Local Give-Away: Basil Tour Panniers
I've received an extra set of sample panniers from the Dutch bicycle accessory manufacturer Basil, to give away locally as I see fit. Can't decide who to give them to, so will use the blog and pick randomly. Local readers, this one's for you:
Basil Tour Panniers
silver and black
32cm x 12cm x 32cm
26L capacity
Reinforced construction in durable water-repellent 600D polyester; zipper side pockets, double reflective stripes on all sides, bands for LED/ straps/ child's seat. The panniers are a unit, connecting over the top of a rear rack. Inner edges are tapered to prevent heel strike on bikes with shorter chainstays. Good for commuting or touring.
silver and black
32cm x 12cm x 32cm
26L capacity
Reinforced construction in durable water-repellent 600D polyester; zipper side pockets, double reflective stripes on all sides, bands for LED/ straps/ child's seat. The panniers are a unit, connecting over the top of a rear rack. Inner edges are tapered to prevent heel strike on bikes with shorter chainstays. Good for commuting or touring.
Give-away terms:
1. You must be reasonably local, as defined by coming to claim the panniers in person from Broadway Bicycle in Cambridge MA.
2. You must have ridden your bike at least once since February 8th, of which you must supply photographic or verbally descriptive evidence in the comments here.
Otherwise, that's it. Hopefully, this will be a little pick me up for someone braving the snowy weather! If you'd like the panniers, leave a comment between now and 11:59pm tomorrow night (February 20th, 2012), and don't forget to include your email address. I will pick from eligible entries at random.
Basil is making an effort to streamline their North American distribution and we should be seeing more of their products in local bike shops soon. Many thanks to them for the sample panniers, and I hope the recipient enjoys them.
Those panniers will be a fine addition to my wife's Casseroll.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to an image from a lovely ride I took in the snow:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31827372@N00/8485525163/
Of course, all the snow is gone... but it has been a weird winter!
And, while I'm not technically local, but I'm in the Boston Metro area at least once a month for client meetings, and will happily drop by to pick them up.
Hi Mike, yup it's fine. Envious of those Pugsley pics!
DeleteI have ridden regularly since 2/8, but my partner has not. Am I still eligible to enter the contest if I intend to gift the panniers to her?
ReplyDeleteYes, but make sure to leave your email address.
DeleteOoh, awesome! I don't have a picture, but I bike to and from work every day. I think I took Monday and Tuesday off after the storm. Mass Ave is annoyingly narrow right now what with the piles of snow, but it's better than the T!
ReplyDeleteNice - but post your email if you'd like to be considered : )
Deleteare we eligible if we know you personally?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteI started out last Wednesday to ride my bike from Inman to Harvard to get a haircut. Had barely gotten out of my block when I saw another biker completely bite it on a patch of ice. I must admit, I rode the rest of the way around the block back home, and walked to my appointment. In years past I would have kept going, but at 24 weeks pregnant, I've been a bit more cautious this winter.
ReplyDeleteShort as it may have been, I did get out— hope that counts! And I'm looking forward to continuing to bike into the third trimester... maybe with some new panniers.
mauerschau at gmail
Even though I meet all criteria I am going to pass on this opportunity as there are surely people who would need them more.
ReplyDeleteI purchased a Racktime office bag/pannier recently and I am very happy with it: http://bostonbybike.blogspot.com/2013/02/racktime-workit-classic-pannier-review.html
At the last Interbike there were some great designs from Racktime; looking forward to seeing them make their way into stores.
DeleteHere goes! I rode this weekend (Saturday) but have been riding all winter! Here is photographic proof of a January ride [http://flic.kr/p/dLdRGr] and a ride in the fall to the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival [http://flic.kr/p/dshuFp]. I have an ANT Bike too [http://flic.kr/s/aHsjuRSfGd]. My brother lives in Framingham (need an excuse to visit him). Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteJust commuted by bike today for the first time since the storm (Somerville to Kendall sq). Beautiful this morning, a little damp on the way home. Hoping the roads will be good next week when school is back in so I can go back to dropping my kid off with our Weehoo.
ReplyDelete(I have to admit the panniers will go to my wife if I get them.)
Forgot my email: 56cdgrqhb8@snkmail.com
ReplyDeleteBike commuter from Arlington to Kendall. Mass Ave to Porter Sq, then Beacon/Hampshire. Narrow roads from Nemo, but it's gotten much better.
ReplyDeletestakx [at] live dot com
Just got a new wheelset! The snow/salt/heavy braking combo wore down my rims so.
ReplyDeleteBarbara jacobster at gmail dot come
I don't want them, but they look very nice and I trust they will make someone happy. I rode today - that was enough.
ReplyDeleteI envy the amount of groceries I could fit in those. I have a pair of Arkels that were designed for a front rack but fit beautifully on my rear rack. I don't have much to use as proof that I ride daily other than not having a car. I suppose I could take a picture of my old-ish Schwinn LeTour, but it doesn't matter anyway. I'm in Tennessee, and can't really consider myself local.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do love the blog. I'm a fairly new reader and am using this moment to chime in and say Hi.
But seriously, 27L capacity? With the panniers I have (and love) grocery trips involve a bit of Tetris skill. With fancy, Dutch panniers I could just dump it all in without having to squish the corners of the cereal box.
Pick me! I got myself a Papillionaire for Christmas and some panniers for the rear rack would be just perfect.
ReplyDeleteI noticed you haven't reviewed the Papillionaire yet - let me know if you want to take her for a spin! She's lovely: a bit slower than my old Raleigh Sports. (Though having stop-on-a-dime breaks in this weather has been clutch!)
lindymegan at gmail.com
Ooh thanks. I am supposed to review a Papillionaire some time in May, but would love to see yours sooner.
