It happened today - as it has happened before.

Somehow my bungee cord came un-hooked from my rear carrier. I realized it when the bungee cord got wrapped up in my gears - WHAT A MESS!! Of course, after about 15 agonizing minutes of cutting and tearing the shredded bungee coard out of my gears, I had to go look for the stuff that fell off the rear carrier - the drop happened more than a mile back, but it was'nt until I braked and turned that the bungee finally got tangled in my gears. There my stuff was strewn over the road like a yard sale.

There has to be a better way! What do we have now?

Bungee cords on a wire rear carrier that exposes your stuff to the elements and causes the bungee-cord blues.
Panniers that clunk into your heal if you have a size 11.5 shoe or bigger
Milk Crates that are not very aerodynamic and mostly make your bike look like a junk-mobile.

I have seen some swank fiberglass units with a tidy lid that are for sale on mopeds. I have never seen one at a bike store, however, and wonder if you would have to jerry-rig mounting hardware on it to make it fit a bicycle rear carrier.

Any ideas anybody? Anything cool out there?