Beautiful morning for a ride. By the time morning walkie was over the sky was completely clear so it’ll probably warm up later but just then the temp was in the sixties, I was feeling good, the bike was apparently working fine and it was time to go do some bumpy stuff on the way to T&S’s dogs.
Coming down the hump onto the plateau I encountered some cattle who had attended the Prometheus school of running away from things: Undecided on what I was but certain they weren’t happy with the clip at which I was overtaking them they ran as fast as Angus cattle can run – which is not very bloody fast – straight away from me. I was coasting happily downhill on a relatively smooth patch of dirt road so I let the bike have its head, peaking at a little over 25 and practically clipping bovine heels, and they never did figure it out. Eventually the road turned left and the cattle kept going straight, and only then were they saved from the scary two-wheeled thing. A petty sort of revenge but I enjoyed it.
I sorted out the pannier issue. Never really appreciated how perfectly designed my old bags were for the Radrover: I wasn’t happy with the construction, and they did wear out right on schedule despite very light use, but they fit the bike as if sold on the Radbike website. Not so these, which were proportioned with motorcycles in mind. But nipping them in under the cargo rack with some zip ties and then constructing some backboards to keep the floppy bags from going into the spokes seems to have done the job.
Half a dozen more zip ties to fasten the boards to the bike and the bags to the boards, and after 17 bumpy miles the new panniers work great now.
I only have two more trips to T&S if all goes to plan, and they’ll both involve the Jeep. And I’m told that the new kickstand, the last part I’m missing, has arrived at the post office. So it looks like the bike has fully recovered* from its mishap with no professional help required.
Oh! And we passed 900 miles on the odometer this morning so I might still hit 1000 before the end of the warm season.
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*Except for the bent derailleur hanger, and next week I’ll try to see if I can buy a couple of new ones from Rad Bikes.
Those look like the inexpensive saddlebags I just purchased from Amazon, which I ‘stiffened’ by fitting a small plastic trash can in to each side; and then used electric zip ties to secure the D-rings to the motorcycle frame. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z1239G?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
Joel, that pannier setup looks a lot more complicated than it has to be.
Get a pack of grommets from Tandy* and install them low down on the pannier bags in pairs an inch apart. Take a little para-cord or zip ties and tie the pannier bags to the ebike frame. The advantage of para-cord is it can be untied when you want to take the bags off the bike. This will solve your problem and not reduce the amount you can carry in the bags.
* https://tandyleather.com/products/long-post-grommets-10-pack?_pos=2&_sid=6bbd88691&_ss=r