Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First of all let us get this out of the way: “How big are they.” My first picture should show one of them with six (6) each two (2) liter beverage bottles. That is big and that also weighs right at 30 pounds. That bag in the picture is mounted to my Travoy trailer. A more reasonable approach for rack-mounted bags is to lay two bottles side by side in the bottom of each bag (also alleviates some of the bowing problems). One will have lots of room left on top for other things. As much as I like these they do have a few problems: 1) No way to keep things from bouncing out of the tops 2) When loaded with heavy items the top bows out and the bottom bows in 3) Needs second handle to carry as market bag 4) Inconvenient steel hooks protruding when carrying as market bag 5) Steel hooks are mounted close to middle of back exasperating the bowing problems 6) Location of hooks can not be adjusted to fit bicycle rear rack 7) The bags are designed to be fitted to a rack that has a flat vertical plane (mine did not) Thus I consider these to be more of a excellent starting point rather than a ready to use solution …. I have an Ebike with a rack-mount battery. The way my rack was designed there were tubes that bent around other tubes making for a very uneven mounting surface (ebike battery racks are notoriously for being poorly designed). The only way to resolve that problem was to cut away the offending bits of tubing. This is what I had to do to originally mount the Bushwhacker panniers with the standard mounting hooks. Today I finished reworking the Bushwhacker bags to resolve most of the other problems. I installed three (3) each quarter (1/4) inch inside diameter brass grommets along the top front of each bag so that I would have somewhere hook bungee cords. One might also make a second handle to hook into these grommets. My rear battery rack has two levels. With the stock hooks I had to mount the panniers to the lower rack. This interfered with inserting and removing the battery as well as being a MAJOR inconvenience. First I removed Bushwhacker's awful steel hooks. I decided to use a strip of three-quarter (3/4) inch wide fastening tape (the type with hooks on one side and loops on the other) at each rear corner and the middle of each bag. I doubled over six (6) inch long strips and put a quarter (1/4) inch brass grommet in the bottom of each strip. Then I drilled quarter (1/4) inch diameter holes through the fabric and ABS plastic that forms the rear of the bag about one (1) inch down from the top. I used quarter (1/4) inch SST carriage bolts to attach each strip. The square under the head of the carriage bolt seats into the the ABS plastic and keeps the bolt from turning. Those heads are also much smoother than the nutted bolt end that Bushwhacker had used. The three connection points close to the edges of the bags eliminates any bowing at the top of the panniers (and they are plenty strong). Lastly I also wanted to be able to use these panniers with my newly acquired Burly Travoy bicycle trailer. I straightened the Bushwhacker hooks. Then I marked another point symmetrical to the existing mounting holes. The end holes were drilled to quarter (1/4) inch diameter and the extra material cut from the end of each bar. An additional carriage bolt with two spacer washers was used to mount the bars below the outside hook-and-loop strips. A Travoy Tie Down Strap was routed under the mounting bars. That leaves the remaining problem of a support bar in the bottom rear of the bag to resist bowing. The optimum solution would be some sort of twelve (12) inch long tube that could be slipped over the ends of the quarter (1/4) inch diameter metal frame. Getting it slipped into place would be a major challenge. The weight of each bag (including the Travoy straps) is now 915 grams.