# What's the heaviest load you've carried on a bike?



## Riverman (22 Apr 2010)

Just curious. Perhaps trailer + rear panniers + front panniers + rucksack. **kg?

What was it like?


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## Riverman (22 Apr 2010)

> 24kg (3 1/2 stone)


 Scary as that's just over the excess fat I reckon I'm carrying around.

I was 9.5 stone in 1999. 13 stone now, at 29 and 5'8" although I have grown abit now.


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## Gareth (22 Apr 2010)

I moved about a 100 kg load distributed around my front & rear panniers and trailer a few weeks back, and when I moved my workshop tools (first worshop move this year) in January I did a 19 mile journey on my Falcon Explorer with; 25kg in the front panniers, 18kg in the rear panniers, and with close on 35kg loaded on my 10kg trailer, which with me at 79Kg makes it one tough bike.


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## Soltydog (22 Apr 2010)

i once carried 18.5 stone on the saddle


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## Arch (22 Apr 2010)

I never weighed this lot, but it included 3 boxes of 180 teabags, 6 jars of pasta sauce, 6 tins of waterchestnuts and bamboo shoots, some rice, 18 toilet rolls and my riding kit (boots, helmet, chaps and crop).


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## ufkacbln (22 Apr 2010)

The Fridge and cooker, but seperately.....


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## mr Mag00 (22 Apr 2010)

couldnt say she may read this


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## palinurus (22 Apr 2010)

Not much. A Laney bass combo and a 1978 P-bass. We had a gig, in the woods.

Christ, that bass gets abused. Didn't even put it in a hard case.






I find that 23mm tyres are just ideal for pulling a trailer through the woods.


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## palinurus (22 Apr 2010)

On the way back I carried a Cajon too.

It's weird pulling a trailer through the woods at 1 am.


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## Cyclist33 (22 Apr 2010)

I used to take a month worth of grocery home in my 65 litre rucksack. no idea how much it weighed but it hurt!


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## Wobbly John (22 Apr 2010)

We think the trailer had 1/4 of a tonne of hoss muck in it, in this load:






It took me 6 trips to move the contents of a tonne bag of sand to my son's house - but that was over a mile uphill.


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## joebingo (23 Apr 2010)

Me, it was tough!


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## Rhythm Thief (23 Apr 2010)

Probably 32 cans of Stella in four panniers at ten to eleven one drunken Saturday night. Having that much weight in low rider panniers (and being as pissed as a rat) makes riding with no hands very easy.


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## Headgardener (23 Apr 2010)

palinurus said:


> Not much. A Laney bass combo and a 1978 P-bass. We had a gig, in the woods.
> 
> Christ, that bass gets abused. Didn't even put it in a hard case.
> 
> ...


Where on earth did you find power in the middle of a wood?


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## Bman (23 Apr 2010)

Ive carried a solid wood door 3 miles...

Just rested it on the pedal and pushed the bike home, so doesnt really count!


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## palinurus (23 Apr 2010)

Headgardener said:


> Where on earth did you find power in the middle of a wood?



Portable generator.


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## arallsopp (23 Apr 2010)

A PowerPC G5, fully loaded with RAID drives and twin gfx / network cards on the rear rack, flanked by a pair of 20" Cinema displays, one in each pannier.

Hauling that over Crystal Palace on the Panzerfiets was probably a mistake.


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## gbb (23 Apr 2010)

Not myself, but ive seen / heard two funny things...
One was an electrician who strapped a bundle of galvanised conduit (its heavy) to his crossbar and rode across Peterborough years ago. He said it was a nightmare, it was so long, he couldnt turn corners 

Other was walking across a park one day near some shops. Behind me i heard 'thud'...then 'thud thud'...increasing in tempo 
I turned round and there was a guy on a MTB, sack of potatoes across his crossbar, which was slowly, then faster, then quickly emptying itself across the field as he rode along.
He stopped, turned his head top look at a trail of potatoes ...and rode off leaving them on the park 

Shouldnt have laughed.....


