Bicycle and Cycling Panniers

So you have finally decided to go all ecologically friendly and use a bicycle. You will soon find the next dilemma is how to luggage your stuff about on your bicycle without doing damage to yourself or others. Bicycle pannier bags are the ideal choice for carrying your personal belongings on your bike.

There are many styles of cycling panniers to use depending on your needs. Bicycle panniers come in both rear and front styles to attach to your pannier racks, usually sold in pairs, and intend to be big enough to fit most grocery or cycle touring equipment. A grocery pannier is a great way to carry your groceries after buying your weekly shop.

If you are only looking for a pannier to hold a few bicycle tools and an inner tube, then a bicycle saddle bag is a good alternative.

Depending on which side of the cycle pannier religious war you get you bicycle pannier reviews from, they fall on to two sides. It is either a bike pannier with lots of little pockets to store each item in their own place but you then take the risk that the item being to big for the pockets or you go with one big pannier which can fit a wide range of item sizes but at the disadvantage of emptying the whole pannier to retrieve the items at the bottom of the bike pannier.

Commuters who bicycle, have the option of specifically designed bicycle bags to hold laptop computers, files and folders, changes of clothes or shoes and lunches. If intending to carry a laptop on your bicycle you need to have the pannier fit snugly to minimize any movement and reduce sudden vibrations from the road.

A cheaper option to buying a cycle pannier is to save costs by making a custom bicycle bag or make their own custom arrangements. Some cyclists create makeshift grocery pannier bags out of grocery bags, grocery baskets, garment-bags, convertible backpacks, various multi-purpose bags or even lash everything to the bike with rope and string.

As occasionally with bicycles you are caught in rain showers, it is a good idea to choose a pannier which is water-repellent or waterproof without resorting to putting all your items into plastic bags. However, some cycling panniers include extra built-in rain-covers, or have rain-covers offered as accessories to help keep the contents of the bike pannier dry.

Panniers are usually built to attach to a rear rack or front rack already fitted to the bicycle. Removable panniers hook onto the top edge of the rack and are often held in place by a spring, hook or elastic cord that connects to the near of the wheel axle at the bottom. Various other options exist for further securing the bag, for example, Arkel uses a cam-lock system, and previously used an adjustable locking mechanism

If carrying fairly heavy loads ensure that the weight is evenly distributed in your bicycle bags, this helps with the stability of the bike, especially when taking sharp corners.

There are many well established brands of cycle panniers, such manufacturers of these panniers are Ortlieb, Arkel, Delta, Topeak, Axiom and Carradice to name but a few.

A selection of bike panniers are provided on the right which are available to buy from the widely respected online retailer Amazon.

Ortlieb

Ortlieb tends to be popular bike panniers for expedition touring especially in Europe. The bags are simple one main compartment design with the possibility to attach external pockets. These bike panniers are extremely hard-wearing, 100% water proof and offer a well proven convenient attachment mechanism to remove and attach the Ortlieb pannier to the bike. Both Ortlieb front rollers and rear Ortlieb rollers panniers are widely available from leading bicycle suppliers. You even get an ortlieb carrying system for their panniers, these are shoulder straps which attach to ortlieb panniers and convert them into a handy rucksack.

Arkel

A Canadian company called Arkel offers a range of fairly distinctive panniers. Compared to European designs of Ortlieb, Arkel panniers are complex piece of kit with lots of individual pockets, zips, internal liners and detachable bags to try and cater for every need. Additionally Arkel offer a range of thin and tall bike panniers specifically catering for mountain bikes. The attachment mechanism used is a hook and bungee type of affair.

Carradice

UK based Carradice have a long established history in making panniers. Their Super C range of bicycle panniers are made from a hard-wearing and water resistant cotton duck material. They also have produce a range in PVC if you prefer PVC over the cotton duck material . A large proportion of bags (especially the traditional cotton duck ones) are exported all around the world with a particularly strong following for their bike panniers in the Denmark, Germany and the USA.

Delta

For more than 20 years, Delta has been creating and selling useful cycling products. They offer only a small, concentrated product line that aims to represent the best there is in each category. Bags are constructed from 600D woven polyester with sewn stitching and Scotchlite® reflective tape, they several models ranging from the compact bike pannier to the larger expedition panniers.