Panniers
secretsam
Posts: 4,561
Can anyone recommend some reasonably priced panniers, suitable for carrying a few clothes and odds 'n' ends to and from work? It's 15 miles each way so back pack is no good. Waterproofing would be a bonus, but don't want to spend the earth!
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I have Altura Dryline 32 on my bike - only ever use one unless I am touring with Son or carrying kit for local scout group on one of their rides. Had them for more than 5 years now and used in all weather. The main one I use is starting to show signs of wear and has a couple of patches where time has taken its toll but still going strong. About £68 for a pair if you shop around - you might even get them for a little less with a code and/or Quidco etc.
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wateraproof ones tend to be earthlike in cost and weight!
I have one and a halfords cheapie which is intended to be a laptop bag as well, clearly the halfords one isn't waterproof and only takes so much but its not bad, the older waterproof jobby can take rather a lot of gear for work or shopping etc.
To be honest, if I were you I'd look at the reviews on the retailers' websites as they'll be reviewing the product, not whether you should use panniers / rucksacks / messenger-bags
I went for an altura and it fell apart after 2 years, but the Ortlieb rolls on.
If you're not gonna be touring with them or owt I don't think you need to overthink it too much.
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My solution in summer is to carry all my clean stuff in on Friday morning, and dirty stuff home Friday evening. Means there's only one day of lugging stuff around, and no odd weight on your bike. The rest of the week you're cycling free.
(obviously doesn't work if you're taking lunch in every day although you might be able to put in a medium saddle bag.)
What I really don't like about panniers is with them you lose the ability to unweight your bike over potholes and similar.
The metal eventually fatigued though. I don't think I was overloading it, just hit a few speedhumps too many times at speed.
BTW There is nothing wrong with backpacks for commuting. Decent ones are very comfortable and offer much better handling than any luggage attached to a bike. Sweaty back isn't the end of the world.
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I only use them on longer tours (1 week+). For anything shorter (and commuting) a Deuter backpack works fine for me.
They were £60 or £70 at Evans in August last year.
I've just bought a lovely Carradice mid-size bag (fits a laptop and running kit easily) - I'm using this as my day-to-day commute bag with excellent results so far.
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+1 This is the best deal you will find at the moment.
I have both Ortlieb and Vaude Panniers. Both very good. Vaude are slightly heavier approx 400g heavier per pannier
Ortlieb back roller classic pair = 1750g (£90 from Spa Cycles)
Vaude Aqua Back pannier pair = 2650g (£70 from Evans Cycles)
Altura are not too bad but nothing hooks on/off as easily as the Vaude and Ortlieb. Also some are not very waterproof (they use an overbag)
My advice, buy the Vaude from Evans Cycles as a pair and sell the other one on ebay. This will work out the best value. Don't buy cheap ones from Aldi because the hooks are weak and your bag will fall off mid-ride (like mine did).
Since I bought panniers 2 years ago, I could never live without them. They get used for commuting, shopping, going to the gym etc. No matter how heavy you load it, the bike will carry it. A backpack will leave you unstable when it gets heavy.
http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... 2b0s74p984
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/vau ... g-ec047552
Well the price just changed and now gone upto £80 instead of £70 from Evans.
I checked the ones I have are from Lidl by Topmove,they dont havejust weak hooks keeping them on the bike on mine, they are double (triple infact with the extra top box bag) but are joined together across the top its all infact one piece of material so no joins to fray, and are held on to the rack (that was from Aldi
In the long term you are better off in getting a good quality pannier from a top maker. Even at £100 a go the reliability and ability to source spares makes them a good long term bet.
For commuting I mostly use a Altura pannier which has for me the right configuration of comparments. It has been used pretty regularly for over two years and is still going strong. It seems to be pretty waterproof but I'd recommend getting a couple of different size dry sacks which are also useful for separating wet towels and sweaty kit from clean stuff. You can pick these up from e-bay for just a few pounds but may have to wait a couple of weeks for delivery e.g example
Going to nab one of those rack bags, already have the back roller classics.
4% cashback through quidco too.
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Yesd the Vaude panniers seem pretty similar to Ortleib in quality and I do slightly prefer the Vaude back compared to a colleagues Ortleib.
As I've only used the Vaude ones since 2008 (about 30,000 miles) I can't say how long they'll last...