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## Goldfang (24 Apr 2010)

A large roll of wire chicken mesh on my shoulder for 4 miles, it ranks among one of the more stupid things that I have done. Marks of the mesh bitten into my shoulder lasted for days, I tried to strap it to the pannier rack but it would not stay on.


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## toroddf (24 Apr 2010)

30 kgs up Trollstigen in Norway and a lot of pretty nasty mountains. Trollstigen = 900 meters height gain in 10 kilometers. It was raining and fog. I climbed it (walked) bare-chested. I was asked if I had just escaped from a mental institution. Good question........


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## tordis (28 Apr 2010)

No idea what the total weight was, but one pannier was full of cat food, the other had milk and bread in it and on top of it all there was a 10l bag of cat litter. Glad the route wasn't long


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## PpPete (20 Mar 2021)

Thread Necromancy.

23 kgs (weekly shop) distributed between rear panniers, loo roll bungeed on top of the rack, and 35 litre rucsac. 
Handling was a bit iffy due to rearward C.o.G

Bike is 15kg (a rescue frame from the local recycling centre and various bits from the man cave)


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## DCBassman (20 Mar 2021)

Probably about 20lb, back in the day, carrying a bass and bits in a bin bag. This on a single- or 3-speed roadster, not the lightest of machines.


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## MichaelW2 (20 Mar 2021)

A green recycling bin full of bricks.
100Kg loads are doable on my trailer but braking downhill is tricky. You need to control the speed or the tail wags the dog.


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## TheDoctor (21 Mar 2021)

Sadly I don't have a photo, but before the interwebs were a thing, I did a day ride near Calais and bought alcohol back, as you do.
6 cases of lager at 9 kg per case,
6 bottles of Cote du Rhone at 1 kg each. Roughly.
That's 60 kg, in panniers beside and on top of front and rear racks. Three cases of beer up front, three cases and the wine at the back. Handling was a little compromised, to say the least. Braking wasn't up to much either...


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## Baldy (21 Mar 2021)

You lot are just whimps this is a really load.



A 14 crates of coke in glass bottles.


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## numbnuts (21 Mar 2021)

84lb of shopping using Bob-Yak trailer


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## RoadRider400 (5 Apr 2021)

I remember when I only worked from home one day a week. I never enjoyed the commute home the preceding day, or back into work the following day due to the extra weight and bulk of the laptop. Having read this thread perhaps it wasn't so bad after all.


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## classic33 (5 Apr 2021)

A front tyre off a John Deere four wheel drive tractor. All downhill from where I found it at the side of the road. Second one gone when I went back for it.


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## Hover Fly (6 Apr 2021)

classic33 said:


> A front tyre off a John Deere four wheel drive tractor. All downhill from where I found it at the side of the road. Second one gone when I went back for it.


And their owner was sat scratching his head and thinking “Who the eck pinched that? Can’t have been that cyclist.”


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## vickster (6 Apr 2021)

Me! Currently around 95kg  (plus 5-10kg of shopping I guess)


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## Ming the Merciless (6 Apr 2021)

Me


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## taximan (13 Apr 2021)

I once walked 3 miles home with an oak ships wheel fitted with a brass hub, balanced precariously on the pedal of my dads old Lenton sports. The wheel was just a little under 6 ft in diameter but I have no idea how much it weighed. At about that time it was quite common to see blokes riding their beat up old work bikes the 6 miles to Seaton Carew where they would gather sea coal off the beach. When they had a couple of sacks full of the stuff they would load it onto their bikes, one sack through the frame, and the other over the crossbar, then they walked home with their booty. I imagine that would have been in the late fifties when I was just a lad Cheeky young bugger.


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## weareHKR (13 Apr 2021)

I know my old man delivered coal to people by the bag full, on a bike! 
His father took him out of school when he was 15 to deliver & earn money for the family! 
So wish cameras would have been commonplace back then, I've very few photos sadly.


