Pannier Recommendation

"David Martin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On 20/9/04 8:39 am, in article [email hidden], "Lee"

Quoted message said:

You will need a rack. Then you will need the bags to hang off the rack. It
is worth getting ones with decent clips, it makes life so much easier than
the cheap 'clips and bungee' variety.

..d

OK, can anyone suggest a good set to get?

Lee said:

Ive come to the conclusion that the main reason why i sweat like a nun in a
[censored] house whislt riding is basically down to my backpack style bag.. Lots
of people have told me to try panniers so I wondered if you guys could
recommend a good set?

Ideally i want to spend as little as possible but need to fit in a shirt,
trousers, bike bits and occasionally shoes.

Not that much: if you get a saddlebag then you should be able to fit
that lot in and you won't have to buy a rack either. If you do get a
rack other alternatives would be a rack pack or something like one of
EBC's symmetrical panniers, available singly, as you'd probably only
need one.

Quoted message said:

I had a quick look on wiggle and saw some that would be good - but i wasnt
sure if i needed a rack, or whether they came with one or not.

They don't. Bor Yueh make cheap but fine alloy racks which should be
all you need.

Lidl occasionally have throwover type panniers. They're not exactly
Ortliebs but then neither is the price tag!

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

David Martin said:

You will need a rack. Then you will need the bags to hang off the

rack. It

Quoted message said:

is worth getting ones with decent clips, it makes life so much easier

than

Quoted message said:

the cheap 'clips and bungee' variety.

..d

All four of my panniers have 2 simple hooks at the top and a hook on
the end of a bungy or adjustable strap. They work fine and have done
for years including several thousand touring miles. I don't recall them
ever bouncing off and the hooks have never broken. Perhaps when used in
conjunction with my Blackburn rack my experiences are better than
yours, perhaps its because I have used them with a reasonable amount of
weight in, not alot of weight though, that they remain inplace and easy
to fit and remove. Mine are made my Agu and Rhode Gear.

My local Halford have some nice looking ones for less that £30/pair.
There are some that are not their own brand that are labled as front
panniers. They are failry narrow and plain with no outside pockets.
This is not a recommendation as I have never used them but they caught
my eye for a commuting set. One of these would easily hold what I take
to work with me. Only downside which is minor IMHO is the lack of
pockets for spare innertube, keys, phone, wallet etc. There is a zip
pocket on the top to stow the rain cover in but its not very large.
Martin

Lee said:

Ideally i want to spend as little as possible but need to fit in a
shirt, trousers, bike bits and occasionally shoes.

I use an Ortlieb Bike-Box rack-top bag, which fails the "cheap" test but
after four years of daily use is still completely waterproof, haivng
successfully kept my stuff dry even in summer thunderstorms.

I can fit a shirt, trousers, pack of tools, sandwich box, pump and a
waterproof in there; on occasions I have transported shoes in it as well but
that means the coat has to go :-)

It is also compatible with panniers, so I can hang a pannier on for overflow
if required.

So the Ortlieb Bike-Box is my top choice for a commuting bag.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington
University

In message <[email hidden]>,
MSeries <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

David Martin said:

You will need a rack. Then you will need the bags to hang off the

rack. It

Quoted message said:

is worth getting ones with decent clips, it makes life so much easier

than

Quoted message said:

the cheap 'clips and bungee' variety.

..d

All four of my panniers have 2 simple hooks at the top and a hook on
the end of a bungy or adjustable strap. They work fine and have done
for years including several thousand touring miles. I don't recall them
ever bouncing off and the hooks have never broken.

My old Carradice super 'C' had the hook and bungee type fixing, I did
have the occasional problem with them bouncing off.

I modified them to use a strap and hook system like the front panniers
I got (Tikka -when they were imported from NZ) Modern clips systems are
an improvement, but if a cheap pair cam with a cheaper fixing fair
enough.

Quoted message said:

My local Halford have some nice looking ones for less that £30/pair.
There are some that are not their own brand that are labled as front
panniers.

Yep, I was going to suggest them for cheap panniers.

A 'step' up, The Altura Arran, 36L about gbp 40 looks pretty good, not
used them, but their kit is normally reliable.

