (I did have sidewalks).

I did help someone bring food back from a food closet once. I only had one pannier bag at the time, but loaded it with a lot of heavy groceries. Since my bike was so unbalanced, it took a good hold on the handlebars to keep it under control.

mm1970

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I bought toilet paper on foot today?  Only 4 rolls.

But I used to have a habit of walking to Costco at lunch, and buying what I needed. It was only a mile.

Okay, the one time I had to walk a mile back, in 95F weather, carrying 15 pounds (a 3-pack) of cantaloupe was not my brightest moment.

DaMooseMan

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Ever been walking outside when it’s 35 degrees, bundled up, and lamenting the cold weather? Well I’m the bean counter looking guy that runs by you wearing my button-up white shirt, slacks, and sneakers. It’s cold for about the first three or four blocks of running to work, then 35 degrees becomes downright pleasant. And at that temperature I sweat very little. At some of the crosswalks I’m standing by folks in full winter weather garb, huffing and puffing to catch my breath. I get a few strange looks. Then I run off. Easiest 10 pounds I’ve ever lost and no road rage possibilities driving the car. Wish I thought of this 10 years ago.

jeninco

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Ever been walking outside when it’s 35 degrees, bundled up, and lamenting the cold weather? Well I’m the bean counter looking guy that runs by you wearing my button-up white shirt, slacks, and sneakers. It’s cold for about the first three or four blocks of running to work, then 35 degrees becomes downright pleasant. And at that temperature I sweat very little. At some of the crosswalks I’m standing by folks in full winter weather garb, huffing and puffing to catch my breath. I get a few strange looks. Then I run off. Easiest 10 pounds I’ve ever lost and no road rage possibilities driving the car. Wish I thought of this 10 years ago.

I love this. And, I agree -- 35 degrees is perfect running weather: not much sweating at that temp.

However, do you run home, or do you have a jacket in a backpack or something so you can walk home?

raincoast

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When I was in university, there was a 60 day bus strike in the middle of a Canadian winter. Fortunately I lived on campus, but to get groceries I had to travel a few kilometres to a nearby mall. None of my friends had cars, and Uber didn't exist yet. Rather than take a taxi, I walked through a foot of snow each way, over a bridge, in -10 degrees Celsius weather.

Then the student union started running shopping buses...

Dollar Slice

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I do this sort of thing a lot, a honestly. Or I used to. I hurt too much these days.

The worst one: I had ~$90 worth of pennies, nickels, and dimes. (Because quarters are for laundry.) I don't know how much it weighed, but it weighed a lot. (I had recently gotten steroid injections for frozen shoulder/adhesive capsulitis, so carrying heavy stuff was a particularly bad idea.) I walked about three quarters of a mile to the nearest Coinstar machine. It was out of order :-( I looked on my phone to find another Coinstar machine nearby. I found one that was a couple of miles away but reachable by a single bus. Went there. It was... wait for it... also out of order :-( At this point I was near a subway station so I found a Coinstar machine near-ish that subway line. Did that, thankfully this one worked! Had to wait 15 minutes for some young women to cash in a ton of pennies. But then I cashed all mine in for Amazon.com credit and walked home about a mile, having completed a ~6 mile circle by foot, bus, subway, and foot again, just to find a single working Coinstar machine.

Imma

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I hand-trucked home a bookcase from an antiques shop. Only about 3 blocks, but the store owner wanted to lend us his car! We were amazed he'd trust strangers that far. I felt pretty badass wheeling that thing over curbs, and got a lot of puzzled/admiring looks. $10 furniture rocks. (And the $15 folding Aldi's hand truck has been worth its weight in gold for moving and plenty of other random jobs!)

We once got a desk home that way. I think it was a 20 minute walk.

We don't drive so we have a bunch of these stories: Christmas tree, tiles for the bathroom, 10 kg bags from the bulk food store, a clothes drying rack. We'll find a way to get things home.

Zikoris

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We routinely use our neon pink cat stroller to cart around sacks of rice and flour. Once we used a skateboard to wheel a couch over a narrow 7th floor walkway between the two towers of our apartment complex (a friend was moving and gave it to us). And before I had bungee cords, I used to balance all sorts of large objects on my bicycle handlebars and just ride carefully.

