Superlight Pannier Bags
There has been much talk about the weight of pannier bags, why doesn't anyone make any, how durable / waterproof bags are and so on.
A little research with Ortlieb is quite enlightening, they arguably make some of the best and lightest bags around, fully waterproof, durable with an easy to use fitting system. For the purposes of this exercise i decided to use a fairly standard front bag as the guide, so each bag will be @ 12.5 litre capacity, 25 litres for a pair.
They make three qualities, City, Classic and Plus all nominally the same size, 30x25x14 cm. heaviest of these is the Classic at 1590g/pair, Plus is 1440g/pair and City comes in at 1210g/pair. Most of the weight saving with the City is due to losing the inner pocket, shoulder strap system and the estimated 2.5litres of extra capacity the other bags boast. As most will know the saving between Plus and Classic is due to the lighter non PVC material used for construction.
As weight, waterproofness and capacity rather than long term durability are the key points, the aim is to if not outperform at least equal the City bags. Of course if we can do something about price as well that will be a bonus. It was pretty obvious that utilising Ortlieb's fixing system and basic design would keep things simple and so i set about locating the ingredients.
So here is my recipe for 1 approx 14litre bag
ingredients
Ortlieb QL1 lower hook set E109 34 grams (£5.00 JE James)
Ortlieb QL1 hooks with handle E162 71 grams (£8.49 JE James)
Ortlieb QL1 top rail short E170 46 grams (£5.50 JE James)
Bluefield 15l drybag 65 grams (£3.50 Ebay)
1 sheet A3 4mm corrugated plastic board 49 grams (£1.50 Ebay)
Tools required: scissors, T15 torx key, 12mm ring spanner, bradawl, 3mm hex key, pen
Time required: 20 minutes
Using a disassembled Ortlieb Front Roller as a pattern, first job was cutting the plastic board to size and then marking the position of the holes required to fix the lower hook set and top rail. Using the bradawl pierce the board at each required hole. (this will make it easier for the self tapping screws to be fitted.) Before going further assemble the upper hook assembly to the top rail - you can't do this later without disassembly.
Next place the plastic board inside the bag ensuring it sits at the bottom of the bag and that the roll closure is in the same plane. This part can be a little fiddly, any mistake here may result in you needing to repair a puncture before continuing! Once you are happy with the position carefully mark where the self tapping screws will pierce the bag then using the bradawl make a tiny hole at each point.
We are nearly done now, its just a simple case of assembling the components, lower rail first. Carefully screw the self tapping screws through the fixing, bag and backing plate taking care not to damage the other side of the bag! Make sure that the bag is stretched flat across the backing board before fixing the top rail in place. Once you've tightened all the screw/nut assemblies the bag should be watertight once more and its ready to use.
My finished bag weighs in at a staggering 265 grams and cost £23.99.
What could be improved? well you could cut some holes in the back plate or sculp the shape some and you'd be under 250 grams easily. If you are worried about the material stength at the fixing screws you could use puncture patches to re-inforce the area. I've used a smaller size bag but you could use bigger if you need more capacity and dry bags are available in various denier materials, mine are @ 80 den. You could also replace the self tappers and nuts with lighter aluminium bolts and nylocs - probably save @ 10 grams (i'm sad enough that i've done this with a seatpack!) That would give you a fully functional bag weighing @ 240 grams compared to 605 grams for the City pannier.
For lightweight, hi volume stuff like tent canvas, clothing, sleeping bags etc this should work pretty well, they won't stand up to fetching the weekly shop too well though. Given that the fixings are easily recycled onto another bag the initial outlay could potentially give you a new bag for under a fiver if you need to replace it. (you could 'borrow' everything from an esisting bag if you wanted!)
I'll post a full how to on Flickr in a couple of days!
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