Chica Warrior: Two Thumbs Up for Frost River’s Highway 1 Panniers
I stopped in my tracks back in 2005 when I first saw a bike outfitted
with these bags; in fact I got down on my hands and knees to inspect them. Rugged, worn, and looking like they stepped
out of a bygone era when durable goods were in fact durable and made from canvas
and leather and wood. The design of Frost
River’s Highway 1 Panniers began when
the current designers at Frost River were still at Duluth Pack and collaborated
with Grant Peterson and Rivendell Bicycle Works to produce them. Originally they were sold under the Rivendell
Baggins label, and while there is currently a disagreement over who has the
design rights to manufacture and sell the bags, I know both companies to be
excellent and will leave it to them to continue the argument. And since Rivendell no longer has the Baggins
line, I’m just glad one can still get them.
Admittedly, they are not for everyone. But if you are a tinkering traditionalist and
not obsessed with reducing weight at every opportunity, you will fall in love. They are good-sized–in the vicinity of a 30
litre combined capacity–and they define stout.
The bags are made of waxed cotton canvas, referred to as “tin cloth” for
good reason. Tin cloth gets a
spectacular rubbed patina over time, looking remarkably like leather as it
wears. Everything on the bags is secured
with either leather straps with solid brass buckles or parachute cords and
grommets. As you might guess, with these
materials the bags are heavyweights, tipping the scales at a hefty 1675
grams. But these materials give you a
lot of flexibility allowing you to customize the bags and the fit to your
heart’s content. If you mind the initial
futzing around to move the bags from one bike to another and to dial in the
rigging, get an Ortleib. However, if
that’s not a deal breaker, it really can be kind of fun. In my situation, I mounted them on a quite
narrow Tubus Airy attached to my single speed and then on a Nitto Big Back Rack
with my touring bike. While they worked
on the Airy (and in fact my largest load to date was carried on the Airy), as
would be expected the fit was much, much better on the Big Back Rack.
I’ve been riding with them for about 2 weeks doing grocery
runs, my regular 20-mile round-trip commute, and one 35-mile urban tour. As a reference point, I’m a 53 year old woman
and alas no longer a spring chicken but the weight has not bothered me. The carrying capacity makes grocery hauling
easy–I loaded up about 35 pounds of bulky, awkward, heavy groceries (think
glass half gallons of milk, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, a melon, dish soap,
and the like – not to mention rain gear and a lock) and the bags simply
swallowed them. The 4-inch draw-string
cuff and the foot-square flap means I could’ve even stuffed a few more items in
there if needed.
The load on side one
Side 2
With respect to rain, tin cloth is water-resistant but not
waterproof. For light rain/short
distances, they do just fine. For
longer, heavier rain situations, this is easily remedied thru the use of a
trash bag liner. As a retired cross
country motorcyclist, my biker buddies and I always lined our leather bags with
trash bags and it stood up to 400 miles at 60 miles per hour in the pouring
rain across Kansas. With a few
Filson tin cloth coats in my wardrobe, I can say that for winter riding,
the panniers will perform well in snow but that the cold will make the
waxed canvas stiff. My biggest criticism
of the bags are the fasteners at the bottom of the bag, which are leather
buckle straps that are hard to reach and too close to the spokes. An additional strap keeper would be helpful
and could easily be installed by the handy owner. The reach, however, is still awkward. There are vertical tabs intended for
compression straps around the bags, but a horizontal blinky tab would’ve been
nice. Again, because they are canvas,
one can easily be added. The internal
sleeve with the stiffener is great to have with soft bags like these.
