Fixin' the Chossy Part II


In the last post about the panniers I bought, I fixed up the cracked leather buckles.  However they still were attached to the rack using leather straps, one of which broke when I first loaded them up.  The other thing bugging me about them, apart from potentially breaking again is that they take so long to remove and attach that I wouldn't bother removing them.   What I had planned to do for a while was to somehow modify them to use modern quick-release hooks which also meant I could quickly move them from bike to bike.

I had a search on the internet and found that Ortleib has a whole range of spares, so I ended up ordering a pair of short rails, pair of hooks and a pair of side supports.  All up this cost more than I paid for the panniers!  Although admittedly I got the panniers for very cheap.  The parts I got are from the QL-1 series which is the older style, it adjusts with a 3mm allen key.  The newer QL-2 fixings can be adjusted without tools, however they didn't have all the parts I needed.



The panniers original construction has a thin strip of steel which
the leather straps went around, I drilled four holes through this to
securely attach the Ortleib rail to.

The bags themselves don't have a stiff backing piece like most
modern panniers so I decided to make stiffeners that connect the
upper hooks with the lower hook.  This also makes it
easier to attach to the pannier as the lower hook doesn't flop about
I fixed the rails through and attached the aluminium straps
to the lower hook.
All done! 



 The panniers now attach and detach just by lifting the black straps in the picture above which releases the hooks.  I've ridden a bit with them now and they stay on the rack even more securely than before, the stiffeners not only help with attaching them but they also have given the pannier a much better shape, before they sort of sagged a bit.  Now they are a lot more useful because I can quickly detach them and take them in with me, or once I get a rack for my other bike I can swap them over quickly.  All up the cost was about the same as a set of new lower-end panniers, however these combine the old school looks with new school function.  Well apart from the fiddly leather buckles that open/close them, but you get the point.



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