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## byegad (13 Apr 2021)

taximan said:


> I once walked 3 miles home with an oak ships wheel fitted with a brass hub, balanced precariously on the pedal of my dads old Lenton sports. The wheel was just a little under 6 ft in diameter but I have no idea how much it weighed. At about that time it was quite common to see blokes riding their beat up old work bikes the 6 miles to Seaton Carew where they would gather sea coal off the beach. When they had a couple of sacks full of the stuff they would load it onto their bikes, one sack through the frame, and the other over the crossbar, then they walked home with their booty. I imagine that would have been in the late fifties when I was just a lad Cheeky young bugger.


I remember seeing them do that too. Eventually it became a commercial business with lorries and the drivers fighting for the best location.


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## fossyant (13 Apr 2021)

I remember carrying a 10kg bike chain home from work in a rucksack when I was moving offices. I'd driven the chain there when I started there a few year's earlier.


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## MichaelW2 (16 Apr 2021)

I've been carrying a lot of max loads on my trailer but noticed that the Carryfreedom the "lollipop" hitch had cracked on one side of the hitch aperture after a decade of use. I ductaped it together and it survived a few more heavy loads but time for a replacement. The new urathane lolipop from Really Useful Bikes just arrived, Im back in business.
If you use this system on tour or for work or just a lot, keep a spare lollipop on hand.


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## classic33 (16 Apr 2021)

The chip on my shoulder.


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## Ming the Merciless (16 Apr 2021)

fossyant said:


> I remember carrying a 10kg bike chain home from work in a rucksack when I was moving offices. I'd driven the chain there when I started there a few year's earlier.



10kg bike chain. What kind of bike was that for?😲


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## GeekDadZoid (16 Apr 2021)

When you weigh around 100kg then anything extra up to about 20kg is not that noticable except when braking. Especially caliper brakes on Chrome rims :-)

I find bulk the biggest issue over weight when carrying stuff. I carried 6 laptops to work the other week and whilst it was only about 15kg worth of kit the bulk make more of a nuisance of its self.


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## fossyant (16 Apr 2021)

Ming the Merciless said:


> 10kg bike chain. What kind of bike was that for?😲



An 8kg fixie....


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## fossyant (16 Apr 2021)

fossyant said:


> An 8kg fixie....



In Manchester.


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## Tom B (16 Apr 2021)

When I was about 13 I bought 3 grow bags jammed them in a large backpacking rucksack so they was poking out of the top and rode the 5miles home. Slowly and painfully.

I've had a big shop in the kiddie trailer including 10kg of spuds other veg, beer and a toddler in the seat on the back of the bike. That was slow and tedious, I seem to recall the spring on the trailer hitch wasn't happy.


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## MichaelW2 (28 Apr 2021)

Not heavy but long. A bunch of wooden battens behaved remarkably well on the 3 mile return journey. I lashed them to a 2.5m plank of wood to ensure no bouncing or flexing.


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## CharleyFarley (28 Apr 2021)

I used to carry 70 newspapers on the crossbar every morning. I don't know how much it weighed but it was too heavy to have it hanging on my shoulder. On Sunday, with the much fatter newspapers, I had to do 35 at a time. Ride back to the shop for another 35 then ride back to where I left off. All for ten bob a week.

I went down on the ice, one winter morning, and I don't know what caused it, but the saddle was pointing sideways.


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## taximan (28 Apr 2021)

MichaelW2 said:


> Not heavy but long. A bunch of wooden battens behaved remarkably well on the 3 mile return journey. I lashed them to a 2.5m plank of wood to ensure no bouncing or flexing.



Reminds me of a bloke who used to clean our windows. He transported his ladder in a similar way. One end was fastened to the back of his bike and the other end had a pair of old pram wheels tied on. He could go at a fair old lick too.


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## taximan (28 Apr 2021)




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## Boopop (28 Apr 2021)

I think about 100L of water when we had a water cut here in Leighton Buzzard. Grabbed loads of bottles of water and then went around some of the bungalows offering the old folks some extra water. I like a challenge 😄





Even got a shout out from the local council.






