Accessories I

Of course when you buy a big new toy, there are a lot of little toys that you end up needing or wanting. I won't bore you with every little purchase ("Check out these cool tire levers...") but I will highlight some things I found very useful.

First up are Oyster Buckets from Cobbworks of Olympia, Washington. Oyster Buckets are one of those things where your first reaction is "Why didn't I think of that..." At their heart is Ropak square 4 gallon food grade buckets. If you need 4 gallons of mayo, macaroni salad, Thousand Island dressing or some such, it probably comes in buckets like these (When I was in the homebrewing business we sold 5 gallon round buckets from Ropak for use as fermenters. ) I use the Oyster Buckets mainly for grocery shopping, but the would work for bike touring as well.

Of course the trick is, and the value Cobbworks adds, is they are perfectly set up to be attached to a standard rear rack. Plus they have added nice cushy covers to the wire handles (made from recycled air hose from Boeing) , brightly colored stickers to improve visibility and handy handle loops on the lids for easy removal.

Cobbworks Oyster Buckets on Friday

They hold a fair amount of stuff and even heaver items such as 2 litre bottles of soda don't seem to be a problem. The extra width took me a little getting used to, but then again I'm not used to riding with panniers.

Oyster Buckets with groceries

On nice design element is the tops of the buckets are level with your rear rack, so you can strap bulkier items across the buckets. If you were doing a self supported tour I can see how that would be useful. But even just running errands it is a nice feature. I had to ship a box and while I could have strapped it to just the rear rack, having the Oyster Buckets gave me an extra bit of support.

Oyster Buckets with a box

All in all I am very happy and can recommend them to anybody who needs to carry stuff.