-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 =pod I've lived in the city for 4 years now, and all these years I've been a) not exercising and b) lugging groceries to my house on foot a few times a week. A bike would solve both problems, so I bought one :) I got a nice-n-light bike with a rack, so it's good for riding around on Chicago's beautiful lakefront trail, and I can put grocery panniers on the back. Perfect. "It's a suparrr machine". Anyway, the folks at the friendly local bike shop suggested L, so I bought two. They are quite spacious and I'm happy to report that I can get almost a week's worth of groceries in them. A gallon of milk, something that's usually rather painful to carry manually (ok, not I painful), is swallowed up by the pannier and becomes weightless on the bike. Excellent. The problem, however, is that the panniers fucking suck. Not just suck. Fucking suck. Actually, if they generated suction they might stay attached to the bike for more than 30 seconds. So I guess it would be more accurate to say that they blow... The design principles that they use for attaching to the bike are sound. There are two hooks on the back that connect it to the rack. Gravity holds those in place, along with an elastic ring that attaches to the bottom of the rack (and takes the place of gravity when there isn't a load). This would work in theory, but for some reason the hooks are really small, and coated with a Teflon-like non-stick coating. This means they basically fall off the bike at the slightest provocation. They never solidly seat themselves on the rack, and they're non-stick. Not a good combination. Additionally, the back of the pannier bends when you put stuff in, and that levers the hooks off the rack. All in all... nice try guys, but unfortunately you've managed to make the shittiest product on the planet earth. Did you actually try these even once during the R&D phase!? No? DO THAT NEXT TIME. Yesterday, I lost one on the way to the store, and never found it. Annoying. I imagine that it is now enjoying a home in the L. Like an idiot, I bought a replacement this morning. I<*sound of money flushing down the toilet*>. I figured that the problem was due to user error; after all, I did get some milk home successfully yesterday. I must have not attached the lost pannier correctly or something. So, I decided to try for groceries again. On the way to the store, I lost a pannier twice. The first time, I was on the road with an unused (due to construction) bus lane, so recovering the thing was easy. Losing and recovering is better than losing and not recovering. A few blocks later, the fucking piece of shit falls off again. I didn't notice until I was parked at the grocery store... but I did end up finding that one too. I saw someone walking down the street with it, so I said "hey, that just fell off my bike", and she surrendered it without a problem. Chicagoans are nice :) Happy that I recovered from failure twice within 5 minutes, I got my groceries, checked out (getting a 20 cent discount for bringing my own bags; 1198 more visits and the bags will pay for themselves!), and attempted to attach the panniers to the bike. This is where I learned that the things don't attach very well when you actually put shit in them. They bend outwards, making attaching the hooks securely even more impossible. Somehow I got them on, and rode off. The ride back is much more relaxing than the ride there (I hate left turns on really busy streets, so I go "around the block" to get home; very relaxing and only adds a minute or so), so I took it slow. I made it over the open-grate under-construction bridge fine, and then was back in my neighborhood. Things were going too well, though. When I was stopped at a light, I must have breathed on the pannier slightly, so it fell off in the middle of the intersection after I started pedalling. (Incidentally, this was right in front of L house :) Fortunately, a kind pedestrian picked everything up for me, I reattached the thing and made it home safely. So what is the moral of this story? Panniers are fucking awesome, and a good set will (I assume) greatly improve the quality of your life. However, you will want to I your life if you happen to buy the ones I did. (Yes, I will be buying something decent in the near future. I will keep you posted.) Anyway, today was not a total loss. I got to know my neighborhood (and its kind inhabitants) better, I got a lot of exercise, and it was the first day of the year where I didn't need a jacket. So no complaints I guess. I will be happy to get some good panniers, though. :) [UPDATE] L shows people with the same problem. Yay for googling "trek panniers suck" :) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFH9/0o2rw+dVvzZm0RAvpOAKCsI1tNUkjOqMxhNc4fRnkQQQRoaACgnx/q V3dZClOezmZwxg40rsZJhlQ= =ADOx -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----