Originally Posted by
seely
It's actually a military surplus bag I picked up for $10. Waxed canvas with a water resistant liner, too. It's up for debate what the bag was used for, but the guy that sold it to me said it was an ammo bag. It holds about 1 grocery bag worth of stuff, so its pretty roomy.
All I had to do to adapt it for the bike was to cut out some of the stitching on the wide "belt" that goes around the outside to slip the seatpost through, and then use key rings to attach the upper eyeletted tabs to the seat tabs. Took about 15 minutes to modify, and works great. So far I've had about 20 pounds of gear with no problem. The straps are long enough that you can lash down a bed roll, tent or sleeping bag, etc.
I used two similar GI issue 'butt packs' to make a set of panniers for my commuting bike. I put a thick piece of cardboard cut from a 3 ring binder in the bottom of each bag to stiffen the bottom, and used some zip ties and a couple lengths of fiberglass rod from a kid's rear flag to attach the bags to the rack. They don't sway, can support a good amount of weight, and 'fold' the same way as a grocery pannier does to stay out of the way when not loaded.
It's a bit of DIY engineering, re-purposing well made equipment, and ending up with something that's functional and does what you want it to do!
Looks great!
Alan
