Ortlieb Front Roller Classic Panniers Review

I have always wanted to carry more things on my bike! By having greater load capacity, this allows me to ride further and longer, as I can bring along supplies. It is also great for commuting, as you will not have to worry about whether the bike can contain your work clothes, work shoes, showering stuff and other barang-barang. Personally, I don't like to carry a bag when I cycle, as it makes me sweat more, and can even cause backaches if you carry too much on your back while cycling. As Mr Brown once said, "Why lug it on your sweaty back when you have this metal thing with wheels to lug it for you?" Read about his excellent guide to bicycle commuting here!

Even before I added the rear rack, I already have the Biologic Tour Bag, which mounts on the front of the bike. It is a rainproof bag, which has a waterproof layer and has an overlapping cover that prevents rain from entering the bag. Not waterproof, as water can still enter if the water comes from the bottom (highly unlikely, unless you submerge the bike!) The capacity of the Biologic Tour Bag is about 7 litres.

Biologic Tour Bag

The Biologic Arclite Rack which I had bought previously has already proven itself to be very useful. Read about the rack here. However, in order to maximise the capacity of the rack, the best way is to add bags to it! I had thought about just getting a rack top bag, so that I can place things on top of the rack. Only when I started searching for rack top bags did I find that it is hard to actually get a good waterproof rack top bag.

Biologic Arclite Rack

In any case, a rack top bag such as those from Topeak does not have a large capacity. Although they have rain covers, it is very troublesome to have to stop and put on the rain cover when it starts raining. If you always put a rain cover on as a preventive measure, it is also troublesome when you want to get items from the bag. I would much prefer a rainproof bag where a separate rain cover is not needed.

Of course, no other company makes waterproof outdoor gear like Ortlieb! Ortlieb is a highly respected manufacturer of waterproof outdoor gear, and they also make panniers for bikes. By the way, panniers mean basket in French!

I was initially hesitant to get panniers, as I was afraid that it may cause heel strike when I put it on my bike. However, I know that many folding bike riders actually use Ortlieb panniers with no problems. The trick is to get the smaller Front Panniers, instead of the larger Rear Panniers. Together with the highly adjustable clips on the panniers, the bags should clear the heels when pedaling.

Shall let the pictures do the talking!

New Panniers! Arrived via Air Mail, cardboard box is a little dented, but no problem!

Grey and black colour scheme matches my bike! 790 grams each including shoulder strap.

Adjustable hook will hook onto your rack, preventing it from swinging outwards. The large black piece of plastic prevents sharp parts of your bike, such as the QR from wearing out the fabric.

Conveniently hooks onto the flat portion on the rack, which is originally used to hook the ends of the elastic cord that comes with the rack.

Simple but secure clip system for fixing the pannier onto the rack. Can adjust forward or backward to prevent heel strike!

See how I adjusted the clips so that the bag is all the way at the rear. Also, I clipped the panniers as far back on the rack as possible. No heel strike!

Roll top closure is virtually waterproof! Doubles as a carrying strap

Can also use this strap to close the top, if the clips at the two ends are used to connect the shoulder strap

Connect your shoulder strap to the end of the clip!

Spacious interior. 25 liters total capacity for the pair of panniers. In practical terms, I can fit a 1.5L bottle plus a pair of running shoes into one pannier with space to spare!

Bringing the panniers out for a field test! A full first aid kit on one side, a bike tool kit with lots of spare tubes and a 1.5L bottle on the other side.

Wide vehicle passing through! Actually it is not much wider than the handlebars, but you got to be careful when squeezing through narrow gaps.

Fits pretty well with the overall colour scheme of my bike. With the additional weight, and because the pannier is located all the way at the rear, the bike now tilts to the rear instead of the front when I put down my Pletscher kickstand.

I love these new panniers! On Friday, I lugged these things back from work:


1 set of uniform
1 set of T-shirt and jeans
1 pair of cycling shoes
1 set of showering stuff, including towel
and lots of smaller items such as umbrella, water bottle etc.

There is still some space left, can probably put in another 2 sets of clothes! Note that I did not even have to use my Biologic Tour Bag. I no longer have to plan in detail what to bring on the bike when I commute to work, just put in whatever you need!

With the panniers on and fully loaded, riding the bike seems a bit more difficult, as it feels heavier and steering is a bit laggy. When getting off the bike, got to be careful not to let the bike tilt to one side! Best is if the panniers are balanced on both sides. When riding into a headwind you will feel more drag as there are 2 big bags hanging off the side catching the wind!

In any case, I can easily transform from a speedy bike to a touring bike, just by removing or adding the panniers. In fact, it is so useful and the capacity so ample that I might consider retiring the Biologic Tour Bag up front...

Journey of the Boardwalk: Part 19 - Some Additions to the Bike

During the recent lelong sale at West Coast Park, I got myself a nice Biologic Arclite Rack! It is a really decent rack that is very compatible with Dahon folding bikes. The price was not too bad, thus I decided to get it. The mentality at a lelong sale is usually buy first, think later!

