How To Make Panniers Out Of Recycled Materials For Less Than 10 Bucks

Panniers are great and extremely useful for bicyclists. They are also extremely overpriced for a good set. I have a $250 dollar pannier set from panpack.com that is great for camping, but not so much for running around town, so i came up with the world's cheapest pannier! the total cost was only about 7 dollars and i think it looks great.

Step 1 List Of Materials

Most of the materials for this project were obtained from East Bay Depot For Creative Reuse. http://www.east-bay-depot.org/ If you live in the bay area and are a DIYer, there is no reason you shouldn't be going here. I always find gems and great stuff. If you can dream it, you can find most of the supplies for REALLY cheap.

Materials
-1 Bag or Backpack. The one i chose was an old shoulder bag it was just the right size.
-1 Piece of vinyl board. I got a large piece cut to roughly the size of my bag. This gives the bag some shape and a good backing. The material is very similar to vinyl signs you find around town promoting who knows what, you could certainly get it from there.
-2 rope hooks. i got the medium sized ones. Check hardware stores for this
-4-6 screws and nuts. get ones that can fit the hole in the rope hook.

Comments

[LiquidLightning]

Sometimes backpacks have those single straps that velcro or button closed. I found a very simple flat black backpack in my basement and it attached to my bike wrack very securely with three strips of velcro already on the pack. I didn't even need to modify it a little bit. Completely free as I got it from some freebie site.

[vicky_bandover]

Your instructable and the bungee modification by sladek were great guidlines. Except, instead of using vinyl board I hacked one side of an old 19" by 11.25" binder that I found at a garage sale on my way back from the hardware store. The binder side turned out to be really durable.
Bag= $0.00 (old and from attic)
Binder= $1.50
Bungee= $0.00 (found one in garage)
Rope hooks= $4.00
Screws and nuts = $0.00 (found some in garage)
Telling my friend, who spent $30.00 dollars on a pannier smaller than the one I made, about the amount I spent making my panniers and seeing his reaction= priceless :)

[krickerd]

This is a great instructable. Using it as a guide, I bought 2 matching courier bags from a military surplus store for $12 ea., a sturdy black foam board from Fred Meyer, and the hooks and other hardware you listed. Also I used a large washer under the hook and one next to the nut on the inside. This sandwiches the board and bag material nicely and makes the whole connection very sturdy. It works really well! I do find it necessary to use a long bungee hooked to the rack near the wheel hub on each side and stretched over both bags. Doing so really secures the load. The bags I bought are a bit long; I off set the hooks to move them as far back as possible. Still my big feet sometimes hit them but it hasn't been a major issue.

[krickerd]

Update: I followed sladek's one bungee hood design toward the bottom. This should secure the bottom well. Also I'm now using clip in shoes and rarely do my feet hit the panniers. The foam board is holding up rather well.

[sladek]

Great idea. I just put one together and it works really well, I added a bungee to hook on to the bottom of the rack so it's effectively spring-loaded and secure.

Heads up though; don't use Perspex, it breaks or cracks if you're bumping around.

I'm going to replace it with hardboard, which can bend a bit

[sladek]

Homemade Bike Pannier from sladekious on Vimeo.

Some credit has to go to http://www.instructables.com/id/Alternative-Homemade-Pannier-Bungees/ for addressing a potential flaw in this design.

[frenzy]

Thanks for the tips, please post some pictures on this site when you are done!

[bikehack]

this is sick i just make myself a homeade rear bike rack and made it so i can make and use this pannier thanks and good job!

[povertyonwheels]

great suggestions! i'm probably going to combine several of the self-made pannier instructables to make my own. thanks for the tips!

[Kryptonite]

This is really good! Although, how does the hooks attach to the bike? So far this is only how to attach hooks to a bag, not create actual panniers, sorry but maybe a slight rethink? Oh well I hope it turns out alright for you.

[frenzy]

the hooks attach to a back rack, i'll take another picture tonight to illustrate.

[Kryptonite]

There's a bike rack? Sorry but I don't believe I've seen them, looking forward to the picture!

[frenzy]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vwvagabonds.com/images/BikeRearRack.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.vwvagabonds.com/Bike/BikeRacks.html&usg=__DYs6XVICcWBoRQwOE9Bdeg9Xt0A=&h=400&w=400&sz=62&hl=en&start=1&sig2=sjkpfOaK9n6_iHnagdKcRQ&um=1&tbnid=pNaaycUP11UtRM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=124&ei=CQmeSYP2A4b4NKqh4ccL&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbike%2Brear%2Brack%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG

like that!

[Kryptonite]

Ahh I see now, how much money did yours cost? They look really good. I do recall when my mum went looking for a set of Panniers, 2 for $150, minimum. I look forward to making this, thanks for posting, 4/5 stars.

[frenzy]

a good cheap one should be 30 -40$ more high quality ones run a bit more expensive. Try http://nashbar.com for bike stuff

[trebuchet03]

Def. having a bungee or some sort of mechanism to keep the bag from "jumping" off when you hit a bump (or in your case, knock with your feet) is a good idea...

Here's what I did with my re-purposed pannier bag

[frenzy]

I like your design and process. DIY YOUR BIKE FOREVER!

[facadeparade]

This looks great and easy! The only question I have is, does it move about? Like, will it swing out or anything if you turn too fast/fall off? (I'm clumsy, haha).

[frenzy]

only if you fall, just secure it with a bungee over the top.

[colinlewis]

The item you call "vinyl board" appears to be a material called Coroplast or Coroflute. It can be found in sign shops and some art supply stores. It is very useful stuff!