"otherwise it just looks odd"
and the bike doesn't...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Single Panniers... left or right side?
(60 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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Mmm, good point! So important in fact that it was worth mentioning three times. :-D
ADMIN EDIT
Sorry about repeats - can't explain - now deleted!
Posted 13 years ago # -
"otherwise it just looks odd"
I have also seen some people put a left hand pannier on the right hand rack. So rear pocket and refection strip face forward! Not quite as bad as cycling with your front forks the wrong way round (!)
Also spotted a cyclist with a front pannier 'lo-rider' rack with one pannier at front wheel on the correct side;-)
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Sorry Min, i guess i didn't word the question as well as I might! "
That's okay, I'm just sayin' :-)
Posted 13 years ago # -
North American here (Boston by way of Toronto), new to this forum.
Right side for me, primarily as a balance thing.
It just feels better that way ... even tho' (analyzing it logically, which I don't), since I typically dismount on the left, it'd be faster access if the pannier was on the left as well.Posted 13 years ago # -
@expatCanuck
Welcome
"Right side for me, primarily as a balance thing."
What are you balancing?
Posted 13 years ago # -
@chdot
>> What are you balancing?
Ummm ... me on the bike.
I'm sure that I *could* put the pannier on the left,
but it doesn't feel, uh, right. < sorry ;7) >Posted 13 years ago # -
If I dismount on the left, and the pannier is on the left, it's hard to balance the bike against me and get things out of the panniers. It's much easier to lean the bike against me and deal with a right pannier.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Kirst That's logical enough. I still think the lefties are being under-represented in the poll though. Going to organise a campaign to get more people voting left!
expatCanuck Good to hear from you.
Does everyone dismount their bike from the left in all countries which drive on the other side than our little UK + Ireland anomaly I wonder?
I think they still do - as people favour pushing off with right foot and touching down with left (except on this forum I bet!).Posted 13 years ago # -
That's a whole other discussion. My last bike had a step-through frame and flat pedals, and my natural inclination is right foot on the ground, push off with left. My new bike has a crossbar (took me a few days to get the hang of that, I'm a lady) and rat-trap pedals with toeclips and straps. I've had to get used to those and found it easier at first to clip my left foot in but couldn't then get my right one in while moving, so I was a) cycling with just one foot clipped in and b) leaving my left in and touching down with my right. Now if I put my right foot in first I can get my left in while I'm moving, but not the other way round yet, so I'm still having to touchdown with my left and push off with my right, which is very awkward for me. I just need to keep practising.
I mount from and dismount to the left though. But when I had the step-through frame sometimes I did it from the right just out of badness.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ooh cheeky so and so! :-D
You didn't see me with the sleeping bag strapped on as well. I
managed to leave it with my friends to collect later.Posted 13 years ago # -
"Ooh cheeky so and so! :-D"
I didn't identify owner...(and I won't say which are your legs)
Posted 13 years ago # -
@LaidBack
> Does everyone dismount their bike from the left
> in all countries which drive on the other side
> than our little UK + Ireland anomaly I wonder?Hmmm. I suspect that it varies by rider & conditions. All other things being equal (and they never are), I (raised in Toronto and now living in Boston) mount & dismount on the left. Feels easier & more natural to me.
But if I have to pull over to the right (curbside) in traffic, I'm more likely to dismount on the right, away from traffic. Similarly, if I'm entering traffic from the right (curbside), then I'm more likely to be mounting from the right.
Cheers,
- Richard
Posted 13 years ago # -
Oh, and I picked up an Arkel Commuter this past weekend, and have been using it on the left side. So far, so good.
Posted 13 years ago # -
expatCanuck Arkel Commuter - seem like stylish bag. Not that common here.
Odd how the whole 'start off on right hand pedal' is at odds with the normal side of the road to drive on (ie mainland Europe and Americas).
Of course on the single track roads of Highland Scotland you are never on the wrong side of the road! Continental tourists do sometimes pull into the right hand passing places as they forget. The worry is that they keep left once it goes two way.
I am glad to see that left hand pannier vote is catching up...;-)
Posted 13 years ago # -
I voted right because I dismount and push a bike on the left to avoid getting covered in oil. Having the pannier on the left would get in the way while pushing the bike. But when I used panniers a lot I solved the problem by always using two.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Posted 13 years ago # -
Posted 13 years ago # -
Last pic explains why I feel the 'lefties' are being under-represented on the poll. (We need a full enquiry!)
When you park your bike against anything it's generally the right hand side that goes against the 'anything'? (well it is for me)So if you're pannier is on right it has to be removed first?
Unless of course you park your bike the other way round!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Usually the right because of the "I wan't to make the bike fatter on the traffic side" reasoning. However I think the main driving factor is what direction I've parked my bike in the hall in - if it's come in forward through the front door it would go on the
leftright (duh!) and if it's come in backwards or 3 pointed in the kitchen then it goes on the left. My most unbalanced bike act recently was a 6kg keg of ale on one side and nothing on the other. Made a slow and interesting ride across town to deposit it off for an extended 48 hours of pre-imbibing settling tinm.I usually commute with a messenger bag though, just enough space for glasses case, shirt, tie and a change of undercrackers and some odds and ends like a pen, inner choob and some rubber bands. Everything else (towel, trousers, shoes, suds etc.) lives in the office.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Now that I've had a rack for a couple of weeks and have been pannier'd up...
If it's my wife's EBC/Vaude briefcase-style thing it goes on the left, as it's asymmetrical and interferes with my heel if it's on the right.
If it's the Karrimor Iberian donated by a friend it goes on the right, as he could only find the right-hand one in his garage. I need to build a little rack-stay-extension thing as the rack we were donated by a wife-colleague appears to be an EX1 and the pannier's as far back as it can go in order to not interfere with my heel and thus flaps a little and has been caught in the spokes a couple of times and got a little bit ripped.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Always a pair. Because I'm a Virgo.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Great how photos make bikes look clean.
Posted 12 years ago # -
nice bar / stem / saddle / seatpost / mudguard / bottlecage / cable outer co-ordination there.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Well you know...
Posted 12 years ago # -
Posted 9 years ago # -
I mis-packed my Pannier for Life yesterday so had to stick that on the right to stop the small dense item stuffed alongside the large light items being at the end where it could flap against the wheel, meaning that the heavy proper pannier went on the left. It was only a mile to the house from the shop but it was still very weird; if I have a heavy left-hand pannier it's usually accompanied by an even heavier-than-normal right-hand pannier.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Reviewing my earlier post, I now find that I put my pannier on the left hand side and not the right.
I can't remember why I changed. It's certainly not too convenient for how I store the bike as it means the pannier is on the wall side and harder to pack/unpack.
Posted 8 years ago # -
On the recumbent I'm a lefty, as it keeps the pannier slightly further away from splashes from passing vehicles and grunt from the chain.
Also I'm pretty sure it gets just as manky from brake pad dust...
Posted 8 years ago #
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