mikeShriver

I’m extremely excited about the most recent accessories I have purchased for my bike, a set of panniers. These beauties were handmade by a front-room operation here in Seattle called Swift Industries. I first came across these when I was looking for patterns to make some Panniers for myself, and I have been jonesin’ after them for quite some time now. Thanks to some saved up Christmas gift money, I was finally able to put in an order. Since they are hand-made to order, it took about three weeks for me to get them, and it was completely worth the wait.

The company’s website is pretty rudimentary. They’ve made do with a basic Wordpress layout, and their order form requires you to copy text from their site and paste it into an email. It seems unprofessional, but when I say ‘front-room operation’ that’s a literal assessment of the company. When I went to pick up my bags at the Central District house where the company is based, I was given a friendly welcome by Martina and her dog Loki. She ran down the bags features and showed me the room where she put them together. Regardless of the size of the company, they make an excellent product.

One of the most appealing features of the bags, for me, was the custom fabric and color selections that they offer. I picked a rugged waxwear for the outsides of the bags, and matched my saddle with a green-colored trim. I am really happy how the customizations turned out. It is my humble opinion that these bags look beautiful on my bike:

The bags a made with about 12 inches of fabric on the top that can be rolled down to fit loads that are large or small, and there is a flap that folds over the top to keep the rain out. They are lined with vinyl on the inside, to keep them water resistant. They probably aren’t 100% waterproof, because the seams aren’t heat-sealed, but I don’t anticipate any major moisture problems, unless I ride through a lake or something.

The worst problem I had when I first got them was that they sat too far forward on my rack. My feet are big, and so I had some heel strike issues. Martina gladly took them back, and after about a day had rigged the hooks so they sat another inch farther back on my rack. now I am strike-free and happy. I took them out to the Sunday Ballard farmers market to get some ingredients for dinner. A 5lb bag of potatoes, steak meat, a red onion and a few leeks filled one bag less than halfway. With both of them, I’ll have more than enough capacity for groceries and camping trips.

I can’t recommend these bags enough. And, I do. I’ll talk about them to pretty much anyone who will listen. They cost $200 for the set, which is a less than two of the Ortleib bags I was looking at alternatively. Also, since I live in Seattle, they let me pick them up locally, and dropped the $16 shipping fees.

The company is pretty great too. Martina was friendly and accommodating, and made the necessary hook modifications to my bags without charging anything. They’re local, and I am a huge fan of the principles they have founded themselves on. For more information on that, watch the video at PathLessPedaled (I’m impressed that they run their company credit-free).

I’ve got a pretty sweet bike for a beautiful Sunday Morning ride. Now to start saving up for my next upgrade, Green Brooks handlebar tape to match my saddle.

On a photographic tangent; the photos of my bike were taken with an old Fujica ST-801 on expired Fuji Superia 200 speed film. This film is fast becoming a favorite of mine, which is awesome because I have a freezer full of it at home. The photo of the tag was taken with an iPhone app, which is also awesome.

Tags: Cycling, fuji superia 200, Panniers, Photography, ST-801, Swift Industries