The bright yellow panniers that carried most of my baggage were Ortlieb ones and Ortlieb are supposed to be the best of the best. I’d had them for over ten years and they’re very simple and the roll top is very waterproof if you haven’t overfilled them and can roll it up tightly. However, I’d never really loved them and I missed the outer pockets on the pair of UK made panniers I’d had for probably 15 to 20 years before those wore out and were replaced by the Ortliebs. On the ride to Compostella one of the closing fixers broke and the top fitting on the other pannier gave up so I’ve been meaning to see if I could repair them since I got back but I’ve been bodging things. However, looking at the challenge carefully I realised that, though I quite like sewing, this was beyond me to do a robust job. I started to fear that they would have to be thown away but I did some sleuthing on the web and found that Ortlieb do repairs. In fact, a company called Lyon (www.lyon.co.uk) do them in the UK and not only will they do a welding (plastic welding) repair job on the one set at a very reasonable price, under a third of what it would cost to replace the pannier, but they do snap in replacement closing clips:
Very neat locking bar that and feels very solid so all I had to do was to use as small hacksaw to cut the broken one out and snap that in and here we are, all ready to go again.
OK Ortlieb, and the lovely people at Lyon (thanks Mike) are high in my estimation: I love gear that is made to last and made so it is repairable when it finally breaks.
Now, let’s see if a little pre-Christmas “thank you” post like this can get me back into the swing of blogging again. Boy I have been working hard (though technically unemployed!) and boy oh boy have I been missing the ride, and the blogging! A lot of readjustment was always going to be necessary.
It is rather impressive. I too love gear that is made to last and which is repairable. You have been quiet as of late, but I have been thinking of you on and off, so it is good to see your post. Being ‘technically unemployed’ sounds, however, like the status of probably half of the people in the industrialized world these days.
Hoorah in every respect (except for it sounding like the new job is STILL not sorted !! ). Repairs are indeed deeply satisfying. My flute developed a problem on the day I was going to be playing with a friend at his parent’s ?silver wedding anniversary party. Too late for a trip to the menders, and with the flute being un-listenable to and me unable to localize the defective mechanism causing a key not to close fully, I used the jeweller’s screwdriver I had for tightening my specs, stripped the flute down completely – all rods and keys off – then reassembled it. Ta da! Worked perfectly.