To be honest, given that we've never had cars or drivers licenses, we've moved things around in strange ways way more often than normal ways.

Hirondelle

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In the Netherlands most of these stories aren't too uncommon.

Personally I carried a bed from a friends house to my own (around half a mile) with my family. We just carried the whole bed with the four of us.

I've also biked around with all sorts of dishes towards potlucks, often with massive oven dishes or bowls in my one hand and a bag with wine or beer on my handlebar. At home no one blinks an eye, when I did this for Thanksgiving and Christmas eve in the USA I got A LOT of weird looks.

Nancy

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I agree with Hirondelle. I think it's odd that it's odd to transport goods without a car in the US.

The most unwieldy experience I had was walking over a mile with three huge bags of straw for my veg garden balancing on my bike. I had them balanced on the seat and handlebars. The arrangement wasn't great, but I made it.

Presently I'm moving, so I regularly transport donations in my hiking backpack and in two shopping bags over my shoulders. It's excellent training with a heavy bag. We also transport all our groceries in hiking backpacks and walk 1.3 miles home. It's not difficult.

Imma

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I think a lot of Dutch students see it as a challenge to transport as many crates of beers as possible on their bike. I've seen serious amounts of beer carried by one person on one bike.

I know a bike repair guy who fixes bikes on location and carries all his tools and spare parts in a bike trailer. I also know a house painter who doesn't drive for environmental reasons, so he carries his cans of paint and ladder around on his cargo bike.

PoutineLover

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I've put a big papasan chair on my bike and walked it home about 3 kilometres. Also moved a couch a kilometre with 3 friends. Bought a queen bed frame at Ikea and carried it home on the bus and metro. For half of the year I do my groceries on foot or bike so I always fill up my backpack and carry the rest or pack it in my bike baskets. I lived in the city without a car for 10 years so pretty much everything I wanted to get home, I had to transport it. I pretty much never paid for delivery or taxi if I could figure out a way. Definitely got some weird looks, but I felt pretty badass.

robartsd

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Bought a queen bed frame at Ikea and carried it home on the bus and metro.
Were you able to do this by yourself? The Ikea queen bed frames I'm familiar with are packed in 2 boxes plus require a metal center support beam and two part slatted wood base - 5 packages, each at least 1.5 m (4.5 feet) long and totaling about 50 kg (100 lbs). I can easily picture such a haul on by bike with a trailer, but I have difficulty imagining moving it by transit.

jeninco

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I agree in principle with Hirondelle, and apparently I agree in practice, because thinking back I've remembered a number of heavy and/or awkward loads I carried on a bike and/or with a bike trailer:
Pier 1 was having a sale on plates we rather liked, so we purchased full settings for 12 and I towed it home in a trailer (it was heavy ceramic, so maybe around 50 lbs? It was enough to pull me back a bit, starting on a hill).
Similarly, I was at our local hardware store on a bike and they were selling off their last few 6 foot iron trellises, which we needed for growing roses but hadn't wanted to pay for. I bought their last two or three and rode my bike back home holding them in my right hand (the left hand being used on the front, i.e. important, brake, obviously) out away from the bike.
We've started taking things to potlucks separately from their serving dishes, so the serving bowls can go into a backpack and the food can be in a closed container, and the two don't have to be kept horizontal in transit. That really eases the burden of getting yummy things to other places.

I think the biggest, though, (in concept, as well as fact) was when my 5th grader decided to play trombone in school band class. We bike commuted, and I suggested he consider a smaller instrument.  Nope, trombone. So his dad and uncle put a rear rack on his bike, and rigged up a trombone support that had a folding horizontal piece where the bottom of a pannier would go (so it could be folded out of the way when not in use) and the kid biked with a trombone case three days a week for 5th - 7th grade. (At that point we acquired a second one, so the nice one stayed home, generally, and the less nice one stayed at school, generally.)

