Here is a synthesis/redux of the thread on panniers and
software.. I have carried out some minor editing.
More contributions welcome..
Guy, do you want to put it up as a web page (HTML, not PDF
;-))?
..d
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**If panniers were software...** (from thread contributions
by Richard Bates, Guy Chapman, David Martin, Simon Bennett,
Colin Blackburn and Tim Hall)
*Pannier piracy: I want a set of front and rear panniers to
be used simultaneously. Should I just purchase the rear and
steal the front?
*Pannier monopoly: The pannier manufacturer PanCo uses
extortion to force all rack makers to ship racks with their
panniers pre-installed until there were essentially no other
pannier makers left, at which point they increased the
price, including charging more for old stocks of panniers
which work on lower-spec racks. There are some third party
manufacturers who make add-ons such as lights but these
extra fittings only fit PanCo panniers.
*Licensing: You buy a license to use your panniers on one
rack. If you want to use them on another rack then you have
to buy another license for that rack.
And if you upgrade your panniers then you have to buy a
new license. You can't transfer the license to your new
set of panniers.
You can't hang your panniers on the sides of a supermarket
trolley while shopping as the pannier manufacturer do not
support pannier licenses for shopping trolleys.
*Giving them away: If I wanted to legally sell or donate my
bike to someone else, I am obliged to include the panniers
(as well as all manuals and accompanying printed materials).
You can just give away the panniers (along with all printed
documentation) as long as you did not buy your panniers
through a discount pannier scheme, in which case you are not
legally allowed to transfer them to another bike at all.
Or maybe your panniers come with the job. I can use mine at
home but if I leave my job I can no longer use them so I
would be legally obliged to remove and destroy them.
*Problems and upgrades: The panniers I have were supposed
to be good, but are full of holes. Indeed not a week goes
by when then manufacture rings me up to say they have
found another hole and could I send an SAE for them to put
a patch in.
My panniers fall off every couple of weeks. The
manufacturers say that this is normal and I should just take
everything out of the panniers, put it all back in and hang
them back on the bike.