azukisingle

Nice man, I think I may be motivated to make some of these bad boys to put on a fixed gear grocery getter!

gotcha640

Here's another bump for the classic:

https://www.bikeforums.net//showthread.php?t=467930

Belazriel

So I saw this and thought it would be a great idea because I hate spending a lot of money on my bike when I started to save money. Wasn't sure how well they'd hold up but they did amazing:
Empty and folded:

Filled up:




I have to work on fixing them a little, slight heel strike and the corners seem to want to bend into the wheel, they don't break or anything they just get annoyingly loud.

dclaryjr

Thought I'd bump this one to remind anyone considering a DIY project like this that we are now in the heart of the coroplast harvest season. I plan on making a set of these this weekend, and I'm sure I'll have no problem getting some coroplast from my neighbors to use. The only question is whether or not I orient the coroplast so that you can still see the "McCain/Palin" logo or turn it around!

b_young

+1

Square & Compas

Great idea! Wished I would have thought of that before dropping money on my Wald folding baskets. You can probably use them for more then grocery shopping. I use my baskets for shopping, taking loads of recyclables to the recycling center and taking cans and bottles to the redemption center. Because of the way I strap things to my rack I would probably build some sort of sturdier frame then just one piece of masonite. Which you could still do if you need to.

In my area those types of bags come in differant sizes at certain stores.

Again great idea.

MijnWraak

This thread needs a big ol' BUMP!

xtrajack

I think I will make a set for one of the other bikes.

Seattle Forrest

Ditto.

I bet if you lined the insides with duct tape, you could explode a bomb in one, and not damage your bike.

TonyS

Yeah the masonite has to go... go walking around your neighborhood around election time, and swipe one of those corrugated vinyl signs from someone's yard. A waterproof, stiff material that won't mold. Gentlemen, we have a winner! Rivet them through the side of the bag and you're good to go!

I agree that they should be separable, too. Leave the loops intact and either velcro or 'beener. I vote 'beener, because it seems to me that there's less risk of sudden catastrophic failure that way.



Also, for not much more you can probably head to your local army surplus and get one of the following:

1: Map bags. They're about the same size, and waterproof.
2: LOTS of OD Canvas. Happy sewing!
3: Misc backpacks, paratrooper bags, etc.

JanMM

Coroplast signs are everywhere around here and almost always illegally placed on utility poles or other public right-of-way. Visual litter. One of my hobbies is ripping them down. A few of them go into the bottoms of purses that my wife/stoker makes.

"Finally! Affordable Health Insurance for the Self-Employed!" Scoundrels.

wunderkind

welcome to the DIY pannier club mate!
I like your idea! I have something similar but with a knapsack. It works great. Stick it to the over priced backpack with hooks mfg!

SeizeTech

I like the idea but I dont see enough framing in those bags to hold some serious payload. could somene pls shw me a pic of what it looks like with 3 can of chili in each bag?

fredgarvin7

Great original idea Trev! I think an ez modification would be to use 1 or more bungees to sug up or close the tops. Put small holes near the top of the outside panel of each bag, protect the holes with washers and you can stretch a short bungee between each aligned pair of holes. Should cinch up the tops nicely. Or to pretty much waterproof the whole rig, a square of flexible water-resistant material could be thus bungeed over the whole shebang. Course that would run the cost way up to $5 or so...

ItsJustMe

Pretty good, though I still love my Wald folding basket. I've only had it a few weeks and I've carried stuff in it that I know for sure would have destroyed a cloth bag.

BassNotBass

I may sound like a broken record at this point but one of my favorite Lowes/HD items to make stuff out of is 4" PVC drain pipe, the thin walled not schedule40 stuff, which costs about $10 for a 10ft section. If you cut a section of the pipe that will fit into an oven and cut it down one side, you can then put it in the oven and warm it to 170°F at which point the PVC softens and will flatten out to a sheet. Remove it and let it cool under a stack of books or something heavy to keep it flat on the kitchen counter. I've made so many things with PVC that it really is comical. I use it to make guitar pick-guards, hatchet sheaths that clip to one's belt, flashlight clamps to clip them to bike handlebars, water-bottle cages, kinetic yard-art windmill blades, pooper-scoopers for my tenants to pick up their dog's waste in the yard, swim/training hand-paddles, potting shovels, fishing pole caddies, MTB fenders and splash-guards... etc. The PVC is easy to shape/form with a heat gun, easy to cut and sand, takes paint well and is very tough and won't shatter/splinter like acrylic or plexi-glass.

Brando_T.

what about cutting coroplast - plastic "cardboard" to size? it would be waterproof, but might not have the rigidity of masonite

Kotts

Likely, but a few coats of a waterproofing spray will fix that, or you could use thin lexan instead. Almost as cheap, and waterproof.

Astrakan

I absolutely love this idea, and I've got my first attempt under way right now. I opted for glue to attach the boards, and will pick up a carabiner this afternoon. I'll post pictures of the finished product later.

skijor

Those bags are usually all cotton so it'd be wise to treat at least the bottoms to make them water and mold resistant. Use beeswax, it's environmentally friendly and non-toxic.

chrisb71

wow I wish I saw this before I bought my Ortleibs specifically because groceries would not fit in my other paniers!

flyingWeez

I made mine this past weekend and used them yesterday for a light trip to the grocery. 3 russet potatoes and my lock in the left bag and some ground beef, bacon avocado in the right. Everything seemed fine, but as fredgarvin said I think cinching up the top would be a pretty good mod. And I also used coroplast as the backing, used hot glue (see how long that lasts) to bind it, and I did sew the middle straps together to make it one big bag.

flyingWeez

IMG_0804..jpg

Here's a picture of some actual grocery gettin' with the homemade panniers.

On the drive side I had 1lb of oranges, 5 lbs of bananas, 1 lb of squash, 1 lb of broccoli, a bag of spinach. And on the non-drive side I had a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, 3lbs of chicken breasts, a bar of soap and some dish soap.

I wouldn't say I had total confidence in them coming home fully loaded, not that the bottom was going to fall our or anything but really just flying off the back (not sure that would happen with them weighted down). A way to keep the tops closed would help in the way of confidence I think. But all in all my $5.50 panniers (I bought some chloroplast for backing instead of masonite) worked really well.

trevorbikes

Glad to see other people take the idea and run with it! Definitely some good modifications have been made.

The coroplast is an awesome suggestion. That should hold up much better than the masonite. Plus it's a lot lighter.

Astrakan

Well, earlier in this thread I promised pictures and I've been meaning to take some, but whenever I come home from grocery shopping I forget to do so.

So... I figured pictures of empty panniers are better than no pictures.

A few details:

- I put some left-over reflective tape on the large side, and will put some more on the smaller sides when I get another packet.

- I attached velcro strips to the bottom in order to keep the bag flat (and thereby reduce the flapping) on the way to the grocery store.

- I went with bags that had cloth on the inside and plastic on the outside, and glued the boards using regular white wood glue.

- I decided to use carabiners instead of stitching the handles together. Figured I could then use the bags as bags inside the grocery store, and load the groceries directly into them.

The pics: