Abaxo Pannier Initial Review

The last time I bought panniers, George W. Bush was still in office.   I was living in Boston and needed an easy way to haul stuff for my daily commute into Cambridge.    I bought a Blackburn Expedition rack and a set of used Cannondale branded panniers on eBay.

   

Over the last thirteen years, the bags survived countless trips to grocery stores.   I regularly overstuffed them with six packs of beer and jugs of milk. They endured years of being left outside in the salt air when I lived on Nantucket.   The bags held up to the harsh sunshine of Colorado, although the fluorescent orange faded.   They held up to being towed behind cars, literally thousands of miles of whipping wind gusts.   They've lasted longer than my first marriage. 

Blackburn Expedition EX-1 After 13 Years of Abuse

The bags needed a few repairs along the way.  The built-in elastic bungee fasteners failed, replaced with galvanized fence wire which permanently mounted them to the rack.  When holes in the nylon fabric appeared,  I used a glue gun to patch them together.   But the journey is now reaching an end.   They're falling apart. 

My primary use for panniers is to provide onboard storage on a townie bike.   I mostly haul groceries and sweaty yoga mats, beer and layers of clothing,  and of course water bottles.    Although tempted by nice, highly rated products from Ortlieb (among others), I'm not about to go touring on this machine.  I also don't want bags so expensive that I would be upset if they were stolen.   In this college town, theft is a real possibility.   

Surfing around the web, I found a company called Abaxo selling what looks like decent quality panniers for a very reasonable price.   The description sounded good:  "Waterproof nylon canvas with quick-attach mechanism with highly reflective safety patches on front and back, extra thick heavy duty material and construction, tapers at the bottom for extra heel clearance, handle with rubber grip for easy carrying, and a patented no-rattle attachment system plus bottom spoke protection shield."

At $35.87 each (including shipping), the price was less than half comparably sized Ortliebs.    Abaxo also seems to maintain high quality feedback ratings on eBay and a reasonable return policy.  What did I have to lose?

Initial impressions:  

Still wrapped in original packaging.  

Quick release is intelligent and intuitive.   Pull up on release strap to open fasteners.

The bottom fastener has an adjustable slide to position the bags fore/aft on the rack

Fastener mechanism and locking tabs appear well made.   Rivets might rust.  We'll see. 

Single needle stitching doesn't appear particularly durable but time will tell.  The nylon is heavy material.

Inside:  spoke guard and heavy plastic, riveted. 

Installed and ready for a test ride

You can find the Abaxo panniers on eBay in a choice of three colors.   My initial impressions are that the quality is acceptable, especially for the price.   I'll post an update after I put some miles on these bags. 

p.s. If you're looking for a rack to pair panniers with, I recommend the Blackburn EX-1 Expedition Rack.  It has held up even better than the Cannondale panniers.  I've loaded the rack with almost 3x the 45lb duty rating (buzzed girlfriend) for short rides without any issues. 

The Old GT

My old GT Terra has gone places.   I bought it for $25 as a beater commuter in New York City in 2001.   It came with a rusty chain and two flat tires.      I figured I wouldn't cry if someone stole it.     Nobody did.

When I moved to Boston, I added the 3 strut, tig welded "expendition" rack from Nashbar,  bright orange and brown Cannondale panniers from eBay, and fenders from Planet Bike.     Mostly, I commuted from my house in Medford to a research job in Cambridge.  Sometimes I'd attend workshops and other events near Harvard and occasionally I'd cruise over to Trader Joe's in Arlington.    I pretty much rode it all over Boston, but I never did make it to Sheldon's shop in Newton.

On Nantucket, I regularly rode to town from Surfside and all over the island too.   Two years on the gray lady and somehow it survived the salt air, unlike my car.    We've been in Boulder for seven years,  it's now a veteran of many cruiser rides and my tow-vehicle of choice for Marley on his chariot.  Last year, it was daily companion on the playa.    

So once again, I'm about to double down for parts and labor.   I could replace it with a used bike in better shape for about the same price as what I'm about to throw into it, but given the places I've gone, it just isn't worth it.  

Upcoming repairs and improvements;
Bottom Bracket  COMPLETE
Pedals COMPLETE
Tires
Grips
Saddle
Panniers
Wheel bearings
Wheel Tuning

If You Park Like This...

... leave a comment. 

Bottom Bracket Rescue

Between the crank arms, nestled in a cylindrical hole in your bike frame rests a device called the bottom bracket.   In essence, it's a couple of sealed bearings inside a threaded tube with a small axle running through it.   After years of abuse, the bearings can fail, leading to a crackling noise when pedaling.   

Today, I pulled my very first bottom bracket, a fairly straightforward procedure, provided you have the right tools.  The tools themselves are cheap - about $20 on sale at my local bike shop. There are also plenty of how-to videos online, so I'll skip that.   Here's what I learned... 

Sometimes, the bottom bracket isn't bad.   My local shop didn't have the correct size bracket, but the mechanic checked out my bracket and thought it turned smoothly.   She suggested that grit that gets into the threads can also make a crackling noise.  

So, I gave it a go and surprise, surprise, my bottom bracket is fine.   The crackling noise is now completely gone.  So before running out to replace your bottom bracket, try cleaning it, regreasing, and reinstalling it first.   Oh, and don't be surprised if the bottom bracket comes out looking like a rusty mess.  Mine sure did, but it cleaned up nicely. 

Bottom bracket from my GT Terra Mountain Bike

Bike Swap-o-Rama

What's the heck is a Veloswap?

Billed as the world's largest, Veloswap is a "consumer bicycling and sports expo." That's fancy talk for a massive bazaar of all things cycling, complete with haggling merchants and keen buyers hungry for a bargain. Vendors range from massive corporations (Subaru, a.k.a. Fuji Heavy) to a solitary guy selling a bike on a blanket.

It was held in Denver this past weekend. If you missed it... well, there's always next year. Here's a few pics (and a video) from the event.

The crowded exhibition hall:


Chain rings and wine cozies, hmm..


Tires, tires everywhere:


Some vendors were more organized than others:


It wasn't all the latest bling:


Old bikes:


New bikes:


A crowd tore into a pile of discount cycling socks. Like blood thirsty sharks swirling, a feeding frenzy ensued:


Vendors were creative:


Occasional desperate measures:


The pics above can only give you a small sense of how big this event was. Here's a little video that helps capture the scale:

Mud Ride

I took the mountain bike out for ride this weekend. It was a muddy adventure.

A couple of years ago, I slapped some fenders on my GT for commuting duty. It was perfect for rainy or snowy rides back and forth to my office in Cambridge. When I lived on Nantucket, the sandy roads and occasional trail posed no problem. There generally wasn't much mud.

The pics below are why you should remove fenders for trail riding in Colorado. The mud was packed in so badly that the wheels wouldn't turn. I had to remove the wheels and clean out the thick, sticky mud several times on my ride yesterday.