Greetings,

I have decided that I am going to make my own rear panniers for an upcoming bike trip and save the extra E100 for that nicer bottle of wine in Cordoba. I'm just wondering whether anyone has done this themselves and what advice they would have particularly with regards to obtaining/making fastners for the bags? Will self-made hooks and shock cord do or purchase some fastners from ortlieb (which may defeat the objective of saving some cash)? I'm thinking of something along the lines of what is decribed here by Paul Woloshansky's DIY jobs - http://www.bikechina.com/tb1.html - using the same WW2 canvas bags and putting an aluminium plate on the inside...

Any thoughts?

Jules

hi jules,
buy ortliebs!!!!!!
another idea is to use old army food containers made of aluminum. i used them on my motorcycle in africa. they are waterproof, you can lock them and they are only a little bit heavier than bags in the same size.
next idea: buy "normal" waterproof tube-shaped bags and just screw them on the rack.......
i hope i could help you!

hey andreas,

thanks for the reply. i suppose i had never really considered the metal boxes but there would be great added security and they could be left with the bike...hmm. what sizes of boxes would we be talking about?

all the best,

jules

hi jules,
sorry i can only talk in metric.......... my boxes had the size of about 20 liters each. i also had ortlieb "tubes" on top of them!
but if you ask me-----i would go for the "bag screw on solution"!
they don't make as much noise as the metal ones.......

Am going with the military bag solution but going for something a little bigger than the bags I had planned to use to provide some more overlap and try (no doubt pointlessly) to keep out the feche-feche. Am going to put a thin aluminium support on the inside with a 90degree bend and a base plate for the bottom of the bag. Then I'm planning on fashioning the hooks for 1in sq rods of nylon.

We'll see!

Jules

http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/bags.htm

I have made wonderful panniers from bookbags or the soft backpacks.

It is needed to put some rigid material into the back of the bookbag, the side facing the wheel, to keep the bag from getting into the spokes. Materials which have worked include thin plywood, thin pressed wood and the lightest is a thin sheet of polycarbonate which won't turn brittle in cold weather like cheap polystyrene.

The sholder straps are best removed by cutting off neatly as short as possible.

I use hooks from the hardware store to clip to the rear rack. These are simple half circle hooks. You could find other things or have someone custom bend the hooks to mimic the commercial hooks on panniers.

If you can find a top loading backpack or bookbag, then you don't have to worry about the bag zippers getting damaged or ripped open by a heavy load. Watch the zippering design and the size of the zipper for strength and druability. Some thin zippers that go all around the bag back may not hold up too long.

It works out best if the bookbag or backpack is designed as mostly one large compartment without divisions. The extra little compartments on the back or side of the bag are great for getting small things organized.

My bag failures have all been zippers being forced open, or just not lasting and opening up from the stress of the bouncing loads of the road.

Jim

Buy Ortlieb's, you will not be sorry.