Originally Posted by
ItsJustMe
Honestly, I paid $28 for a pair of nashbar ATB panniers 4 years ago, and they're still doing fine by me. They're not even water resistant, but I don't care. I use one of them every day, I just put stuff in plastic bags if it's likely to get wet that day.
For hauling groceries, I'd probably look for the big wire baskets rather than panniers though, and put reusable grocery bags inside them. Panniers aren't really big enough to hold a bag of groceries.
http://www.waldsports.com/index.cfm/...ingbasket.html
I drag groceries with a pair of moderately cheap Axiom panniers. They will hold about 30 pounds of food, which is about all I have the energy to drag home (home is uphill from the grocery store.)
Anyway, I've had these for 3-4 years and they show no serious signs of wear. They are a little funky because I drag empty soda cans from the house.
I'm not sure exactly how to get them clean. Right now, I wipe them with a sponge and apply Febreze.