What about paper machè. Its ever so cheap and easy to do. Perhaps I'll make some this week-end, and post some pictures.

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I remember "Blue Peter" kids tv show , they could make anything with sticky backed plastic , toilet rolls and paper mache .
"This week children we will make a nuclear reactor" , "take an empty washing up detergent bottle and cut it in half - now take the bigger half and place the ---------get down Shep ! bad dog !

Panniers should be easy .[don't ride in the rain ]

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

You all getting to tied up in aluminum this and steel that.
What you need is some old plastic wine barrels. We cart wheeled our bikes and bashed the luggage over rocks, dogs and bounced off cars.
The lids always went back on and the boxes never cracked.
Get on the plastic freedom barrel bus baby.
Just ride you techno heads.
We went around the world on XT250s with wine barrel luggage.
Lo tech-Lo worry-Lo maintenace.
Just ride you techno heads.
Oh yeh! and it only cost about AUD$85.00 for both bikes. BANG!!! gotta like that.

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Wow! How big was each barrel? It looks pretty wide too, but I do like the idea.
Do you have any more pictures, especially side on?

Regard

Nigel in NZ

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The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with . -- 2200 BC Egyptian inscription

Double Wow! But how much stuff do you want to carry on a 250cc & did you have to drink the wine first?

Your pics remind me of self-built, home-built rafts (I've done a few of them!) - you were not thinking of crossing rivers etc using those as floatation, by some chance?

Yes, more pics please - 10/10 for thinking outside the proverbial box of the management text books!

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Dave

Each Barrel is 20 litre. My bike was packed with parts and heavy gear. Lauras was half full for for ease of riding. (she got her bike license 2 days before we left.) We were planning on coming into russia at magadan. So the barrels were for floating across rivers. 8 barrels per bike.
They protected Laura a couple of times when she came off.
And made it easy to kick away while sliding down the track.
Every now and then in deep mud I ran over my self but being plastic and held on with rachet straps everything moved and i paddled on.
Here are some more pics. I carried about 40kg and Laura about 20-25kg.
We are both new to this travel thing, so slow and steady was the plan.

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Hmmm unfortunatly Scott we only buy our wine in bottles, and they are small and awkward to pack you can't get a lot through the necks also they break a little to easy...no wonder you keep falling off buying wine by the drum!!!!lol Hi How are you both?. Nice to see some pics! we met just west of Chita,(Laura seemed very animated about the golf ball size gravel!!! Jimmy and Laurence XT600 and Pan European. I,m off with the family to New Zealand this December and planning on riding to Thailand next summer (see thread) how did you settle back into "normal life"?.Shame we never managed to meet in Europe...hope to see you both one day soon...Have fun..Jimmy

came across a set of ally panniers for $800 singapore dollar! including brackets & rack! Is this reasonable or what? & Its 41 litres.

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Ride

Safe,

Sober,

& Save!

"man without beard is like porridge without salt": Ned Kelly

I have made these..
check out this link from the XRV site..
Home made panniers... - Honda Trail Bike Forums

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2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

Almost there....!!!!

Still a bit dirty from the sealant that needs to be trimmed once hard, the lid is missing from the pics and the inner padding needs to be glued but i am slowly getting there..!!
I thought I posted some pics because I am excited they are coming out the way I wanted (water-proofing test by immersion in my tub is scheduled for tomorrow...)

Will post some instructions and the list of the materials i have used. It's quite chaep and easy to produce spending just a couple of hours after dinner for a few days.

How to spend my weekend nights... "sadly" somebody commented... any satisfaction from the hubb community..?

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... and Nelly The Elephant packed the trunk and said goodbye to the circus...

HI Alex,

Nice job, I am making my own at the moment, nothing as fancy as yours.
I am going to use 2mm alloy and and make my racks as narrow as possible.

FYI you can find some Latches and rubber seals listed below, the latch company have lockable catches as well.

Fasteners ~ Protex Fasteners Ltd

door seals, rubber seals, rubber extrusions, window rubbers by seals direct

I am using some adhesive vinyl on the inside to stop the alloy covering everything black.

Steve

Hey Alex, i really like these boxes! Nice job! I've built two sets of boxes with racks so far, one set for my R100GS, the other set just recently for my 1200GS. I welded the aluminum on both, but will go your rout next time. Rivets is stronger and more flexible, leaves you with greater options if you need to do repairs. I like the corner re-enforcements, like they use for stage boxes. Nice I never painted,powdercoated or anodised my boxes. It's easier to weld if you really need to. I discovered this to be the most practical for me. I get someone to make some simple bag liners that just drop into place and are held in around the top edge with velcro, the hook portion sewn into the liner. Easily removeable for when you spill that bottle of red wine, and easy to keep the inside of your boxes clean in case you need to weld them. Come to think of it, you could add handells like a shopping bag to simply pull all your stuff out in one pull.

