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Once you are comfortable riding your bike around your neighborhood and for longish (up to 5 miles) rides recreationally, you might want to use your bike to run errands. Some errands, such as going to visit a friend, you need nothing special for. Your friend likely has a safe place to park your bike. You probably don't need to bring anything other than yourself. You likely won't be carrying anything home from your friend's place.
But most errands present two problems: carrying stuff to and/or from and securing your bicycle while you are away from your bicycle (in a store, at the library, in the hair salon, etc.).
There are places where you can just leave a completely unlocked bicycle and it will still be there when you come back. I've done it here in Acton; I went to the Post Office and parked the bike in the parking lot figuring I'd just duck in and out quickly. It was still there. I was lucky. It could have been the most expensive package I ever delivered (fortunately, as I was only about a mile from home, I could still have returned home without a rescue).
You can find a lot of advice about what locks to buy and how to use them via google. Bike shops will also supply you with advice. If you are running errands and leaving your bike unattended in high theft areas (think: cities, near colleges, etc.), you will need to really spend some time learning how to do this. Otherwise, if you buy a rear frame lock with plug in chain and a u-lock, you will probably be able to attach your bike to something in the vicinity of your final destination in a way that slows down likely thieves enough for it to still be there when you get back. Unless you are in a high theft zone, there probably won't be bike racks readily available, and there might not even be parking meters at many of your destinations (e.g. suburban markets, restaurants).)
Your car has storage space: the back seat, a trunk, the front passenger seat, behind your legs, a rack or box on the roof. Your bike will need to have storage space, too. Depending on what you are planning on carrying, you might want to buy some or all of the following:
Your backpack, messenger bag or purse will work just fine on a bike, as long as it does not disrupt your balance while riding, or catch on your handlebars or otherwise get in your way. But these things can be disruptive while riding, and they don't hold a lot of groceries anyway. You can get panniers (bags which attach to the sides of rear racks) that double as backpacks or have a shoulder strap. Some of them are roughly the size of a grocery bag. While a front basket usually has a maximum load of 10 pounds, front trays can hold 20 pounds or, on specially designed bikes, more. But you should be very cautious about loading up the front of your bike; it will affect steering and stability.
Whatever part of your trunk is easily removable should probably be removed from your bike when you lock and leave your bike in high theft areas. As should any quick release things like the seat.
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Copyright 2009, Rebecca Allen Created: July 10, 2009 Updated: July 10, 2009