Roll Your Own: Panniers

[pooks]

Making Rivendell-style panniers from a different brand of waxed cotton ones.

Why would you want to?

For one thing, the Pa Panniers are basically two bags connected together by a flap of canvas at the top. The idea is to straddle the two panniers over the rack of one's bicycle, then lash the bags to the sides of the rack. With most panniers, you can use just one side at a time; not so with the Baggins panniers. And the Baggins panniers don't work very well when they're not carrying a load. Since I frequently ride around with a single, mostly empty pannier, the Baggins panniers never fit my needs, though I prefer the traditional look of waxed canvas to the plastic mesh of my trusty Jandd grocery pannier.

Read more by clicking link, natch.

[DebW]

I sewed myself a set of front panniers a long time ago. They're still nice panniers, except the coating is peeling off the nylon and one has a small hole in a bottom corner. They're a bit of a mismatched set because they are 2 different shades of green, and one has a nice pocket on it and the other doesn't, and they have different zipper gauges. Guess I was working with whatever material I happened to have around at the time. The plastic stiffener against the back was a plastic shoe mat. Bought some nice aluminum hooks for rack attachment - think I've got an extra set of those hooks laying around (maybe for the rear panniers I never made). A couple aluminum bars inside each for mounting stiffness. One of my more useful sewing projects.

[pooks]

I'm not at all crafty. I think it would be cool to be able to make your own stuff.

[HipGnosis6]

I sewed myself a set of front panniers a long time ago. They're still nice panniers, except the coating is peeling off the nylon and one has a small hole in a bottom corner. They're a bit of a mismatched set because they are 2 different shades of green, and one has a nice pocket on it and the other doesn't, and they have different zipper gauges. Guess I was working with whatever material I happened to have around at the time. The plastic stiffener against the back was a plastic shoe mat. Bought some nice aluminum hooks for rack attachment - think I've got an extra set of those hooks laying around (maybe for the rear panniers I never made). A couple aluminum bars inside each for mounting stiffness. One of my more useful sewing projects.

I've been struggling with finding JUST RIGHT panniers and of course, you just solved my dilemma.

Now, where to find the time....

I wish I'd thought to put some mesh stiffener in the back layer of the messenger bag I made for my construction class. It would have made it the "knock out" project for the class instead of just being larger and more brightly colored than most people's projects. (The project was technically to make a handbag - like I'd do THAT ) I should post up some pictures of that bag - it came out pretty well, even if it is a little floppy.