Plowshares reforged

Last week I was on an emotional roller coaster. I had just procured an absolutely delightful set of panniers made of re-purposed canvas Swiss ammunition cases when on their maiden voyage one of the retainer clips broke and the right pannier became unmoored. I became so depressed about the whole thing, I was driven to drink. Fortunately, it will be at least a year before I can have that drink, so while I waited I thought I might just as well repair the pannier; and that is what I did. I'm happy to report that all went well, and the result was even better than I could have imagined.

Copper tube rivet left; aluminum blind rivet with brass washer right

To modify the cases for use as panniers Out Your Backdoor (aka Jeff Potter) uses 3/16 inch copper tube rivets set with a splash anvil. Basically it's just a tube with a head on it that you mash into an anvil that spreads the open end of the tube into kind of a mushroom shape (the second type shown in this video). They work pretty well, and look really nice against the aged leather of the ammo cases. And while they're fine for riveting the leather logo and blinky light tabs to the bag, they're clearly not the best solution for bearing any appreciable amount of weight. No offense to Jeff - it's just the fact. He clearly puts a lot of thought into the placement of the rivets, carefully measuring and finishing them. But for the connections to the hooks that fit over the rack, I just think the copper rivets he uses are a bit too short and possibly a bit too soft. One of these rivets pulled through the leather within the first eight miles of riding with a relatively light load.  

Initially I thought I would just buy a 3/16 inch brass screw, nut and washers (I like brass for its relative corrosion resistance) just bolt the retainer back on and go about my business. But then it occurred to me that a few years ago I had purchased a rivet tool for a project I can't now recall. I had some 3/16 inch rivets but none long enough to add a washer to the inside of the rivet, which I wanted to assure it would be able to hold the weight, should I decide that I DO want to carry a few hundred rounds of 5.6mm ammo (the current standard for the Swiss military's standard issue SIG SG 550 rifle). So oft I went to my local hardware store where the nice man helped me find the Medium length "pop" rivets and suitable washers. Upon return to the Bartlecave, I had the whole thing complete in about five minutes. Voilà! The rivet's secondary head and washer stick out a bit more than the tubular rivet did, but I am convinced this will produce a much stronger attachment. 

The basic process is demonstrated by some guy with an English accent here:

Plowshares to stones

Broken rivet on the Swiss Ammo box pannier

In yesterday's post, I sang the praises of my new 1964 Swiss Ammunition Box Pannier by Out Your Backdoor. Regrettably, right after posting that post, I rode the bike home from work, encountered a speed bump, aka speed hump, speed jump, speed breaker, speed ramp, kipping cop or judder bar. 


Anyway, one of the rivets holding the rack mount popped out of the right pannier (see photo at right) which then failed catastrophically. OK, that might be a bit dramatic - it just flopped off the rack and hung limply from the bungee cord. No real damage was done other than the broken rivet. I was able to just disentangle my jury rigged retention system, secure the pannier on my Michelin Avenir Plescher style rack and go on my way.
OYB's website says there have never been any returns and that if I send it back they'll fix it and pay postage. I'm far too lazy (and cheap!) for that. I'll just go to the hardware store, buy a properly sized nut, bolt and a couple of washers and fix it myself. The repair will likely not cost more than a buck or two and will yield a better attachment than the elegant but obviously inadequate copper rivets Jeff uses. What is needed is a washer on the inside of the rivet. you can see from the photo that the inner face of the rivet is very small and the copper is very soft. A couple of good jolts on the weight bearing rivet was all it took to squeeze the rivet back through its hole. Lest you think I was carrying bricks, the pannier was not heavily laden at the time. I had an umbrella, a small digital camera and a seersucker shirt in it. Had I been portaging 5.6mm ammo (the current standard for the Swiss military's standard issue SIG SG 550 rifle) the rivets would no doubt have popped without the hitting the judder bar. 

See Part III

Swords to plowshares

1986 Fuji Allegro

I suppose I knew it at the time. I'm sure my wife saw it coming. When I bought the Craigslist bike, what I was really doing was buying the little black dress, the foundation upon which I would construct some sort of fantasy bike. It took almost no time for the accessories to cost more than the bike itself. The fenders, rack, new pedals and Zefal pump were again as much as the original sale price. And if that wasn't enough, the handlebar bag added another bike's worth of investment. Oy, it's always the accessories that kill you, isn't it?