P.S. - Yes, using a cargo bike in this way does make you a smug git, sorry not sorry


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## JhnBssll (28 Apr 2021)

Theres a lad that cycles past mine several times a week towing a trailer - he seems to collect scrap metal, I've seen fridges, gearboxes, all sorts go past...


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## classic33 (28 Apr 2021)

Boopop said:


> I think about 100L of water when we had a water cut here in Leighton Buzzard. Grabbed loads of bottles of water and then went around some of the bungalows offering the old folks some extra water. I like a challenge 😄
> View attachment 586247
> 
> 
> ...


Fair play to you.
You could have done nothing, and moaned about no water.


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## Boopop (29 Apr 2021)

classic33 said:


> Fair play to you.
> You could have done nothing, and moaned about no water.



Honestly it was nice to do something for other people but my ulterior motive was just to see how much I could haul in one go


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## classic33 (29 Apr 2021)

Boopop said:


> Honestly it was nice to do something for other people but my ulterior motive was just to see how much I could haul in one go


Without spilling a drop.


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## battered (29 Apr 2021)

We had to get up at 2 i' t' morning, hafe an hour afore we went to bed...
I had my mate Holly on a paggy some while ago on the way to a party. She's only skinny though.


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## froze (2 Apr 2022)

Not that much, around 45 pounds give or take a pound or two, and not including 5 bottles of water.


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## CharleyFarley (3 Apr 2022)

I don't know about the weight but it was large. I used to do a paper route when I was 12. Seventy papers each day. I rested the bag on the crossbar, and it took up every inch of space from the nose of the saddle to the handlebars, which didn't give me much room to steer. It was okay once I'd delivered a few. Sunday was horrible because I had to do it in two loads due to the size of the Sunday papers. At the halfway point, ride back to the shop, pick up the rest of the papers and ride back to where I left off. All for ten bob a week.


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## presta (3 Apr 2022)

Last time I toured fully laden I weighed 69.8kg in the buff, and the total for _everything _else was 36.9kg. Out of that, the bike is about 14kg, depending on which bits you count as bike. At my heaviest a few years before I was 86kg, so that would have made an all up weight of 123kg.


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## Oldhippy (3 Apr 2022)

A washing machine when I moved flats once.


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## Oldhippy (3 Apr 2022)

There are very few things you can't do on a bike with the right attitude and imagination.


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## Ridgeway (3 Apr 2022)

Mrs R takes everyday our woofers at 20kgs each plus their trailer is 55kgs. I have to replace the rear (yes I’ve mentioned about using the front more) brake pads twice a year and the rotor every 2yrs as the weight really puts a toll on it all.

We did bring the Christmas tree back in December on the bike as well, strapped it in top of the trailer


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## Ming the Merciless (3 Apr 2022)

About 85kg


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## oldwheels (3 Apr 2022)

59Kg in my Columbus trailer. It regularly took 2 large parcels to the local post office when the maximum weight permitted was 30Kg per parcel. Parking in summer was difficult so a bike and trailer was an ideal solution.


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## froze (4 Apr 2022)

CharleyFarley said:


> I don't know about the weight but it was large. I used to do a paper route when I was 12. Seventy papers each day. I rested the bag on the crossbar, and it took up every inch of space from the nose of the saddle to the handlebars, which didn't give me much room to steer. It was okay once I'd delivered a few. Sunday was horrible because I had to do it in two loads due to the size of the Sunday papers. At the halfway point, ride back to the shop, pick up the rest of the papers and ride back to where I left off. All for ten bob a week.


I used to deliver papers back in the late 60's but I can't recall how many papers I carried; I just remembered the hassle of folding all of them before I delivered them. That was back in the days when there were evening papers still around, so a lot of elementary and junior high school kids ran paper routes, it only took us about 30 minutes to do if I remember. I used to rest the bag on the handlebars as well, they taught us to do that at the paper company. I lived in a fairly small town so the paper was pretty light thus the load was manageable, our town didn't do a Sunday paper. I can't recall how much I made doing that for sure, but I think it was around 50 cents a day, so 6 days of delivery was $3, I saved my money for a year and bought a Tissot watch because all my other watches kept breaking, that one never broke for 53 years.


