bikepirates: er bike tour.

crystal (

itshardtospeak) wrote in

bikepirates,
@ 2007-03-03 16:20:00

er bike tour.
I and a couple friends will be riding across america in 2 months. from washington to maine. I just got my maps yesterday and am totally excited.

anyway I was wondering if any of you know how to make panniers or how to modify a bag to make it a pannier. I would be very thankful if you could let me know about it. or if you know of anyone who is trying to sell some for really cheap let me know.

I really really really do not want to pay 300 dollars for some bags...

Im thinking of taking some old french army backpacks that are the right size..and figuring out how to attach them to my rack....let me know if you have any ideas.

thanks.

Crystal

(Post a new comment)

	robbykills 2007-03-04 01:15 am UTC (link)
	http://community.livejournal.com/bikepirates/2575290.html#cutid1 here you can see how I made some bucket panniers if you scroll down. I'm on a pretty tight budget and they work pretty well. I think like $20 is what I spent. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	fontosaurus 2007-03-04 01:28 am UTC (link)
	ski bike == awesome bucket panniers == awesome idea, but not suitable for cross-country riding (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	robbykills 2007-03-04 01:34 am UTC (link)
	that's not what I hear about the bucket panniers. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	mayorbrotherdan 2007-03-04 05:27 am UTC (link)
	Ditto. I met a guy that toured cross country with rubbermaid bin panniers. I'm sure the buckets would work just as well. (Reply to this) (Parent)

fontosaurus
2007-03-04 01:27 am UTC (link)

oh good christ...my eyes are twitching at the thought of this. here's a couple of hints:

1. if you're going to ride your bike across the country, for fuck's sake, please invest in gear that's actually going to be durable enough to survive the trip

2. eBay. say it with me: e. Bay.

your post is the equivalent of me hoping onto a climbing group and saying, "hey guys, i'm going to be climbing el capitan in a month, and i don't want to spend $300 on ropes at the mountaineering shop. does anyone have any hardware store equivalents i can use?"

(Reply to this) (Thread)

robbykills
2007-03-04 01:39 am UTC (link)

I disagree. If those panniers hold up, which I've heard similar construction methods being completley fine and reliable for cross country tours then I say give it a go.

I think your analogy is weak because (most likely ) panniers aren't something thats going to send you plunging to your death if they fail. Sure they might tumble off your bike but eh, thats a risk I would take before trying to climb a mountain with yellow nylon rope.

Lots of people don't have money or can't justify spending that much on bags (plus in my experience eBay panniers can still be around the same price as retail price) and I feel like there is nothing wrong with experimenting to see if you can make your own. That's how improvements and new inventions come about.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	robbykills 2007-03-04 01:40 am UTC (link)
	I should add I have not tested my own as thoroughly as I would like yet so there may be some design changes in store but still I have read of plenty of accounts of similar panniers working out fine for weeks at a time. (Reply to this) (Parent)

randomdreams
2007-03-04 01:43 am UTC (link)

Here's a thought experiment for you: what, exactly, do you do when your homemade panniers fail in a way you didn't expect, midway through Montana, and suddenly half your worldly possessions are lying in the road beside your bike and you have absolutely no way to fix your ripped pannier and take them with you.

I had that happen in Denmark, with MY homemade panniers. I ended up packing things in garbage bags, riding to the next town, buying some real panniers, riding back, and packing the stuff in the new ones and continuing on. And my panniers, while homemade, were done using an established, commercially sold pattern: the thread I used wasn't strong enough so a seam split.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

robbykills
2007-03-04 01:47 am UTC (link)

well with the bucket ones I'd imagine they would stay intact, thats one reason I decided to use buckets instead of bags.

but I do have small set of panniers and I figure if worst came to worst I would have a friend/family member mail them out and I would mail back anything I couldn't fit into them.

not trying to be a dick, just saying I do have contingency plans.

I plan for the worst a lot when I go on long rides. I usually end up carrying about 1/3 extra repair items that I never even need to use.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

fontosaurus
2007-03-04 04:07 am UTC (link)

"...I figure if worst came to worst I would have a friend/family member mail them out and I would mail back anything I couldn't fit into them."

Well that's all well and fine, but you're operating on the assumption that your one home-made pannier just failed near a post office.