The latest bangles to adorn the Allegro come in the form of a new set of panniers. Well, new isn't technically accurate, so let's say newly acquired. I've been using the bike both as a grocery store bike and more recently as a commuter. I have a couple of wire baskets for groceries, but wanted something a little more enclosed for the back-and-forth to work. I already have my beloved Acorn Rando Handlebar Bag mounted more or less permanently on the bike's front rack, so I wanted something that would at least complement it aesthetically.

I clicked around the usual sources, but didn't find much that hit my aesthetic/financial sweet spot. Oh sure, Rivendell's Sackville Toursacks are gorgeous, but they're so nice I don't think I'd want to put my dirty underwear in 'em. And they'd likely be too big for what I want anyway (not to mention they're a bit on the pricey side). VeloOrange sells what look like nice canvas panniers by Minnehaha, but the black doesn't appeal to me and I'm kind of a fan of boxier, more structured stuff. Then I ran across a review on Lovely Bicycle! of some unconventional panniers made from old canvas Swiss military ammunition boxes. Not the Victorinox/Wenger "Swiss Army" stuff you buy at the mall. Real Swiss military surplus from the 60's, buried for decades in some bunker just waiting for the next world war to break out. Eventually the military has to swap out the old materiel for more modern stuff, (spoiler alert!) if only to keep its contractors in business, and... And they're the ones I went with. They arrived yesterday.

OYB Retro Pannier -- Modified Vintage Swiss Army!

Form follows function in the 1964 Swiss Ammunition Box Pannier by Out Your Backdoor. Made from surplus ammunition/utility bags manufactured for the Swiss military, these panniers have clearly had a life before the bike. They have what Grant terms, beausage. The beauty that comes from use. They are definitely small bags - 8.5" tall, 4" deep, 11.25" wide. But I don't need much space - these are not for long distance touring - I just need to get my iPad, lunch and work clothes back and forth. So these should do just fine. And they look absolutely great.

Out Your Back Door buys these bags and rivets hooks to them so they'll hang from a rack along with one of their embossed leather logos. Of course you could do it all yourself (I did, in fact, drop by my local surplus store to see if I could find anything remotely like this, but they had nothing akin to these lovely Swiss things), but OYB really has the process down and for a price you'd be hard pressed to match, even if you did all the work yourself. Like many folks on the interweb who have commented on these, I'd prefer that OYB not add their branding to the bags, but it's tastefully done and I'm sure it'll blend in with the other leather after I apply a little oil.

Jury rigged pannier retention system

OYB offers a few additional enhancements such as shoulder straps and blinky light attackments and personalized embossing. I opted for the shoulder straps and blinky attachments. The blinky attachments are on only one side, which means that technically speaking, there is a correct left and right pannier. Both add-ons seem to be executed very professionally and will probably be around long after I have expired. The bungee cords in the retention system are too short to attache anywhere on my Avenir Pletscher style rack so I've had to jury rig it with a couple of supplemental bungee cords wrapping around my fender support. I'll have to experiment to see if I can find a more elegant solution, but for now it seems to provide enough downward force to keep the rather small clips from bouncing off the rack.  

One of the delightful things about this type of re-purposed item is the fact that there is history built right in. Not my history, but someone's history. Each leather buckle on my set has the following embossment:

H. REINECKE

BECKENRIED NW    

64

It's a kind of signature or craftman's mark. Too appropriate for such Schweizer heimatwerk. Beckenried is a tiny municipality in the Swiss canton of Nidwalden, on Lake Lucerne, presumably the location of the the company called Herbert Reinecke, Lederwarenfabrik which made the bags (based on a brief mention of the firm here which suggests that the firm made saddles for Die Militär-Radfahrer-Truppe, the Swiss bicycle corps). It's a small thing, but it's sort of nice that both bags seem to come from the same workshop in the same year. So thanks to the Swiss military for having such lovely bags made. Thanks to them for keeping them around and in such great condition for fifty years. And thanks to Jeff Potter from Out Your Backdoor for making it easy to put them on my bike.

See Part II