--
Chris French, Leeds

On 20/9/04 9:17 am, in article
[email hidden], "MSeries"

Quoted message said:

David Martin said:

You will need a rack. Then you will need the bags to hang off the

rack. It

Quoted message said:

is worth getting ones with decent clips, it makes life so much easier

than

Quoted message said:

the cheap 'clips and bungee' variety.

..d

All four of my panniers have 2 simple hooks at the top and a hook on
the end of a bungy or adjustable strap. They work fine and have done
for years including several thousand touring miles. I don't recall them
ever bouncing off and the hooks have never broken. Perhaps when used in
conjunction with my Blackburn rack my experiences are better than
yours, perhaps its because I have used them with a reasonable amount of
weight in, not alot of weight though, that they remain inplace and easy
to fit and remove. Mine are made my Agu and Rhode Gear.

I have had the panniers bounce off a few times. Some of those were a bit
extreme though.. Most of my bags are the plain clips and bungees sort and it
can be a bit of a pain getting bungees the right length (and not all racks
are amenable to finding places to hook them.) The briefcase bag (a Halfords
one) has a locking clip and is so much more convenient.

Having said that, if the choice is between panniers with traditional clips
or no panniers, I'll still go for the panniers every time.

...d

Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> wrote:

: They don't. Bor Yueh make cheap but fine alloy racks which should be
: all you need.

Seconded.

I'll also second Pete's idea of getting one of the Edinburgh Bike commuting
panniers. Although it seems odd, there's no problem in only having one
pannier and all the weight in that.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune PGP/GPG Key: http://www.clune.org/pubkey.txt
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

On 20/9/04 10:07 am, in article [email hidden], "Arthur

Clune said:

Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> wrote:

: They don't. Bor Yueh make cheap but fine alloy racks which should be
: all you need.

Seconded.

I'll also second Pete's idea of getting one of the Edinburgh Bike commuting
panniers. Although it seems odd, there's no problem in only having one
pannier and all the weight in that.

Thirded. I regularly have one pannier full of veggies from the allotment and
the 'unbalancing' never seemed to do me any harm <twitch>.

Though Guy's suggestion of a rack pack is also good. Whatever fits the
budget best. You may be able to pick up some cheap panniers on eBay - checks
- yes there is loads of stuff.

...d

Arthur Clune said:

: They don't. Bor Yueh make cheap but fine alloy racks which should be
: all you need.

Seconded.

I'll also second Pete's idea of getting one of the Edinburgh Bike commuting
panniers. Although it seems odd, there's no problem in only having one
pannier and all the weight in that.

This is exactly the combination I've used for commuting and shopping
now for a couple of years, and it works great. The Bor Yuer racks are
excellent value for money (about 12 - 14 quid) and the single EBC
pannier I bought has given good service too (20 quid atm). I've
crashed it, kicked it all around and overstuffed it too many times to
recall and it's still going strong. As Arthur says, you don't feel any
imbalance having just the one pannier (until you overload it with far
too much beer on the odd shopping trip). You'll easily fit the things
you mentioned into a single bag.

The EBC bag has been waterproof enough for me, it's not sold as
waterproof but it don't remember ever having had wet contents after
rainy commutes etc. It has a three clip type fixing arrangement, so
attachment is just a matter of dropping it onto the rack and pushing
it home.

I did once have this bag bounce off the rack and swing into my rear
spokes, but I think really that was my fault. I stupidly hopped a kerb
with a fair load in it and jumped it off, so can't blame the bag.

One thing I have found very useful on the pannier is a separate
outside zip pocket. Very handy for items like keys, lights, phone,
multitool, whatever... bit's you often need to get at without wanting
to open the main compartment and root around for. Not all panniers
have external pockets so perhaps bear that in mind.

--

"Bob"

'The people have spoken, the [censored]'

Email address is spam trapped.
To reply directly remove the beverage.

brian said:

Anything by Ortlieb if you want / need total waterproofness.

... and/or if you want something that will last.

In message <[email hidden]>, Paul Rudin
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

brian said:

Anything by Ortlieb if you want / need total waterproofness.

.. and/or if you want something that will last.

but not, if as the OP asked, you want to spend as little as possible.
--
Chris French, Leeds

Lee said:

Hi folks

Ive come to the conclusion that the main reason why i sweat like a nun in a
[censored] house whislt riding is basically down to my backpack style bag.. Lots
of people have told me to try panniers so I wondered if you guys could
recommend a good set?

