There are a few defects with using my xtracycle for touring…
I went out for a short loop this morning, and, because snow and rain is predicted, I took precautions by stuffing a spare pair of glove and my showers pass raincoat into the panniers on the bike (as well as my usual purse+camera, bag of cookie bars, and two spare inner tubes just in case the rear tire decided to say “hello!” to a nail or piece of glass) When I got back, I still had the gloves, I still had the inner tubes, I still had purse+camera, and I still had the cookie bars. But no raincoat. Somewhere out there (most likely when plunging down a steep hill on Foster Road) the wind snuck its way into the panniers, chose something with good resale value, then blew the raincoat – and only the raincoat – out through the back of the pannier never to be seen again.
And it’s supposed to rain (or, I suspect, snow) all week, and I’ve got no other raincoats except one that’s currently unzippered and waiting for me to get down to the Mill End Store to buy a new zipper for it. Which I’ll have to do in the rain (or snow) without a raincoat.
I wasn’t completely pleased with the design of the panniers that came with the Free Radical kit I bought (when empty, they tend to flap, and when I work around that by clipping them together over the top of the wooden skateboard thingie on the top, they slither backwards and trail straps uncomfortably close to the rear wheel) before this, and this doesn’t really make me any happier about them.
I suppose I could alway discard the wooden skateboard thingie and replace it with an aluminum rack with tiedowns or clips to hold the pannier straps in place, and then I could clip the empty (or nearly empty; when I’m rambling around Portland, the purse+spare clothes+fud load is close enough to nothing so that I can snug the panniers up so they won’t flap) panniers together and have them stay in place instead of wiggling around so they can shed articles of clothing I can’t afford to replace.
Damnit. I hope that some gleaner finds the windbreaker and it doesn’t end up being yet another piece of trash blowing around suburban Portland.