DIY Bike Panniers: REDUX

Salwa Jabado has a great update to Sam’s excellent DIY Bike Pannier post. We love it when people run with a tutorial from our site and take the time to show us their improvements! Here is what Salwa has to say:

These are the panniers I made using your tutorial! I *love* them! The velcro didn’t work because the velcro glue started to melt in the summer so the strips would slide all over the place. I tried to sew these on (rather than just relying on the glue) but the needle kept getting all gummed up and it was too hard to do this by hand, so I gave up and didn’t use them for a while until I realized I could buy snaps (this is the kit I bought: http://www.acesewing.com/product.php?productid=18191).

I ripped off the oilcloth tabs (F) and replaced them with handles from a reusable shopping bag that I put the snaps into. I added snaps to close the bag (you can kind of see this in the picture). I also somehow added the front and back of a binder (plastic rectangles) into either side of B so the part that goes along the wheel is stiff. Not sure why/how I came up with this, must have been putting together info from other web tutorials. Anyway, the whole thing was tricky because of my serious lack of machine sewing skills and because of the amazing thickness of the oilcloth.

Because I didn’t put a liner in, I doubled up the oilcloth and sewed it together for each piece so the whole thing would be sturdy and look pretty on the inside as well as the outside, but that meant I was sewing together 4 pieces of oilcloth at a time! I broke a lot of needles.

Aaaanyway, it was totally worth it because I use them every time I bike now and they are so much cooler than store-bought panniers!

We agree Salwa! They are WAY cooler than store brought panniers!