DIY pannier for $5.49

Well, I'm awfully proud of myself, and thrilled with how easy/cheap this was to throw together, so I'm telling everybody. Tada! ;)

Today I made a pannier for my bike. Total cost of (all new) materials: $5.49
Not bad! And it went together very easily. I only just made it today, so obviously the jury's still out on how well it works in real life, but I tested it out a little just to make sure that it seemed alright, and it seems to work like a charm! At the moment, I'm very happy with it. :)

Pictures and how I did it can be found by clicking here.

Very ingenious, Summer! And inexpensive, too.

The only modification I would suggest is that you might want to figure out some way to anchor the lower part of the, er, pannier to the frame or the rack. One way might be to get one of the really short and skinny bungees, drill a couple more holes in the basket, maybe 3/4 of the way down toward the bottom, then thread the bungee through the holes and around the rack.

On the other hand, once you've got stuff in it, that will probably hold it down just fine. Enjoy your handiwork!

Oooh, good suggestion. Thank you! I'll wait and see how this rides as-is (lazy me. ;) ) but I might try that once I've tested it out a little. Seems like a good idea.

Very cool!

Hey, if you need some for rainy weather, you could hook on a Rubbermaid with a lock-on lid!

I thought about that! I didn't want to tackle figuring out not-hindering-the-lid yet until I'd gotten the simpler version to work. This was simple enough, though, that I might have to give it a shot.