PoutineLover

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Bought a queen bed frame at Ikea and carried it home on the bus and metro.
Were you able to do this by yourself? The Ikea queen bed frames I'm familiar with are packed in 2 boxes plus require a metal center support beam and two part slatted wood base - 5 packages, each at least 1.5 m (4.5 feet) long and totaling about 50 kg (100 lbs). I can easily picture such a haul on by bike with a trailer, but I have difficulty imagining moving it by transit.
I had help from my partner at the time. It was just 1 or 2 long boxes plus the support beam so I think we stacked it all together and each carried an end. The hardest part was manoeuvring through doors. And we didn't have the slats, I had a boxspring already.

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When I was in college, I got a call at the last minute that I was able to move from a regular dorm room to one of the apartment-like dorm rooms with an actual kitchen.  The old dorm and new dorm were about half a mile away and it was winter, with all of the sidewalks covered in ice.  I walked back and forth between the two dorms several times, carrying as much as I could each time until I got all of my belongings to the new dorm.  When I was telling classmates the next day about how excited I was to finally be able to cook my own meals, they were all like "Why didn't you call us?  We have cars."  It seemed silly to me to use a car when I was only moving a half mile.

Freedomin5

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We used to live a 15-minute walk/5-minute bike ride from the grocery store. After moving into our new place, we needed food and pillows. So I put 30-lb DD on the child seat, took an empty backpack, and biked to the store. Rode home with a kid in the back with her arms wrapped around a pillow almost as big as she was, a full backpack, a giant shopping bag hanging off one handlebar, and another pillow hanging off the other handlebar, riding down a major busy street in Shanghai China dodging other bikes, motorbikes, scooters, and cars. I still remember the most annoying thing was that the pillow twisted in the breeze and hit my leg or created drag.

Arbitrage

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I don't know that I have a particularly badass or idiotic story for this, but I do 95+% of my shopping and errands by e-bike now, which includes basically all of the household grocery shopping, including regular trips to Sam's Club.  I am aided by a Burley Travoy trailer, which is a fantastic little helper.  Probably my weirdest carries have been one trip where I didn't have the trailer and was carrying a couple of camping chairs from Aldi in one hand, a couple of trips to REI with skis, and my rides to the beach with the inflatable kayak, paddle, PFD, pump, and other gear. 

The first kayak trip was probably a bit weird for others to witness - I hadn't quite figured out the optimal method to stow everything, and I had to run a couple of errands on the way.  Stopped by both a doctor's office (to pick something up) and a grocery store, wheeling a kayak and such around.

MyAlterEgoIsTaller

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In college in NYC I got a free roll of 107-inch wide photo backdrop paper that was being discarded (I used it to do huge drawings on).  I didn't think I would be able to maneuver it on the subway without hurting people and/or destroying the paper, so I carried it balanced on my shoulder for about 4 miles walking up Broadway.  It wasn't particularly difficult to carry since it was easy to balance, but was more just a game of avoiding smacking down any pedestrians or bike messengers.

meghan88

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Now that I think about it, I'm also reminded of these trips, done by DH and I on regular bikes with back racks in Montreal:

1) biking with three boxes of discount dishes - service for 12 basically - about 4.5 km from Decarie near Vezina to Sherbrooke in NDG.  These same dishes have survived six moves, with only a couple of (dish) casualties in between the moves.  We used panniers, bungees and knapsacks.

2) biking home with three area rugs, the biggest being 5' x 7', bungeed to the bikes, from the Decarie Circle to Sherbrooke in NDG.

Thanks for the great stories and please keep 'em coming.  I agree that fewer eyebrows are raised in Europe, having done similar things there myself.

JLR

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We once moved just around the corner, so did the whole move by hand, with a hand trolley. The neighbours thought it was quite funny, seeing all of our worldly good pass by.

robincanada

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Saved about $20 today on groceries by biking in -10 C wind and weather.  Could've taken the bus, but saved $ and got exercise and saved time over walking.

Anyone have any stories to share?

*edit* to say that this is about any kind of Mustachian effort to get something - not just groceries - from point A to point B.

