Rear Bag Recommendation.

[MarkF]

You don't like floppy rack bags or panniers, so your solution is to buy one of one and two of the other.

Nowt so queer as folk, as they say in your part of the world.

Not so fast.........................I picked them up tonight, the Altura bag is immeasurably better than the cheap ones I've had from Amazon. It's double stitched at crucial points, double walled and within these walls (on three sides) is a stiff piece of plastic, bingo! Sturdy & stable bag. Also, it attaches from all 4 corners at the base ,via velcro straps, around the rack, the cheap ones needed several cable ties to keep them (half ) stable as they attached only from one central point at each end. The bags are £30 new, this is like new. The panniers are fine, Airedale, never had any experience of them but they will do for me. £4.99 all in.

 

[raleighnut]

Not so fast.........................I picked them up tonight, the Altura bag is immeasurably better than the cheap ones I've had from Amazon. It's double stitched at crucial points, double walled and within these walls (on three sides) is a stiff piece of plastic, bingo! Sturdy & stable bag. Also, it attaches from all 4 corners at the base ,via velcro straps, around the rack, the cheap ones needed several cable ties to keep them (half ) stable as they attached only from one central point at each end. The bags are £30 new, this is like new. The panniers are fine, Airedale, never had any experience of them but they will do for me. £4.99 all in.

Result.

 

[mjr]

Update: I've still not sewn my fold-out panniers back on, but I've been using my Basil Mara double-panniers for similar duties where I don't want the drag of panniers on most of the journey but want to collect a decent amount of shopping on the way home.

Despite being sturdy showerproof panniers, the Mara only has stiffener board at the bottom of the bags, so you can carefully roll them up into a small oblong, put them inside another bag (usually one I put shopping into and then drop inside the Mara when deployed) and bungee it to the top of the rack for most of the journey.

My other versatile-luggage tactics have been to keep using my collapsable rucksack; to put stiffener board in my 20 litre Highlander haversack, but that still needs a bit of care to attach it to the rack in a way that doesn't flip off; and to add a velcro closer to the top of the 13 litre satchel's pouch to make me more confident that stuff won't bounce out when it's strapped to the back of the bike - it hasn't yet, but it always worried me.

Putting luggage in front where I can watch it would be better, but I really don't want a big ugly front basket and I haven't found a simple front platform rack yet - they're few and far between, with most offerings being either tiny V-brake-boss-mounting tongues or large axle-mounted platforms, both of which would obstruct my crown-mounted headlight.

 

[toffee]

I use one of these vaude rack bags. They come in various sizes, it is very stable and easliy taken on and off as it is held on by Velcro.

Derek