I initially tied off the first offending strap, but then it got grease all over my pannier so I ended up cutting it off later. The one yesterday I had to cut off immediately to get it loose from the wheel.
In my signature it's "tiem" which is an internet way of typing "time."
Anyway, I took the panniers into MEC today. I had been using the first strap that got tangled in my derailleur wrong but the photo of the pannier on their website doesn't obviously show that strap. I only ever got a 30 second instruction on how to attach the pannier to my rear rack, not instructions in how all the straps work. The customer service person knew exactly how the straps should be used and showed me in detail what I was supposed to be doing. Turns out I also needed a longer J-hook which she provided.
so they are sending the mangled pannier to get new straps put onto it, which I won't be charged for. I'm going to try to remove the grease stains with dish soap when I get the pannier back.
Let this be a lesson to those who haven't used panniers before: make sure you REALLY know exactly how to use them so you don't risk destroying your derailleur or rear wheel or ???. They are a lot more complicated than ya think.
http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_d...=1254030942472