A question from a colleague:

He’s off to the Netherlands for a week cycle touring with his daughter. He’s wondering what do to with their panniers when, for instance, they’ve stopped for lunch somewhere and want to have a little wander round.

He reckons they’ll have two panniers each, and he’s looking for something that will turn into a rucksack or something so they can carry everything around with them when they’re wandering around some pretty Dutch town. This sounds like a ball-ache to me, I’d be tempted to try and lock the panniers to the bike somehow (taking valuables out first, obviously).

However, I know there’s a fair bit of cycle-touring experience on here, so I thought I’d see what the hive-mind could come up with…

valuables are in my bar bag – i take that with me.

if they want my clothes or raggedy sleepingbag and tent……….

I just leave ’em where they are. Anything valuable (camera, phone, wallet) is in an easily detachable bar bag with a shoulder strap.
We have a trailer too with the tent etc in it. Can’t carry that around! We lock the bikes with 2 locks, one Of them a coil lock that goes round the trailer too. You’ve just got to b a bit trusting, really, there no other practical option.

Pretty much as trail rat

Depends where you are as well- small town Netherlands – safe as anything, Amsterdam – don’t turn your back 🙂

IMO its one of the drawbacks of cycle touring that its hard to feel secure when you leave your bike / possessions parked up

As above valuables in the barbag with me and they’re welcome to the junk in my panniers. Leave it in a busy place in full view. I just use a lightweight cable lock through the wheel to stop them wheeling the bike. So far, so good.

tj is on it very much so.

in big citys other than the uk its often possible to find left luggage at stations which is a good solution.

how ever if im visiting big citys i try not to camp and just leave my stuff in the hostel – makes for a much nicer city experiance 😉

I used Altura panniers with the bright yellow rain covers. With the covers over, all pockets and openings are out of sight, and that was fine for 18 months touring, we’d just lean the bikes up, often not even locking them, and wander off. We even got asked (by an american) “what are those big yellow things on your bike?”

How about those steel nets that you can get for rucsacks? Only problem is that you’d probably need 1 per pannier & they might draw attention to the bags, rather than if you just left them…?

Cheers all.

I think you’ve convinced him to leave the panniers on the bike and carry valuables around when they’re having a wander.