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## hoopdriver (4 Apr 2022)

While cycling through the vastness of Australia’s Great Sandy Desert in the height of summer I was carrying 23 litres of water in addition to my camping gear etc. The water alone would have weighed 23kgs


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## PaulSB (4 Apr 2022)

88kg........but that's reduced somewhat over the years


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## Sixmile (7 Apr 2022)

Our tandem with two kids on board and a weeks worth of clothes & snacks is definitely the most weight I've ever lugged around. We initially trie the set up with a double trailer on the back but that really was the 20kg straw that broke the camels.. hip! I'm half considering one last family tour with the tandem set up but everyone is a year heavier, including the pilot!


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## Milkfloat (7 Apr 2022)




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## classic33 (7 Apr 2022)

Milkfloat said:


> View attachment 638921


In all fairness, the load is on a trailer not the bike.


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## Jody (7 Apr 2022)

Does giving your mate a backie count? 

Got to be nearly 100kg


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## Scotchlovingcylist (7 Apr 2022)

Jody said:


> Does giving your mate a backie count?



Round here we'd call that a croggie 😁.


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## Jody (7 Apr 2022)

speedfreak said:


> Round here we'd call that a croggie 😁.



Never heard that one.


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## Rhyagelle (11 Apr 2022)

60lb for months.

I had to carry bike tools, spare tubes, my work attire, a raincoat, work shoes (couldn't bike in them, especially in rain), something for lunch, water bottle, first aide kit and when it was winter months, had to carry a winter jacket + ushanka and face mask. I'd stop by the dollar store to pick up groceries too, and stuff all of it in one backpack or balance bags on the handles. It was not pretty.  

I ordered up a few things a few days ago, such as a rear rack and a crate to make lugging my stuff about easier!


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## biggs682 (12 Apr 2022)

Normally me the rider


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## lazybloke (15 Apr 2022)

Jody said:


> Does giving your mate a backie count?
> 
> Got to be nearly 100kg


I gave a pal a lift on the _handlebars _of my bike. He's 6' 4" and probably weighed 90 kg.

Like most crazy ideas, this was after an evening in the pub.
We got about this far before it ended painfully.


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## Pokitren (17 May 2022)

taximan said:


> View attachment 586237​



I think it's just dangerous. If those boxes fall down, they could kill the driver. Personally, I've never carried more than 70 kg on a bike.


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## silva (26 May 2022)

I once rode 30 km with 65 kg loaded on rear basket and along (square tubes) the horizontal tube.
It's just pushing harder and riding slower.
It was on the outside. In a city, alot stops and starts, it requires a degree of crazyness. See, crash = lotsa damage, bike and rider. The heaviest load I ever went with through a city, a couple gitar speaker boxes and their amplifier, when arriving home the only sane thought was a never again. Realizing having had a lot luck by all green traffic lights and no surprises. Happy to succeed, but at the same time, realizing what risk it had been.


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## DCBassman (26 May 2022)

My lardy a*se plus a Fender Precision Bass in a hard case. Not monstrously heavy, but damned awkward...


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## TheDoctor (26 May 2022)

Heaviest load I've been a part of was three of us on a gaspipe 'racer'. All up weight, maybe 200 kg.


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## Roseland triker (27 May 2022)

Probably about 250kg . 
On a trailer I had a petrol powered wood chipper and chainsaws. I even built a bike for the job with massive disc brakes. Used to load up logs too at the end of the day. 
I also towed a triple section 14ft ladder for tree work so I could get up 30ft without having to climb. 
Regularly tow chainsaws and climbing kit. Petrol etc.