I had no car often in my late 20’s to early 40’s.  I would weigh myself when I got home with back pack and bags I was carrying if I thought it was the most ever. Never over 80lbs.  But in the mid 60’s to mid 70’s whenever I bothered to weigh myself.  I am 5’6” and weighed around 150-160 lbs most of the time.  Highest one I had to stop every block... and it cost more once.  I stopped at Starbucks and bought a coffee because I had to sit for 20 minutes. 

Also overdid it on a bike with around 65 lbs in backpack.  Had to walk the bike. 

It was was from Otrawa to Gatineau over a bridge  or like 3+ km in  Kanata.  30-40 minutes regular walking with no weight downtown and a bit less far in Kanata.  In winter often too.  So add winter boots and clothes to my body and the groceries.  And I was not in great shape, but I walked a lot in general.  What I am saying is... it was badass.  I would be... ok just keep going another block.  Bags digging into my gloves hands, another block.  Take off gloves... fingers a bit purple from
The circulation disruption of the bags.  Big IKEA bags made it worse.  The worst time I overloaded one of those.  You need equal weight in both hands and both sides of back pack.  Heaviest stuff in bottom
Of back pack. 

dashuk

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On various occasions:

 - Full size shopping trolley/cart worth of food (supermarket shop for four)
 - 240 litres of compost
 - Several big loads of scrap timber (deck boards, etc) from home to build stuff with at the allotment. Oh and some concrete blocks.
 - 8ft lengths of new timber
 - Rolls of loft insulation
 - Kids bunk bed
 - Multiple kids and adults bikes
 - An entire fourth birthday party to the park.
 - Pop-up gazebo, tables, signs, and assorted other stuff to local 'village fete'.

I dunno, I've probably forgotten a load of other things, I do this pretty frequently.

Most of this is with the aid of a cheap double kids trailer.

I brought a mattock home once strapped on the rear rack, and a hoe to the allotment just by carrying it over my shoulder.

I've taken an old ceramic kitchen sink half a mile across the neighbourhood on a sack truck to give to friends to use as a garden planter, and brought back a compost bin in return.

SpaceCow

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Ever been walking outside when it’s 35 degrees, bundled up, and lamenting the cold weather? Well I’m the bean counter looking guy that runs by you wearing my button-up white shirt, slacks, and sneakers. It’s cold for about the first three or four blocks of running to work, then 35 degrees becomes downright pleasant. And at that temperature I sweat very little. At some of the crosswalks I’m standing by folks in full winter weather garb, huffing and puffing to catch my breath. I get a few strange looks. Then I run off. Easiest 10 pounds I’ve ever lost and no road rage possibilities driving the car. Wish I thought of this 10 years ago.

How far is your commute?

CrabbitDutchie

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Agree with Hirondelle and Imma, most of these wouldn't raise an eyebrow in the Netherlands.

Slightly idiotic - at university I ended up President of the Whisky Society. Please don't ask me how that happened - I genuinely don't remember. Anyway, we had a place for the drinking sessions tastings, but nowhere to store our 'stock' so I used to load all the bottles of whisky into my 65L hiking bag and would walk the 25 mins from my flat to the venue rattling a little as I went.
I did use a car once, but I learnt pretty quickly that it was by far the more idiotic of the options. The only parking nearby was free in the evenings, but charges started at 8am in the morning. So I parked, unloaded the whisky, got drunk, loaded the whisky back into the car and walked home. Then the next morning I had to get up ridiculously early (for a student) and get to the car before 8am to drive it home. No way was I paying for parking!

My most 'bad-ass' cycling story didn't raise any eyebrows at the time. When I was 18 (and back staying with my family temporarily) I had to pick my little sister up from school a few times, so I simply borrowed a bike cycled the 7.5km (er 4.5 miles ish?) to her school, popped her on the back of the bike and cycled home. Guess she weighed around 40-45kg at the time. Really she was old enough to start making her own way to and from school, but 7.5km is quite far by dutch standards and she had only recently moved back to the Netherlands so hadn't had the same exposure to cycling.



Just Joe

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So does moving a car by foot count?

