I needed some
storage for biking to a night class that I teach. I wanted panniers but did not want to spend much money. After searching around, I found the perfect pannier for $2.23.
In Portland, OR, the bucket pannier is ubiquitous. I live (unplanned, just a happy
accident) on a major bike route for commuters and see and hear these bucket
panniers daily. I like the bucket idea because they are big, utilitarian, and
from mostly scavenged materials.
I have ridden with the buckets and they work well. The analysis goes like this: (1)
they do not rattle or make noise like many I have heard going down my street,
(2) low cost, (3) inherently waterproof, and (4) a great place for stickers.
There are plenty of
directions online for how to build these, but those are mostly ideas, as each
person's style of riding, bike rack, and bike are different. The measurements
and such do not work precisely. For example, I have my buckets titled a bit to
allow for greater foot clearance, but not everyone would want to do this. I also have the bungee cord set up to pull the bucket from three points to ensure a solid fit.
You can buy
specially made hooks attachments for buckets/pannier conversions, but that is another purchase for something that I could find or repurpose. In the end, the only cost was $1.24 per bucket. I bought the hooks at my local Ace for 99 cents each and a bucket for 25 cents at SCRAP (
coupon). Keep your eyes peeled, the buckets are not hard to find for free.
There are two
adjustments that I will make in the future. One, another fun way to over engineer and spend some time creating, is to use carabiners
as the "hook". In this way, the attachment will be solid and will
be impossible to unhook even if the tension system were to go, or the bike get
thrown upside down by a freak hurricane. Bomber. Two, add some metal plates on the inside of the pannier where the hooks attach to the plastic bucket. This would greater
reinforce that area as this location is a stress point (there is a lot of movement between the hook
and the plastic just from riding). I will
add photos of those tweaks as they come in.
Final verdict: The bucket panniers match my high-tech milk crate storage unit quite well.
Another design that I saw out on the streets involved those yellow Portland recycling bins we no longer use and a
Mundo bike, a similar set up could be made on an
Xtracycle.
Mundo photo courtesy of
Jeremy Towsey-French.
For more of The Wheel American Family, try Twitter at
BikeNounVerb.
Use your
coupon at SCRAP for 25% off.