GreenAnt
Puppy
I have a set of Trax aluminium panniers which are great, but like all alu panniers they leave metal oxidation dust on your stuff bouncing around inside. So you can either go out and buy those (expensive) bags that fit in the panniers, or you can line the panniers with carpet. (in my case second-hand carpet whipped out of the wife’s office!)
Before….
You need 3mm thick short-pile carpeting. This is nice and springy, for reasons to be explained. First cut a rectangle for the floor and snip the corners so that they can bend up the angled floor plate…
and push the carpet to the bottom like this……
Then you need to cut a long strip for the sides. This should be one piece so that the carpet coils around the inside of the pannier, and being springy pushes outwards.
The pannier corners have reinforcing so cut-outs are needed for this.
Also, the sides are not equal height all around so you need to measure and cut a stepped bottom edge. After much measuring, marking and cutting you get something like this:
Note the beer-very necessary for the job…
Next, glue a piece of Velcro (the hooked side) onto the reverse side of the carpet at the end. When the carpet loops inside the pannier, the Velcro will hook into the front side of the carpet and keep the loop pressed outwards against the inside of the pannier.
Once the side strip is installed, the pannier looks like this:
Being thin carpet, the weight addition and volume reduction inside the panniers are negligible.
The beauty of this method is that the carpet is not stuck in but merely held by the outward force of the springy carpet, which is also secured by the Velcro strip. So when that Rum leaks out of your hip-flask in the pannier you can simply rip it out, wash it out and stick back in again…
Before….
You need 3mm thick short-pile carpeting. This is nice and springy, for reasons to be explained. First cut a rectangle for the floor and snip the corners so that they can bend up the angled floor plate…
and push the carpet to the bottom like this……
Then you need to cut a long strip for the sides. This should be one piece so that the carpet coils around the inside of the pannier, and being springy pushes outwards.
The pannier corners have reinforcing so cut-outs are needed for this.
Also, the sides are not equal height all around so you need to measure and cut a stepped bottom edge. After much measuring, marking and cutting you get something like this:
Note the beer-very necessary for the job…
Next, glue a piece of Velcro (the hooked side) onto the reverse side of the carpet at the end. When the carpet loops inside the pannier, the Velcro will hook into the front side of the carpet and keep the loop pressed outwards against the inside of the pannier.
Once the side strip is installed, the pannier looks like this:
Being thin carpet, the weight addition and volume reduction inside the panniers are negligible.
The beauty of this method is that the carpet is not stuck in but merely held by the outward force of the springy carpet, which is also secured by the Velcro strip. So when that Rum leaks out of your hip-flask in the pannier you can simply rip it out, wash it out and stick back in again…
