They work awesome for touring. Waterproof and bright colors. Held all my clothes.

The place I ordered buckets from online, also sells just the lids. They're listed as being only $1.36 each, but IIRC, shipping about doubles their price. Nice folks:

https://www.affordablebuckets.com/4galpails.html

I didn't have an easy source for the buckets themselves and was happy to pay a little for the buckets to get bright orange ones without anything other than the obligatory safety (don't let your baby drown in it!) markings painted on it. Those'll eventually get covered up by reflective paint anyway or oriented to the inside (towards the wheel).

Yes they do! You can use one as a stool and another as a small table. The lids make nice cutting boards as well!

That looks great! Did you get any smart aleck comments asking where your cat was when you were out touring?

Do you happen to know if the lids are interchangeable? The Tidy Cat buckets are not exactly square.

I can read... it says they aren't interchangeable.

Nope, I just tell them they are my tour sponsor. Or, it was free and holds all my clothes.

My wonderful wife found someone putting a Tidy Cats bucket in their recycling the other day-- lid and all. So she asked politely and took it. So I finally have a lid for mine.

Of course, I could have used the whole bucket, but then I'd have to get all new stickers. So I put the lid on the old one and kept the bucket for potential future purposes.

Like the other half of a matching pair?

Well, then, I would have two and only one lid. What then? I also don't need that much room most of the time.

If you're not spending $100+ on Orliebs, you're doing it wrong.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Please. Some of us have mortgages and kids and don't need to pay for waterproof luggage.

It also occurs to me that if I had two, I might be too wide for some of the roads around here. Touring, I might need the room and not care about the width. Downtown Carrboro... hrmmm... yeah.

We have three male cats (2 BIG, 1 regular); resulting in lots of Tidy cat buckets.

Uses:
* panniers - the buckets are strong enough to need minimal supporting hardware - you can put some angle brackets on the bottom (front end to reduce chance of heel strikes) to attach to the rear dropouts, then sliding bar straps (Avenir long) near the top to attach to the upper mount and a cross brace between the two buckets.
* storage - I arrange my parts by project, label the bucket with a Sharpie®; handle bars, forks and frames are about the only thing that will not fit - and they are stack able.

^
Good Lord. Is that the same Nigel Misso? N&W Steam expert?

I made two pairs of bucket for panniers for me and a buddy to ride the KATY trail last year. They look good and worked great.

I bought the buckets from affordablebuckets.com. Mine are Black which goes well with my Black Specialized Globe City 8 commuter while my Buddy's were gray to go with is his Trek 7.2. Got the idea from this link: https://www.instructables.com/id/Black-Bucket-Panniers/ and the GOAB article.

I modified the design a little. I used Red and White DOT reflective tape from Walmart to cover up the printed warning label and to act as rear reflectors. Instead of adding a strap and drilling holes in the back of the bucket, I kept the handles for carrying the buckets. I used ball bungies attached to the handle to wrap under the buckets on the outside of the rack and clipped to the bottom of the rack under the bucket. The bungie holds the buckets tight to the rack. I first used the pannier clips from Jannd but the buckets would sometimes bounce off the racks so I switched them out for full closing panniers clips from Lone Peak. I also added a 1 1/2 wide piece of alumimun bar inside the bucket to strengthen the plasitic were the clips attached. The Buckets are now rock solid.

What I liked best about the Bucket Panniers:

They are Waterproof. Hold a lot of gear - one bucket held: sleeping bag, pad, stuff sack with down vest as a pillow, and a few misc items in plastic bags - total weight around 11 lbs. Other bucket held clothes, rain jacket, snacks, etc.. weighted around 10.5 lbs. We used a small water proof sack for our tents which we strapped down parallel on our racks between the buckets. No front panniers. We also used them as stools on the trail to fix a flat and around camp. Best of all, they cleaned up easy from all the KATY trail dust. Just wiped them down - good as new. Now I use them as grocery haulers - work great for that task too.

They do catch the wind but I doubt if it is much more than regular full panniers. And of course, being buckets, the item you are looking for is always at the bottom of the bucket!

Yes

Excellent.

Someone should make a rear rack with a "foot" at the bottom and strap slots to accommodate those buckets. Or is it required to acquire the rack, bike, and everything else from a landfill too?

You mean like this one? - https://www.rivbike.com/product-p/r4.htm

I don't have that one, but I've got the front version of it. It is hard to make out in the pictures there, but of you scroll through to the 5th one you can see a tab extending below the rack. This actually has a small post on it with a mushroom head that is great for attaching bungee panniers to. Works great with the drop down panniers on my trunk bag which use a small looped shock cord.

I'm sure I've seen a few other racks that have decent ways to attach bungees, but if you take a look at the one I linked to it is about the Swiss Army knife of attaching panniers. Pricey though.