Mr. Ron,
I agree with you about not painting the boxes on the inside, if I ever need to re-seal them on the inner corners at some stage along the way I will have to scratch the paint for the glue/silicon to make a good grip.
In my case (with the rivets) I will have to put some thickish padding inside as the ends of the rivets will damage the contents of the panniers as well as the sealant that will go on the them as i couldnt find the "blind" rivets on time here.

For the inside i thought:
1) normal cheap camping sleeping mat. Cut it into size and held in place with some glued-on velcro strips. Benefits: light, strong, if flooded easy to dry, cheap to replace and widely available. Cons: it may not stay in place wery well if the panniers are half empty but i dont think this will ever be the case.
2) fake leather. The same used to make saddle covers, i dont know how u call this material in eng. Simply glued on, big benefit is that is very strong and can be easily cleaned/sanitised and it doesnt rot.
3) in some supermarket (in Germany i think...?) I saw they give you a big rectangular canvas bag with two hard edges that can be clipped-on the edges on your shopping trolley, it has two strong handles for easy removal once you have finished so you can take ur shopping with you at once. One of them made the size of the boxes it would be handy.

I wanted the corner reinforcement because in case of a crash they will distribute the force equally to all 3 sides of the box (as they are riveted to the 3 walls, not to the edges) and this will make them stronger and substain the impact with less chance to crack. Also they protect the bottom corners and their seals from torsion and wear.

About your linen bags: maybe u could try to copy the idea of those supermarket bags and have some small plastic "U" shape clips (or four long ones) around the top of the bag to keep it in place. Look I found a pic here:

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... and Nelly The Elephant packed the trunk and said goodbye to the circus...

If you can find a way to cover the rivets on the inside, like with RTV silicone or gaffers tape, I would suggest something thinner and more durable than a camping mat. By the time you line the entire box, you will lose quite a bit of interior space. Could you just possibly file a bit of the rivet to smooth it out and do nothing else to them?

I wanted to line my panniers to prevent the black stuff from getting on everything, so I went to an office supply store and bought the heavy gauge plastic sheeting for cold laminating. It is used to laminate papers, etc. and I use it often for insurance papers, copies of travel documents and such. It is very tough and sticky on one side, so I just cut it to fit and applied it like one would a decal. I lost no interior space, it is slippery, so packing is easier and it is bombproof as well as cheap. I bough it in sheets about 18 X 24 inches.

KneticNrg,
the plastic sheet was my first idea and the most practical but then i had to chose:
-hard and thin laminating (ie. the plastic sheet) then pad well some items individually to prevent rattling, chipping and (hopefully not...) breakages, items includes the camping stove, some tools etc
or
- add some soft and thicker padding around the edge wasting some space as you said but avoiding the too much individual wrapping. Will keep the heavy stuff at the bottom anyway.

I havent decided yet, both seem good solutions to me, perhaps the thick padding will add some insulation as well - i figured out that if i leave the panniers directly under the sun the inisde walls will reach crazy temperatures and if in contact some plastic would melt or something. I havent tried either way so i cannot know...maybe i wilmake one each type and see...? or, even better, will put the laminating sheets as u suggested in both and then the velcro-camping-mat "solution" on top and if I see itis a bit of an overkill I will simply get rid of the mat padding along the way (will put in recycle bin, i promise.. ..)

The rivet ends are not really in the way but because the water will run through middle of them, in order to make them waterproof I will have to coat them individually with an heavy duty sealant, the one used to glue windscreens to the chassis in the car industry (very expensive by the way, almost 20euros per cartridge but i have been assured it will stay in place) and, yes, i will put some gaffer tape or something similar to protect this crucial coating.
The was a solution though but it came too late: there are some "blind" rivets on the market called Closed End Blind Rivets (didnt even know they existed until last week unfortunatelly...) that when pulled are sealed. Will def. use them next time if there will be a next time. A picture and a link here:


link to the page is: Google Image Result for http://www.indiamart.com/rivtools/pcat-gifs/products-small/c-blind.jpg

by the way my panniers are (in cm): 40x35x20, 2mm thick.

Any more suggestions are appreciated as they will be finished by tonight or tomorrow so, guys, if u have a revolutionary idea please throw it in before i start with the glue...!!!

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... and Nelly The Elephant packed the trunk and said goodbye to the circus...