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Monday I received my new bicycle panniers! Last night I requested an RMA # so I could send them back. They were difficult to mount on the rack, difficult to remove, my ThinkPad would not fit in the laptop sleeve (hence the “most 15 inch” laptops disclaimer), they were a bitch to load, they looked like crap when carrying, and the shoulder strap wasn’t padded. Overall I have never been this disappointed in a Timbuk2 product but, as a curious foreshadowing, almost immediately after I placed my order the panniers disappeared from the Timbuk2 website. I guess I got the last set! Now I have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what to try next.

Through review of my google analytics data I learned that many of you are trying to figure out many of the same things I am. One thing I recently tried to figure out was how to carry groceries on my errand bike. Initially I installed a rear rack and a pair of Axiom Hunter Grocery Bag Panniers. I had a mixture of success and failure with this configuration so read on for all the details.

Let’s start with the bags themselves and a quick pros/cons overview:Pros:

• Size – The bags are very roomy. They not only handle groceries easily, I can also drop my Timbuk2 Blogger bag in one of them without any problem. When not in use I can fold them up and clip them closed.
• Mounting – The top attachment points are clips and clamp easily to the top rail of the rack to hold them securely without having to mess with bungee cords.
• Portability – The bags include a shoulder strap so you can use them directly as shopping bags. In other words you don’t have to buy the grocery store’s “green” bags and you don’t have to get all your items in plastic bags either!
• Flexibility – The bags will clip on racks other thank Axiom brand racks so you don’t necessarily have to buy a new rack if you already have a rear rack on your bike. But, read on for more rack thoughts.
• Safety – The bags have a large reflective strip all the way around them to improve visibility at night.
• Rigidity – Included with the bags are plastic panels I can slip in to “pockets” on the inside of the bags to make the sides rigid. This is helpful with large loads.

Cons:

• Mounting – The bottom mount is a plastic bar on a pivot. The bar slides up and down on a track mounted vertically to the center of the back of the bag, left to right in a grove in the bar, and 360 degrees on a screw holding the whole contraption together. While this makes the bottom mount extremely flexible, it also limits how far back you can mount the panniers on the rack. On the Paddy Wagon I had a traditional rear rack (traditional in that it had a center bar and a front and rear bar that tapered to the center). This rack design made the bags sit too far forward and I hit the bags with my heels when I pedaled. My solution to this dilemma is shown below.
• Securing the load – As mentioned above the bags can be clipped closed when empty to keep them out of my way. This is accomplished with a short strap attached to the top of the back panel of the bag. A corresponding clip is attached to the front of the bag. While handy when empty, the straps are too short to allow you to clip together when the bags are full. This is only a problem on heavy loads because the front/outside panel of the bags is not rigid and the bags tend to bow out in heavy load situations. Again, a solution for this is shown below.
• Bags in the spokes – With heavy loads I quickly discovered that the back of the bags usually ended up in the spokes before I could get home. As mentioned above I often throw my briefcase in one of the bags and when I go over curbs the motion of the bags relative to the center support allows the back of the bags to flop into the spokes. That makes for interesting noises and a lovely riding experience I was eager to resolve. Again, the resolution is below.

Because these are good bags I decided they were worth some experimentation to see if I could make them work better. So I came up with two changes that have made these bags much more useful than they were initially.

1. The first thing I did was replace the existing rack with an Axiom Journey 2 rack. The design of this rack better supports the back of the bag and keeps them out of the wheels. I don’t have disc brakes on the bike I put this on but this was the only rack like this my local bike shop had in stock. Axiom’s Journey rack would have worked well but my local bike shop doesn’t stock them. They keep the 2 in stock because it fits disc and non-disc brake bikes just fine and reduces the inventory they need to keep. The rack swap also solved the mounting challenges I had with the Blackburn rack. The bottom mount worked better on the Axiom rack and I could position the bags further back on the rack to keep them out of my way when I pedaled. While the bags will probably clamp on to most modern racks I highly recommend getting an Axiom Journey or Journey 2 rack along with your Axiom bags.
2. The second challenge – keeping full loads more secure – was a bit of a hack job but something that adds peace of mind for me. Because the top straps are designed to keep the bags closed when empty, they are way too short for keeping the bags from over-expanding when full. So I went to the local fabric store and found some nylon strapping that was the same width as the strapping sewn to the bags, got some additional plastic clips, and made an “extension” for the top strap. This keeps the front of the bag from bowing out under full load and improves my peace of mind.

For those of you looking for good grocery bag panniers I give the Axiom Hunter Grocery Bag Panniers high marks. For the best results pick up an Axiom Journey or Journey 2 rear rack. I paid $50 each for the panniers and $40 for the rack. This $140 investment has made my bike at least $140 more useful than it was without the bags. One other expense that should be factored in is the price of the original rack ($35) I ultimately replaced with the Axiom rack. The Blackburn rack has since ended up on one of the kids’ bikes so it is in service – just not in service as originally planned.

This review is based solely on my opinion and experience and should be considered just that – my opinion. As the EPA is so fond of saying, your mileage may vary!