Quoted message said:

Cheers

Lee

Anything by Ortlieb if you want / need total waterproofness.

You'd need a pannier rack, a cheap and cheerfull Bor Yeuh rack will do the
business (around £12 or so)

--
Brian

chris French said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Paul Rudin
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

brian said:

Anything by Ortlieb if you want / need total waterproofness.

.. and/or if you want something that will last.

but not, if as the OP asked, you want to spend as little as possible.

Sort of: it depends - if something lasts 20 years you might end up
spending less that buying something that lasts 4 years 5 times.

Paul Rudin said:

Sort of: it depends - if something lasts 20 years you might end up
spending less that buying something that lasts 4 years 5 times.

Not really though. I have a pair of Carradice Overlanders (their
"budget" bags, which though not fourpence certainly trouble the bank
balance less than a new pair of Ortliebs) that I used regularly for over
a decade and I've now passed them onto a friend who uses them regularly,
and there's no sign of them giving up the ghost any time soon.

Ortliebs are great: I have a pair that replaced the Overlanders, but
because they're /nicer/, rather than because they'll last longer. If
you have the money I heartily recommend them, but if you don't have the
money you can still buy very well made stuff for a whole lot less.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Lee said:

Ideally i want to spend as little as possible but need to fit in a shirt,
trousers, bike bits and occasionally shoes.

I just bought a set of these for commuting use - Agu McMurdo 335.
<url:http://www.wiggle.co.uk/?ProductID=5300003632>

Total capacity is about 25 litres, which is bigger than the backpack I
was using before I got them. They come as a pair. I only use one bag
most days but take the second on days when I've got more stuff to carry.

They're fairly basic and ideally I'd like them to have a few more
pockets, but on the plus side they have integrated rain covers (in a
fetching fluorescent green) that neatly zip away when not in use.

I didn't buy them from Wiggle - just went into an LBS near where I work
on the off chance to see if they had anything I liked, found these ones,
liked them and discovered that they were selling at £15 off the rrp.
Which is nice.

Agu are quite a reputable brand, but as the chap in the shop said, and
several urc people will endorse, Ortlieb are the business - well made
and completely waterproof. They also cost lots of money.

Quoted message said:

I had a quick look on wiggle and saw some that would be good - but i wasnt
sure if i needed a rack, or whether they came with one or not.

Racks come separately and are necessary.

d.

Guy said:

I use an Ortlieb Bike-Box rack-top bag

I'm saving up my pocket money for one of those.

d.

This may well be sacrilege, but Which? found these to be best:
http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=10848

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/?ProductID=5360007178

Steve

"Lee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi folks

Ive come to the conclusion that the main reason why i sweat like a nun in

a

Quoted message said:

[censored] house whislt riding is basically down to my backpack style bag..

Lots

Quoted message said:

of people have told me to try panniers so I wondered if you guys could
recommend a good set?

Ideally i want to spend as little as possible but need to fit in a shirt,
trousers, bike bits and occasionally shoes. My current bike is the

Raleigh

Quoted message said:

X1 and as far as i can tell it has all the fittings in the right place for

a

Quoted message said:

set!

I had a quick look on wiggle and saw some that would be good - but i wasnt
sure if i needed a rack, or whether they came with one or not. Seeing as
how you chaps and chapessess helped me with my choice of pedals and shoes,

i

Quoted message said:

hoped you could do the same again!?

Cheers

Lee

In message <[email hidden]>, Steve Almond
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

This may well be sacrilege, but Which? found these to be best:
http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=10848

Compared to what others? and how do they define best?

IME, which are ok when investigating washing machines or whatever, but a
lot of things they just don't really have the experience it seems to
judge things and someone in the know would.

I've seen Altura panniers before, and while I would say these are good
value, I don't think they are in anyway the best.
--
Chris French, Leeds

chris French said:

IME, which are ok when investigating washing machines or whatever, but a
lot of things they just don't really have the experience it seems to
judge things and someone in the know would.

As a former employee of Which? who has visited the testing centre in
Milton Keynes and witnessed first hand the extreme rigour they apply to
every type of product test they carry out, I beg to differ.

Quoted message said:

I've seen Altura panniers before, and while I would say these are good
value, I don't think they are in anyway the best.

I expect what Steve meant was that they are a "Best Buy", which might
just mean that they are rated best in their category, whatever that
might be.

d.