tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12321725.post-40709510175186989842007-08-03T09:47:00.000-07:002008-06-19T22:00:07.973-07:002008-06-19T22:00:07.973-07:00Of 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.<br /><br />First up are Oyster Buckets from <a href="http://www.cobbworks.com/">Cobbworks</a> 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 <a href="http://www.ropakcorp.com/">Ropak</a> 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_7EWyAvk4vBY/RrNvtUmnt6I/AAAAAAAAAC0/nFNCPEg9GkY/s1600-h/oyster.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_7EWyAvk4vBY/RrNvtUmnt6I/AAAAAAAAAC0/nFNCPEg9GkY/s400/oyster.JPG" alt="Cobbworks Oyster Buckets on Friday" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5094538427901654946" title="" cobbworks="" oyster="" buckets="" on="" friday="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Cobbworks Oyster Buckets on Friday</span><br /></div><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_7EWyAvk4vBY/RrNw_Emnt7I/AAAAAAAAAC8/coo_SGDL_a0/s1600-h/oyster_groc.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_7EWyAvk4vBY/RrNw_Emnt7I/AAAAAAAAAC8/coo_SGDL_a0/s400/oyster_groc.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5094539832355960754" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Oyster Buckets with groceries<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_7EWyAvk4vBY/RrN030mnt8I/AAAAAAAAADE/MsH-f6deLqw/s1600-h/oyter_box.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_7EWyAvk4vBY/RrN030mnt8I/AAAAAAAAADE/MsH-f6deLqw/s400/oyter_box.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5094544105848420290" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Oyster Buckets with a box</span><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">All in all I am very happy and can recommend them to anybody who needs to carry<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> stuff</span>.<br /></div></div>The Mad Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00571816053417186892noreply@blogger.com