The middle of Montana (as an example) is not the suburbs -- there's not a Mailboxes, Etc. in the local strip mall. Because there's not a strip mall for 200 miles in any direction.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	fontosaurus 2007-03-04 04:00 am UTC (link)
	This is exactly what I was thinking. Exactly. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	itshardtospeak 2007-03-04 01:50 am UTC (link)
	thanks. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

fontosaurus
2007-03-04 04:03 am UTC (link)

I hope you didn't take that as me being overly dick-ish. It's just that you're investing a lot of time and planning in this trip, and you really should go out of your way to prepare thoroughly -- which includes good-quality gear. Everyone has been bitten in the ass by poor preparation at least once, but a cross-country bike ride is not the place for it.

I'm not saying you should spend $400 on a pair of panniers that has built-in GPS and HDTV, but you really should spring the money for a good set -- these things, as

randomdreams pointed out, are carrying a large portion of your worldly possessions.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

randomdreams
2007-03-04 01:38 am UTC (link)

The important things about panniers: they should be very close to waterproof, they should have 3" clearance from your heels, and they should be very firmly attached at the top and bottom so they don't sway or swing while you're riding. And, they should be really, really durable if you're expecting them to last, let's say, 60 days of continuous and heavy usage.

The amount of time and energy it would take to cobble something up that meets all those specifications -- *particularly* the durability one, which you can't really test unless you've used it for a month -- exceeds the price of a pair of used panniers. Buy some. I really don't think you'll regret it. If you do? well, sell them again. You'll probably be able to sell them for just about what you paid to buy them, which isn't going to be the case with anything you make.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

itshardtospeak
2007-03-04 01:48 am UTC (link)

thanks for your comment.

I am almost sure now that I am going to convert army bags into panniers. using Arkel's Hook Kit. It has been done and seems to work well. the bags I am looking at are only 10 dollars and are waterproof. they will just need a few adjustments.

I plan on doing it soon so I have a couple months to try them out to see how they work. if they suck then yeah I will probably buy some. But to be honest everything that I need for this tour is really starting to add up.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

skazat
2007-03-04 02:32 am UTC (link)

I'd listen to

randomdreams, He's a certified mad scientist and not a stranger to the DIY ethic, lasers, bicycles and cobbling together things (*amongst a million other things). If *he* says it's a shaky idea, oh man, that has me sold on just fronting the money. And I'm probably as stubborn as you can get when it comes to doing things my way with no regard to reality :)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	itshardtospeak 2007-03-04 02:37 am UTC (link)
	hehe. we shall see. (Reply to this) (Parent)

fontosaurus
2007-03-04 04:17 am UTC (link)

But to be honest everything that I need for this tour is really starting to add up.

Then, honestly, I don't think you're ready to make this trip.

Referring to my earlier remark -- would you go ahead and climb a mountain with some of your gear being homemade and relatively untested simply because the costs are starting to add up? Because that's what you're doing. You're going into a situation in which you may have to abandon half your worldly possessions when you're a hundred miles (or more) from any sort of aid/help, and that puts your health and/or life at risk.

Look, I admire the DIY spirit. Like

randomdreams, I dig the Mad Science thing. And there is room for DIY on a trip like this -- but it's when you're trying to "MacGyver" your way out of a bad situation, not into one.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

captain_ian
2007-03-04 06:17 am UTC (link)

I cant believe how adamantly your pushing purchasing "real" panniers. I mean, do you work at an REI or something? Ive personally been stranded in the middle of Montana with nothing more than the clothes on my back and a small pack with a can of fish, a few granola bars, and some water and within less than an hour I managed to hitch a ride to the closest town and found somewhere to buy food etc. A busted pannier in the middle of nowhere is not really that big of a deal as long as you remember to pack two VERY small items...a needle and some dental floss. If your extra crazy you could bring along a littlebit of beeswax to seal the seam, or you could use some of the rubber cement from your tire patch kit. It really gets my goat to hear people try to talk folks out of things like this just because they cant afford (or dont want to) some over priced bullshit. And for the record, bike touring IS NOT mountain climbing, as someone else preveiously iterated.
I say go for it, just prepare for some things to go wrong, thats why its called an adventure anyway. If it all went off without a hitch, the story wouldnt be as much fun to tell.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

treechunk
2007-03-04 03:51 pm UTC (link)

But to be honest everything that I need for this tour is really starting to add up.

