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Bike Bins Pannier
June 24, 2009
I have panniers on a few of my bikes, some are for touring, others are for the commute. They all seem to have upsides and downsides. Sometimes they do not fit on my rack very well, others my heals tend to clip, or sometimes the durability just is not there. When I saw Bike Bins I got excited, a hard shell case seems like a great idea. The fact that it is waterproof lockable, I had to try it.
The first thing I noticed about the case is that it seems fairly well built. The main body is made of 2.5mm thick polyethylene, and apparently it retains strength down to -30 degrees C. This will be fully put to the test this winter! The Bike Bin attaches to a rack with a system I have not seem before, although it has some similar attributes to the Ortlieb system. They call it the Rixen & Kaul universal attachment system. The two upper hooks are made of hard plastic and hook onto a rail. They then "lock" over the rail. The lower mount slide horizontally to tighten against your rack. Overall I like this system alot, and would like to see it used more often. It even fit my oversized aluminium pannier rack that most bags do not fit well.
The lid on the Bike Bin is attached be a hinge and made of the same materials as the body. This hing would appear to be the weak point of the system. The hinges are very small and although they have not broken yet, the lid does not line up perfectly with the body. This makes the system water resistant, and no longer waterproof. They could still handle a pretty good down poor but the fact that this happened as soon as I got it kind of worries me.
On the Bike Bins site they show the bin in all sorts of senarios. Commuting, touring, even off road use. The commuter would love this Bin, but there is no way this will hold up to off road use or a good amount of touring. One thing I noticed from the beginning as well was that any hard item will rattle around in the bin, which gets annoying. Problem solved if you wrap the item in something soft but that is a pain if you have to do it all the time. The 17 litre capacity is great. Seems to be able to handle most grocery runs, I even picked up a 10lb bag of seed potatoes the one day.
Overall this is a decent commuter option. I got no heal strike, it is still on one piece, and it functions pretty well. I like the fact that I can ride to my destination and lock my helmet in the case too. The Bike Bin is a pretty good city option.
Price: $59 USD
Details: A hard case for the commute
Pros: lockable, waterproof
Cons: hard objects rattle in bin, lid does not always line up
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Bike Bins
Reviewed by: Ryan