Biologic Arclite Rack, weights about 500 grams

As I had rode my bike to the lelong sale, the only way to bring it home is to fix it onto the bike! It fitted well with no issues, although I did remove the rack when I reached home, grease the bolts before re-fixing the rack onto the bike.

This rack is really useful! Last time, I could only bring a very limited amount of items on my bike, as I only had my Dahon Tour Bag and a rear seatpost bag. See how I brought my stuff for an overnight Desaru trip here.

Dahon Tour Bag in front, Sagarider Seatpost Clamp-on bag behind!

With the rack, I can carry odd sized items, albeit with some creativity and a nice long bungee cord. Besides bringing flat items like a bag of clothes, I have also tried carrying a plastic book shelf/divider, photo frames or other odd-shaped items that will not fit into the bags.

Another nice advantage is that I get a place to permanently fix my blue light! I used to have to fix it onto my seatpost, but it will have to be removed occasionally when the seatpost is lowered for folding, or it will be blocked when I use my rear seatpost clamp-on bag. However, with the rack, I have a new bracket on the rack that can be used to mount the blue light.

Good place to put a rear light, does not get blocked or interfere with the mounting of items onto the rack.

Instead of using the original Biologic strap that comes with the rack, I used my own bungee cord which is longer, and has hooks that can hook onto any part of the rack. The original bungee strap is too short to tie down larger items, and the fixing hook is special, such that it can only fix onto the sides, and not other places on the rack.

Can hook onto the same mounting point as the original bungee strap

This bungee cord allows me much more flexibility in strapping things down, as I can choose to wrap 1,2 or 3 times around the items, depending on the size of the items and where I hook the bungee cord.

A nice addition is the having a plastic disk with the LCSG logo on my bike, hung under the saddle bag!

LoveCyclingSG Logo!

Update: I have added the Ortlieb Front Roller Classic Panniers onto my Arclite Rear Rack, read up on the Ortliebs here!

Journey of the Boardwalk: Part 3 (105 Crankset, OTA Seatpost & Dahon Tour Bag)

Went out to buy a Dahon Tour Bag the moment it was available in Singapore. It was the ideal bag for light touring/commuting: Waterproof, strong outer shell, ease of removal, comes with carrying strap, and has many compartments. Note that only the newer Dahon bikes come with the front mounting point required for the support truss.

Also managed to get the lightweight OTA seatpost from a friend, who brought it over from Taiwan. It weighs only 350g, as compared to the original D7 seatpost that weighs 590g. Looks good too! Only problem is the seat clamp, which had dimensions that were slightly off from the seat rail width. Had to do a bit of bending and squeezing before the seat could be mounted properly.
Was in Hong Kong for a short holiday in July, and came across these two bicycle shops along Tung Choi Street in Mongkok.

The shops are quite interesting as they sell many different things that can't be found in Singapore or other places. For example, just for Dahon seatposts, they have like 6 different types of seatposts for sale. You can see the prices on the seatposts if you enlarge the image, and using the exchange rate of SGD $1 to HKD $5.5 at that time, you can get a rough idea of the price. Not cheap. By right photography was not allowed, but luckily I was not caught and chased out haha.

Tried my luck asking for Dahon specific skewers, which has a 74mm front width, as opposed to the usual 100mm. I was in luck as they had one pair in stock, in a nice gold colour. And that was how I got my special, unique skewers for my Boardwalk.

At this point, the only major component that has not been upgraded was the crankset. Read some reviews and found that the Shimano Hollowtech II cranks are really light and strong, and the external bearings make the cranks really stiff too. Decided to look around for good deals. As always, the first stop to look for good deals would be at Gee Hin Chan.

Brought my bike there one day and asked to upgrade the crankset to Shimano 105 crankset, with new Bottom Bracket too. Had a choice of last year's black 105 cranks, or the 2011 version of the 105 cranks, in silver colour. Decided that the black matched my bike more than the silver one. Because the 2011 version has just arrived, they didn't have it in black colour yet. For some reason the newer 2011 version was also cheaper by around 10%.

Of course must change the crank bolts to gold, to match my gold skewers! And as I expected, gold goes really well with black, especially on the 105 crankset. Removed the inner 39T chainring as I didn't need it.

Had thought of changing the BB to also a gold coloured version, probably a Token brand one. But it would have costed 3 times more than the 105 BB. In any case, the 105 BB works well and looks good on the bike, being an intermediate colour between the frame and the crank arm.

Could feel an immediate improvement in the stiffness of the cranks! There is no flexing when you push down hard on the pedals, and it feels smoother due to the sealed bearings in the 105 BB. Definitely worth the upgrade, although it is rather pricey. 10/10 for the looks of the crankset alone!

In the next part of the Boardwalk journey, I will talk about how I changed the bike from 8 to 9 speeds, changed the tires, and customised my own 9 speed cassette.