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## Andy in Germany (29 May 2022)

I'd reckon about 80-100kg, on the Bakfiets. It's a toss up between a load of scrap for the tip, fertiliser bags or reclaimed 3m wood planks. I also managed to roll with 21 children in, on, or hanging of the back of the bike, although that was only for a few metres during a festival.


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## classic33 (29 May 2022)

Andy in Germany said:


> I'd reckon about 80-100kg, on the Bakfiets. It's a toss up between a load of scrap for the tip, fertiliser bags or reclaimed 3m wood planks.* I also managed to roll with 21 children in, on, or hanging of the back of the bike, *although that was only for a few metres during a festival.


All yours?


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## BoldonLad (29 May 2022)

taximan said:


> I once walked 3 miles home with an oak ships wheel fitted with a brass hub, balanced precariously on the pedal of my dads old Lenton sports. The wheel was just a little under 6 ft in diameter but I have no idea how much it weighed. At about that time it was quite common to see blokes riding their beat up old work bikes the 6 miles to Seaton Carew where they would gather sea coal off the beach. When they had a couple of sacks full of the stuff they would load it onto their bikes, one sack through the frame, and the other over the crossbar, then they walked home with their booty. I imagine that would have been in the late fifties when I was just a lad Cheeky young bugger.



I wondered if someone would mention transporting coal in that way!

Locally, a similar thing happened, except, we scavenger coal from the spoil heaps, and/or along the railway lines, and, then, transported it home, as you described.


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## Andy in Germany (29 May 2022)

classic33 said:


> All yours?



Thankfully, no.


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## ericmark (3 Jun 2022)

Seem to remember a Last of Summer Wine episode where a bike was used, there was a 2.75 ton motor bike made for Russia 





idea it seems was to travel on tracks designed for horses, the  Gyrocar  was it seemed never delivered, made by Wolseley Tool and Motorcar Company in England in 1914 and demonstrated in London the same year. It likely holds the record for a bike weight, but as to weight carried on a pedal cycle there has to be a big difference between carried and ridden and simply used as a wheel barrow. 

The problem with rear rack and panniers is one tyre taking the weight, and two being able to steer with so little weight on the front wheel, so likely carried more with a back pack, but likely no more than 56 pounds and riding the bike.


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## cycleking (4 Jun 2022)

I weight about 76kg and ive had about another 50 in a backpack. was pretty hard and going down has was a little dangerous


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## Tom B (6 Jun 2022)

Watched this thread for a while. I think I mentioned the several grow bags I carried home once.

But just remembered as kids we used to race down our street which was on a big hill and then onto the busier estate distributor road. One of the gang would be on the road to signal if the main road was clear and try to flag the car or bus down if the rider didn't / couldn't slow down. 

Anyway of the nutty ideas we tried to go faster (including pumping up the tyres with water and filling the frame with water) one idea was to strap bottles of water to the bike fill a rucksack bag with water / bricks to increase weight. Of course it got taken to extremes with bottles cable tied to any bits of frame we could.

I seem to recall several "spills" some stitches and scarring.


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## taximan (6 Jun 2022)

Tom B said:


> Watched this thread for a while. I think I mentioned the several grow bags I carried home once.
> 
> But just remembered as kids we used to race down our street which was on a big hill and then onto the busier estate distributor road. One of the gang would be on the road to signal if the main road was clear and try to flag the car or bus down if the rider didn't / couldn't slow down.
> 
> ...



Sounds like fun


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## DaveReading (6 Jun 2022)

As a kid, I rode my bike back from the beach once with a couple of pails of sand dangling from my handlebars to use in my 8th Army diorama.


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## Fredo76 (26 Jun 2022)

Probably the 110 Thursday newspapers, or the 70 or so that would fit on Sundays, with two pannier wire baskets, plus a bigger one up front. The mounting on the front one wasn't the stiffest, which made it forgiving, until it didn't. Probably 70 lbs. or so total, on my Raleigh 3-speed, in my teenage years.

"The paper holds their folded faces to the floor,
And every day, the paperboy brings more...


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