Last week I sat down to make my own set of pannier, many thanks to Ron Pier for supplying me with the dimensions as I am still waiting for my newly purchased bike to arrive from the UK so I can start restoration. Not sure if anyone is interested or if I should be posting this in the forum, but I thought I would share the process anyway in case there are a few out there whom would like to try for themselves. The process itself is very straight forward, simple and cheap on materials.
First I purchased canvas webbing and copper rivets to attach the leather corners to the back of the panniers. I then worked out the dimensions not forgetting to allow extra for all the seams that are needed for sewing the panels together. For the leather corners I programmed a pattern on Auto-CAD and then I cut them out with the use of a laser cutting machine, this just saved time and made them a lot more accurate.
After many hours of shopping around without success I might add for the P37 brass hardware that is attached to the ends of the webbing strip. I designed and programmed a pattern on Auto-CAD and cad cam milled the pieces from stock 0.5mm brass sheet. This image shows the flat piece after cutting then the piece folded up and finally riveted together on the end of the webbing.
First a 1mm wide edge is folded over on both sides in a small vice, this can be bent over by hand and no tools or hammering is needed.
Next the strip is folded in half, I formed it around a piece of plastic strip I cut to the same width as the webbing. It needed a few tries first before I started folding in the correct place so the holes lined up for the rivets to go through.
Two holes are punched through the webbing and the end is slid into the brass fitting and the rivets pushed through and hammered using the special tools. This shows both the one inch and two inch brass ends attached to the webbing pieces.
I marked out the pattern on the canvas using tailors chalk and cut them out. The two large rectangles shown are both sets of panniers, the smaller rectangles are the sides for one set of panniers. And the 4 webbing fasteners enough for both panniers.
I then used thin webbing to sew around what will be the top flap of the pannier shown in image 1. Image 2 shows the centre strap with a length to fold over the top of the carrier frame to attach to the second pannier. Image 3 shows the additional 2 pieces of webbing, all 3 pieces are as you know for protection against wear from the metal frame.
This shows both panniers one left with a longer centre strap ready to attach the 2 inch buckle.
The long top strap was laid and sewn over the ends of the vertical straps, this piece has extra on each side as in the final process it will be sewn on the inside around the sides and onto the front panel.
Rather than cutting 3 separate panels and stitching them together I cut one large rectangular piece of fabric but I still allowed space for two seems to be folded and sewn to produce the bottom panel.
The side panels also received their edging around the flaps and diagonal protection at the base.
What will be the top edge of the pannier was folded over and a thin piece of webbing was sewn over the seam to make the edge neat.
Both the buckles and the straps were attached before the pannier side are attached, as it is easier to maneuver the fabric in the machine.
Both side panels are sewn in place at the base
The side panels are then sewn to the back panel as shown and then the same treatment will also be given to the front.
The last 2 images shows one of the completed panniers the edges were also sewn on the outside pinching the pieces together to provide a more robust and durable seam down the long edges. I will attach the leather corners and the bottom clips when my motorcycle arrives in Hong Kong that way I can ensure an exact fit to by bike. I will post the additional images with these attached if people are interested.
email (option): deepsea@vol.net
Dear All
Attached are the dimensioned drawings for the panniers. I made them half an inch larger on the depth and width as the seam takes up a small amount and I also allowed that over 70 years the cotton would have shrank a small amount.
email (option): deepsea@vol.net
Dear All
An additional shot showing how the long ends of the 2" wide webbing straps are folded and sewn in place on the inside of the pannier bag. I have folded the front flap inside the bag so you can see strap on both the inside and the back outside together.
Regards
Stuart
email (option): deepsea@vol.net