UniChris

Looking for some thoughts on sizing and design of panniers to be used for up to a few days of credit card touring, which would augment the trunk bag I'll be using for day rides.

Went to the shop to try a used road bike (my first ever), came home with a new gravel bike. Hey, it was what I could get now in my size, and I'm more likely to do the occasional canal towpath or dirt road than ever ride in a paceline. Definitely turning in better times than my around town hybrid, getting used to the drop bars and hoping they're easier on my hands than last week's 78 mile ride with a single hand position was. But spent more than I wanted to, so have to stay budget on accessories for now.

Have an upcoming single overnight trip planned - 85 mile paved rail trail (I did it last summer the other direction on a unicycle, but homewards so didn't need to carry much), hop on a train, spend the night with relatives, then do a casual group ride the next day before catching a ride with family driving back my way, so the idea is to sew up some trial panniers that I can use to put the overnight and weather-unpredictability oriented stuff in, then take them off and do the group ride with just the trunk bag that I made by sewing webbing loops for velcro straps to the bottom of a little Walmart tote.

One of the key challenges with a pannier seems to be heel clearance. Borrowed an open top grocery carrier one for contemplation and find that my heel strikes it, though if I moved the attachments forward to move the pannier back, that might work. So one thing I figure I need to do is go tape an empty cardboard box on the rack and try riding around to identify what the forward limit of a pannier is.

Another is stiffeners. I found a pair of inserts from an old dead duffel bag that are 13 x 11 inches, tempting to use those the tall way though worried they'd project off the back of the rack a bit - and I'm illogically hesitant to cut them. Also have some 8.5 x 11 inch 1/8 HDPE cutting boards that seem like they'd make very sturdy bases for a compact bag - though maybe "too small". Part of me is tempted to play it safe structurally by making the little ones, figuring even if I later make bigger they little ones could still be useful now and then for kids jackets on local family rides, or maybe I could figure out a way to put them on the 3 bottle cage style brazeons on each front fork with some sort of bar looping over the tire skipping the need for a true front rack. There is a chance though that if I go with the little ones, the jacket I set off riding in may end up bungeed to the top of the trunk bag in a stuff sack.

If I go with the larger size and the more flexy duffel bag liner pieces, I've considered sewing a diagonal channel into the back to be able to insert an aluminum or even wooden "batten" to keep the lower rear corner in position - though my guess is that the more I stuff in them, the more they'll bulge away from, rather than into, the wheel. If I use the larger pieces, I also wonder about putting a stiffener along the top inside edge to cover how they'd project off the back of the rack.

What about how wide to make them? I'm leaning towards 5 inches, in a boxy shape to keep things simple, if I go with the smaller size maybe I'll go 6 inches wide.

What's going to happen if there's no floor stiffener piece? Weather is predicted to be dry for this first ride, so I've considered cutting some cardboard to stuff in there, maybe putting it in a ziplock bag first just in case.

Attachment is planned to be small loops of webbing at the upper inside edge, through which I can feed parachute cord running over/around the rack as that gives me flexibility to join them or use them singly and position the pannier attachments either side of or interlocking with the trunk bag ones. I'm not going to go with hooks over the rack rail as I figure that doesn't really get me much compared to tying them on, and mine aren't going to project above the top of the rack since the trunk bag overlaps the rack an inch on each side.

Closure wise, what I'm tempted to do is put a horizontal zipper about 1/4 of the way down the side, then back this up with one or two adjustable webbing straps that loop all the way around the bag and rack vertically with the idea that these can be cinched tight for whatever level of fullness there is, and will take the load off the zipper. There will be a flap on the top side that overlaps the zipper - though the goal is water resistance, in a driving rain I'd be counting on the contents being internally bagged.

Fabric is some bright green nylon packcloth I've used backpacks and triangle bags in the past; I'll get a tiny bit of water leakage at the seams so plan on putting clothes in inner bags, but a backpack I previously made out of this was functionally a bucket where water is concerned. Alas it picks up grime that doesn't easily wash out and has faded over several years of sunny rides, but those are problems for the future.