Had this little Autobianchi A112E in Italy. It broke down not far from home and I pushed it about 1.5 miles. Friend helped get it into the driveway once at home so I could repair the points ignition (basic maintenance problem).

GreenToTheCore

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So does moving a car by foot count?

Had this little Autobianchi A112E in Italy. It broke down not far from home and I pushed it about 1.5 miles. Friend helped get it into the driveway once at home so I could repair the points ignition (basic maintenance problem).

I'd say yes, great use of manpower.  Added points if there were hills.

Boofinator

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Can't compare to the badass stories on this thread, but in terms of pushing the environmental envelope, I've gone grocery shopping by bike in 110-115 °F temperatures (~43-46 °C) carrying some 100 pounds of groceries or so in my bike trailer. Grocery store was about a couple miles away, so didn't sweat too much before I was able to cool off after arriving; but when I got home, into the cold (relatively speaking) shower I went.

GuitarStv

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Can't compare to the badass stories on this thread, but in terms of pushing the environmental envelope, I've gone grocery shopping by bike in 110-115 °F temperatures (~43-46 °C) carrying some 100 pounds of groceries or so in my bike trailer. Grocery store was about a couple miles away, so didn't sweat too much before I was able to cool off after arriving; but when I got home, into the cold (relatively speaking) shower I went.

Hope you unloaded the icecream first.  :P

Boofinator

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Can't compare to the badass stories on this thread, but in terms of pushing the environmental envelope, I've gone grocery shopping by bike in 110-115 °F temperatures (~43-46 °C) carrying some 100 pounds of groceries or so in my bike trailer. Grocery store was about a couple miles away, so didn't sweat too much before I was able to cool off after arriving; but when I got home, into the cold (relatively speaking) shower I went.

Hope you unloaded the icecream first.  :P

Ice cream tastes best in the gooey stage. (I'm going to need a bigger tongue emoji.)

turketron

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During the polar vortex of 2013-2014 the battery in my car died because I was taking the bus to work and didn't drive it for a few days. I took it out of the car and brought it to the nearest Batteries Plus to charge, but my roommate wasn't around and instead of getting a cab/uber I decided to take the bus there, and then walk the mile from the bus stop with a ~40lb battery in my old backpack, digging into my shoulders, in the middle of winter...  These days I'd probably splurge for the uber.


dcheesi

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More idiotic than badass.

I walk at (or to) lunch most days, and buy snacks for work at the nearest grocery.

One time I had bought more stuff than usual, and forgotten my bags, so I had to use plastic (bleh). On the way back, I got bored and started "pumping iron" with the bag of groceries as I walked.

Of course the cheap plastic bag couldn't take the abuse; it split open and spilled my groceries onto the sidewalk and into the street. I wound up chasing apples down the hill in the middle of the road, and the last one got away from me. I'm sure the squirrels enjoyed it!

Boofinator

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One time I had bought more stuff than usual, and forgotten my bags, so I had to use plastic (bleh). On the way back, I got bored and started "pumping iron" with the bag of groceries as I walked.

+1 to pumping grocery bags.

eyesonthehorizon

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I refused to take the bus while living in Shanghai, but didn't have a bike, and would always, always overburden myself with fresh fruit - so good, and so cheap - on the three-quarter-hour pedestrian route back from class. I don't remember ever splitting a bag and pouring fruit across the sidewalk, but I definitely did spill a huge carry-out paperboard bowl of pork noodle soup into the plastic bag they packed it in, one deliriously hot day... dripped pork fat and warm oil on my shoes for a long while before I noticed, given that the soup and the ambient hot, humid air were indistinguishable on already-sweating skin, and it was not easy to wash out. (Also a waste of several mouthfuls of delicious soup.)

ditheca

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My morbidly obese grandfather decided to get healthy one day.  Unfortunately he didn't go on a diet, but his heart was in the right place, kinda?

He borrowed a bicycle and rode to the grocery store.  After making his purchases, he went back outside only to realize that the mile and a half ride home was steeply uphill the entire way.  There was absolutely no way he was going to make it home without a motor.  Fitting the bike into the car with the groceries and the grandpa was quite the challenge.