My first thought when reading this was exactly the same as fontosaurus. If you can't afford it, don't do it. Touring can be VERY expensive. Shit breaks and you have to replace it. If your wheel falls in a pothole and gets tacoed, you need to have money to replace it, or be prepared to abandon your bike and hitch to your destination.

I'm all for making things, and a good friend of mine toured with panniers made out of old army bags of one sort or another, I'm certainly not saying you can't DIY your stuff to some degree, but if the cost of your supplies is too much, you should really consider whether you should go.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

fotoman311
2007-03-04 04:02 am UTC (link)

You can get some performance panniers for about $150 front ($60) and rear ($80).

I have some front ones that took me 4200 miles across the country and down the coast of Oregon. They're in pretty sad shape now and might not last too much longer, but they got the job done. They have rain covers that work reasonably well, but you would want to carry plastic bags for important stuff if you ran into a few days of constant rain.

I'd definitely recommend some good solid panniers and a good rack. IMHO, it's worth investing a couple hundred extra dollars there than risking having some improvised panniers break in the middle of nowhere. Although, generally when you're touring, it's not terribly hard to hitchhike to the next town, even in the middle of nowhere. You just have to hope that town has a bike shop.

Have a great trip.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	itshardtospeak 2007-03-08 07:59 am UTC (link)
	thanks Im gonna look into those panniers. Whatever I do I will make sure its as sturdy as possible. I have a pretty strong rear rack its an IRD himalayan...it's steel. I will be getting a front one soon. I built up a long haul trucker....its pretty nice. I love it. thanks for your advice. Crystal (Reply to this) (Parent)

mayorbrotherdan
2007-03-04 05:23 am UTC (link)

When I was touring in '03 I met a guy that was riding cross country with panniers that he had fashioned out of rubbermaid storage bins. We traveled together for almost a week, and I found that his setup presented him with fewer problems than my traditional panniers did during that time (I was using a set of Jandd panniers in the back, and Arkels in the front, which I still tour with). He had already traveled over a thousand miles when I met him, and he claimed that his setup had been largely trouble free. The bins were entirely watertight, which is more than you can say for any reasonably priced panniers. He used several lengths of cord to tie each bin to his racks (which were also homemade), which seemed like a better idea than trying to attach hardware directly to the bins, which might have cracked under the load if they weren't supported properly. I'm sorry that I can't describe his mounting system more clearly, but it was several years ago and I don't think I have any good pictures that show his bike in detail.

Plastic storage bins are cheap and quite durable, if mounted properly. And they can easily be replaced almost anywhere in the country if they become damaged along the way. If I was going to tour on the cheap I would definitely consider this option before trying to mount hardware on a bag that isn't constructed with specially reinforced fabric for bicycle mounting, like army bags, for instance. While the bags may be constructed out of durable material, they probably aren't designed to be suspended by a couple of metal hooks for several weeks while they are constantly jostled. If you do go with a bag to pannier conversion, I would suggest trying to reinforce the fabric around the seams and the area where the hardware is going to be attached. There's nothing that I hate more than having to hitchhike when touring equipment breaks down in the middle of nowhere. It's happened to me twice now.

(Reply to this)

I'm drunk....so hopefully this makes sense...

robbykills
2007-03-04 08:50 am UTC (link)

Basically I think it's good that people are warning you of possible risks but at the same time I think exploring DIY options would be good. If you look at a lot of panniers I feel they are fairly simple and you should be able to fashion a workable set out of the army bags you have referred to. And you know what, live and learn. Just make sure you have some sort of contingency plan before you leave and most important of all TEST the hell out of them and check them with a fine tooth comb after each test ride.

(Reply to this)

shlurpee
2007-03-04 09:55 am UTC (link)

i really like this web page (well the rest of the site is cool too), you might've read it if yer planning on making your panniers out of army bags, just thought i'd post a link!

i think it'd be cool to do a series of small tours/excursions, each one longer than the last leading up to a trip as long as going across america, it'd be a good way of working out what you need and don't need, the best way to pack your gear, adjusting the fit of your bike, etc etc.

i don't know if i'm naive, but making your own gear seems like a great idea, and if you have the chance to thoroughly test it (fill them up with heavy stuff and ride off jumps or something?) even better.

good luck!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	shlurpee 2007-03-04 09:56 am UTC (link)
	oh yeah, you gotta scroll way down on that page to see the guys DIY panniers. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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