How my quite large panniers was made
Verfasst: Do 23. Apr 2015, 18:23
Many years ago, in 1996, me and my wife had too little money to afford a car. For a short time I had work in a mechanical work shop, and I there made a bicycle trailer to get food and other things home from the store. The trailer was also used after a very tuned Piaggio Ciao, even on long distance vacations.
The years went by, and me and my wife got better income. The trailer wasn´t used very much, most of the time stoved away in the garage. Then I got the Innova in may 2011 I didn´t use the trailer at all.
Then I got my Innova the I soon realised that I could use it for long distance driving. The first three years I used the cheapest soft panniers there was (40 euro) and two equally cheap waterproof sacks (14 euro a piece). I used those panniers and sacks during 28000 km with no problems at all.
Last winter I began to think about lockable more secure panniers, large enough for my use. I almost bought a pair of slightly crashed KTM Gobi panniers, but they was sold before I got to the seller. New big panniers was way out of my budget. I hade to make my own.
I got aluminium frame parts from old unused displays at the museum I then worked at. Made a few tests with those parts, and the result was too heavy. I did some experiments with corrugated plastic, but what wasn´t strong enough for big volume panniers. Then I remembered the trailer.
The trailer was 104 x 50 x 17 cm, which is 88,4 liter of volume. 44 liters of volume per pannier would be perfect for my needs. I cut the trailer apart at the middle, blind riveted on corrugated plastic backsides, made lids from 2,5 mm scrap aluminium sheeting och installed some excenter buckles. Detailing and sealing was an easy task.
But how to mount those huge things on a small Innova? The traditional way of hanging the panniers from the top wouldn´t work well at all. The only solution I could come up with was to make a frame at the bottom, standing the panniers on that and make support rods from the frame the up to the passenger handle. In that way I could use the brackets for the passenger footpegs, two holes in the passenger handle and two small struts at the upper front. I some times modify bicycle frames using brazing, and I also brazed the parts for the pannier frame.
The result have worked way better than expected. Sturdy, water proof and easy to use. Only 14 kilos in total, and each pannier can take my 80 kilos of weight when standing in it. I tested the sturdyness in the most brutal way by hitting a rock at the entry to the roman rock quarry in La Turbie, France. It almost made a hole trough the aluminium, but the mounts held up perfect.
I could write about the panniers in detail, but images says more.There is quite a few images, ´ll put them in new posts below this one.
The years went by, and me and my wife got better income. The trailer wasn´t used very much, most of the time stoved away in the garage. Then I got the Innova in may 2011 I didn´t use the trailer at all.
Then I got my Innova the I soon realised that I could use it for long distance driving. The first three years I used the cheapest soft panniers there was (40 euro) and two equally cheap waterproof sacks (14 euro a piece). I used those panniers and sacks during 28000 km with no problems at all.
Last winter I began to think about lockable more secure panniers, large enough for my use. I almost bought a pair of slightly crashed KTM Gobi panniers, but they was sold before I got to the seller. New big panniers was way out of my budget. I hade to make my own.
I got aluminium frame parts from old unused displays at the museum I then worked at. Made a few tests with those parts, and the result was too heavy. I did some experiments with corrugated plastic, but what wasn´t strong enough for big volume panniers. Then I remembered the trailer.
The trailer was 104 x 50 x 17 cm, which is 88,4 liter of volume. 44 liters of volume per pannier would be perfect for my needs. I cut the trailer apart at the middle, blind riveted on corrugated plastic backsides, made lids from 2,5 mm scrap aluminium sheeting och installed some excenter buckles. Detailing and sealing was an easy task.
But how to mount those huge things on a small Innova? The traditional way of hanging the panniers from the top wouldn´t work well at all. The only solution I could come up with was to make a frame at the bottom, standing the panniers on that and make support rods from the frame the up to the passenger handle. In that way I could use the brackets for the passenger footpegs, two holes in the passenger handle and two small struts at the upper front. I some times modify bicycle frames using brazing, and I also brazed the parts for the pannier frame.
The result have worked way better than expected. Sturdy, water proof and easy to use. Only 14 kilos in total, and each pannier can take my 80 kilos of weight when standing in it. I tested the sturdyness in the most brutal way by hitting a rock at the entry to the roman rock quarry in La Turbie, France. It almost made a hole trough the aluminium, but the mounts held up perfect.
I could write about the panniers in detail, but images says more.There is quite a few images, ´ll put them in new posts below this one.
I am deeply impressed!!! Well done, mate!! You did a outstanding and suberb job. Looks like you are a real handy man! Bravo!!
