Upcycle Any Bag to Clip-on Bike Pannier

I wanted to add panniers to my bike, and was determined not buy new, so set about converting some second hand delivery bags into bike panniers.

So chuffed am I with the outcome, that I thought I'd share what I learnt.

I'm a millennial Brit so apologies in advance for the mixture of metric and imperial measures we use! I've tried to provide both.

The clips I've sourced work with thin framed carriers - say up to 3mm or 1/8th of an inch - and they fit really nicely on my Pletscher Model C Rack (pictured above). You'll probably need to find different hardware if you've got a thick, tubular cargo rack.

Materials:

• Bag (or bags) - In the UK there is currently (as of Autumn 2021) a stock of used Royal Mail delivery satchels available from surplus stores for £20 a pair. These are really robust, well made, and include reflectors around the outside to help with visibility. They could be for a motorbike (see photo), but don't fit on a pushbike without modification. The technique I'll show could apply to any reclaimed bag (or pair of bags).
• Scrap of wood - I used a length of reclaimed pine which was 13 x 50mm (1/2 x 2in) in profile. It needs to be at least as wide as the bag you want to mount (time 2 if you're doing a pair!)
• 2 x Pen Clips per bag - I bought a batch of these from AliExpress a couple of years back, and still had 5 left over for this project. They are still available from Ali Express, or you can find them elsewhere but with a huge mark-up!
• AliExpress - 26p each plus £4.21 delivery, 3 week lead time (from China) - I'd go with this option and buy some spares!
• Ebay UK - £3.29 each, free postage, 2 week lead time (from China)
• 14 x 1 1/2in round wire nails (times 2, if you're doing a pair) - I bought these from the local hardware store. Allow yourself a few spares as it may take a couple of attempts at clinching them

Tools:

• Centre Punch (you could use any hard metal spikey thing - I use an old screwdriver ground to a point)
• Drill - any drill will do - electric, hand drill, brace and bit, pillar drill. Great accuracy is not required!
• Drill bits: You could do this with just a 3.5mm or 4mm drill bit, but I used
• 1 @ 3.5mm
• 1 @ 5.5mm
• 1 Countersink
• Something to hold your workpiece while drilling, like a clamp, or vice, or friend
• Hammer
• Pliers (any sort)
• Solder Iron (Optional - only useful if your bag is made of synthetic material)
• Chisel (ideally 1 inch/25mm, but a narrower chisel would do it with multiple strikes. A sharp knife would do, but a chisel gives a neater cut)

I think I made this more complicated than it needed to be. If I were to do this again I would:

1. Bend the pen clips open to 90 degrees
2. Centre punch a dent in the locations on the clips for the 3.5 or 4mm holes (I used 5 holes/nails - this is possibly overkill, as three or four would probably do). Leave the top 2cm free of holes if you can, as this is the weight bearing bit!
3. Drill the holes in the dents you made
4. Countersink the holes slightly without increasing the hole diameter. T[his helps the nails seat better and stops them fouling the rack. The hole needs to be smaller than the nail heads after countersinking.

What I did (and what is shown in the photos) is drilling a 3.5mm hold through both the top and bottom of the folded clip, then inserting a scrap of wood in the clip, and drilling a 5.5mm hole through the top section only, before then countersinking both. My thinking at the time was that while the holes would weaken the lower end of the clip, not bending the clip backward and forward would protect the top of the clip getting fatigued - but I ended up bending the clip and having to straighten it out anyway, so I'd be inclined to just bend the clip open then drill the bottom holes only, bending it back into shape once its nailed on.

1. Cut the wood to fit inside the width of the bag.
2. Having cut it, take any sharp edges of with some sandpaper (or a handplane if you have one) to protect it and the user from splintering.
3. Then offer the bag up to the bike rack to work out where the clips should poke through the bag, taking into account:
4. Where the holes will need to go on the bag itself - don't put them through straps, for example as this will weaken it
5. Maximised width between clips - this will give it the most stability front to back. I put mine as far apart as my rack would allow
6. What height the bag will sit at on your bike - a low centre of gravity is good, but you don't want it catching when you cycle close the kerb, so I'd suggest you go no lower than your pedals at the low point of their cycle - probably a bit higher than that to protect them from road splash
7. Space for feet! With my bags, my first inclination was to put the clips in symmetrically around the centre line, which would have meant that the bags could have gone on either right side of the left side. But if I'd done this my feet would have caught the bags while pedalling with anything other than my heels! So I went for an asymmetric pattern with the clips towards the front, pushing the bag back towards the back of the rack and clear of my feet
8. Mark on the wood (I used felt tip) where the clips will go. You want them to project above the top of the wood by say 5 to 10 mm (1/4 to 3/8 inches)
9. Offer the clips up to those positions and then centre punch the position of the holes
10. Pre-drill holes in the wood for the nails (this is really important if you're using natural wood, as the nails can split out the ends of the wood making it very week. Not so important if you're using Plywood, but still a good idea)

