I'm actually really pissed off with my latest purchase. I've been wanting to switch from backpack to pannier/wirebaskets/whateveronmybackrack for a long time now. Seeing some black wire baskets in a local store I purchased one and attached it to the left side of my bike (cost 15 dollars). I was really dissappointed to find out that these are absolute crap. It is clinging for dear life to my rear rack and when I hit the smallest of bumps with my 700x25 roads it threatens to fall apart. This is when I have my 20-25 pound bag in them.

I really want to stop being so cheap with my accessories, but I really just don't know what I should look into. Panniers are always nice but because I'm in school I want to have the whole backpack set up able to be transferred from the rack to my body quickly (thus I was looking at the wire baskets instead of the cloth panniers). Are there any sub 50 dollar panniers that are sturdy and can hold a full backpack easily?

KC