Wait, I hear you ask. Why use nails when screws are so much neater and stronger?

Screws are only strong than nails against tensile forces - nails are actually stronger than screws for shear forces, and clinched nails are 40% stronger again, so that's why I chose nails. You can use screws if you prefer, but it won't be as strong.

1. Put the wood over a surface with a hole in it (e.g. a picnic bench would do, or between the jaws of a vice if you have one)
2. Offer up the clip, and put a nail all the way through the clip into its pre-drilled hole( i.e. until the nail head is flush).
3. Turn the wood over so the point of the nail is poking out
4. Take your pliers, and grab the last 8mm or so the the nail, and then bend it over so it goes past 90 degrees - probably about 100 degrees
5. Hammer the bent nail across the grain (i.e. not along the grain - because across is stronger/less likely to split the week) and back into the wood (steering clear of the holes for the remaining nails to go through)
6. Repeat the steps above for all the holes you've made

This will leave you with a nail bent over like a staple at the rear, giving a solid connection between the hook and the wood. Make sure the point is actually embedded in the wood and it could rip the bag or injure the user if it isn't in properly.

(On my photo, it looks like the right hand nails aren't seated properly, but if you zoom in you'll see it's just a knot in the pine that makes it look so - nails are all safely clinched!)

To put the wooden from in the bag, you'll need to make holes for doing this, having decided where they will go in Step 2 above. Double check the position to make sure it's not going to cut through key structural components.

In my case, I put them just under the seam where the lid fastened on, making sure they didn't cut through the handle straps.

1. The clips are 20mm wide, so I used a 1 inch/25mm chisel to cut cleanly through the multiple layers with a single hammer strike. You could cut the holes with a knife, but it wouldn't be as neat
2. My bags were made of nylon, so to prevent the new holes from fraying I used a soldering iron to melt the inside surfaces of the cuts, causing the loose end fibres to clump and lock together. You could probably achieve the same with a candle flame/cigaretter lighter as long as your bags are made of synthetic materia.
3. If your bags are made of natural material (e.g. cotton) then you're going to have to bind the edges some other way, e.g. using a buttonhole stitch or bias binding tape. You could skip this, but it will start to fray over time, especially if you're taking the bags on and off.

Now the frame is complete, and you've got the holes for the clips to go through, it's just a case of mounting the frame inside the bag using my favourite fixing - clinched nails!

1. Insert the frame into the bag
2. Poke the hooks through the holes made in the previous step ensuring the top 5-10mm which projects above the top of the wood is poking through
3. From inside the bag, hammer a nail through the wood at your chosen mounting point - in my case, I put the nail through the handle straps. Because the nail pierces a hole rather than punches a hole and severing fibres, it doesn't weaken the fabric as much.
4. Flip the bag over, again with pliers, bend the last 8mm of the nail point over about 100 degrees
5. Put a block of wood inside the bag, then hammer the bent nail over to drive the point into the wood - again, with the nail cross the grain (rather than going along the grain).
6. Using the same process, put another nail in next to the first
7. Using the same process put two nails into the second mounting point you have chosen (for me, the other end of the handle.

And that's them complete!

The clips might need a bit of bending to make sure they hold firm, and that they fit nicely to your rack.

There isn't any bungee attachment to hold the clips down - I've found there is enough tension in the clip itself to stop them popping off, and not having to faff about underneath the bag makes it easy to get them on and off.

I've used them for supermarket trips, plenty strength in the clinched nails. I suspect I'll reach the weight limit for the rack before the clinched nails through the fabric becomes an issue.

I hope that's given you some ideas how you could achieve the same - good luck!