DeleteBeautiful panniers, I could definitely use them if there isn't someone who needs them more. Three out of four clips are broken on my old ones, and they come loose when I hit a bump. It's a little before Feb 8, but here's a picture of me commuting in the cold from South Coast Today:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130123/NEWS/130129961/-1/rss01
Thanks for the great blog, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished frameset!
best,
Nate
n.risteen at google's mail service
I don't need them, and haven't ridden, but I will chime in about how useful a pair of giant over the rack dutch panniers are. I use mine (fastriders) all the time and can fit two completely full bags of groceries in them, or a week's worth of groceries for two people.
ReplyDeleteAlthough perhaps I won't need them anymore, now that I have the bakfiets. :)
I bike to work each day, even lately, and also to the market in the summertime; I've been lugging my produce up Winter Hill in kind of a questionable rear-rack-milk-crate-lots-of-bungees contraption and would love to switch it out for some panniers.
ReplyDeletearw44 "at" cornell (dot)edu
My wife hasn't ridden, and I'd give them to her to use on her birthday present from me--a 1984 (?) Shogun 1500. But I've commuted every day I went to the office.
ReplyDeleteAs for proof of riding, I don't have pictures, but can complain about the insanity of the bike "lane" along Mt. Auburn in Harvard Square. My favorite bit is the crossing of JFK where the dashed lane marker goes straight into a snowbank. I'm excited for the river paths to be reliably plowed again.
Yes, don't get me started. I am avoiding Harvard Sq in that direction unless on foot.
DeleteThe conditions have slowed traffic enough that it's probably safer than riding through there when there's no snow. That said, it is significantly more annoying.
DeleteLess safe is riding outbound on Mass Ave and trying to take the special bike-lane-jug-handle left onto Church Street. Surprise: it's full of snow!
I would love to have a set of new panniers. Mine are in rough shape and I'm doing the Erie Canal bike trail this June, hopefully holding everything in my *new* panniers!
ReplyDeleteI have been biking for my commute all through the winter and as proof I can tell you almost every cleared bike path between the LMA and Hyde Park :) Including that Melnea Cass is NOT cleared... If necessary, Giant Cycles can also attest to my shredded TIRE last week (I don't know what I ran over!!)
Thank you for letting me participate! kate_wright1 at yahoo
Well my currents bags I got for free from a friend in Michigan, both zippers don't work and they were never waterproof. That said I am still able to load them up with $140+ of groceries from the COOP and the new Wednesday Market in Central. I really could use new ones tho... Lets see, I think it was a couple weeks back now (maybe a Month?), before the "blizzard" it was in the single digits out and for the first time I had the grease in my 8 speed internal start to thicken up. Oh the shifting still worked but man it did not like it at all, of course it didn't help that the bike was out freezing in the garage all night. It loosened up for the ride home after warming on the Rockport inbound train.
ReplyDelete" That said I am still able to load them up with $140+ of groceries from the COOP"
Delete...although that could mean anything from a dozen sacks of potatoes to a jar of caviar : )
Velouria, have these panniers been used (as in for review purposes) or are they brand new? I ask, because I wonder if they'd make an appropriate gift.
ReplyDeleteThey are new, in packaging, unopened, as shown in the first picture. I will be reviewing a similar set on the Bicycling blog, but the ones being given away have never been used.
DeleteI ride my bike every day, at least to my office and back, and I enjoy (nearly) every minute of it.
ReplyDeleteHa, yes you do!
DeleteI've been riding pretty much every day since the storm, and I for one can't wait until the snow melts and I can have a peaceful commute along the bike path instead of the chaotic mess that is Mass Ave! Don't even get me started on some of the new potholes that have appeared... Sadly, there's still some snow and ice along the bike path- in particular, there's a stretch of snow they never bothered to clear after the storm, where the Boston side of the path meets the BU bridge. :(
ReplyDeleteI'd love these panniers for grocery shopping and other errands. I'm currently just stuffing things into whatever backpack or bag I have with me. I've gotten pretty good at cleverly packing things (it's like playing tetris!), and the grocery baggers at the store are always impressed by the amount of things I can fit into the few bags I have.
(allisonq at gmail)
So, I ride every weekday because my job prefers it when I show up, but I have internet-based proof that I rode on the 9th, post-nemo: http://nanda.bostonbiker.org/2013/02/09/bosnow-or-how-nemo-found-us/
ReplyDeleteI also have recently broken/lost an important plastic chunk of my current pannier, which means that I have a limited number of trips left before the pannier falls off of my rack and deposits all my belongings on Mass Ave.
nandaisarockstar - yahoo
You got it! Correspondence is coming your way.
DeleteI wish Cliff bar still did it's "2milechallenge.com". For one, I thought it was a great idea, but also, I could have shown you my cycling logs as proof of riding. You'll just have to take my word for it that I have a daily commute to and from the train station of a little over 8 miles roundtrip. (It's a solo ride, and I generally don't have time to stop and take photos)
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting ride recently was February 11th. I try to stay on "backroads" as much as possible, and the south bound lane of the road I was on, suddenly narrowed down to 3 feet wide (if that!) due to the way someone plowed a driveway. I did not have to cross the center line, but any car not obeying the 25 mph speed limit, coming down that hill was going to have problems. (It was wide enough for cars the next day, and wide enough for trucks about 3 days after that. ;-) Oh, and I lost a crank bolt on the way home that night! (Luckily, the crank stayed tight!)
I tend not to carry a lot of stuff, except when my daughter is with me. She turned 2 in November. Currently, I take her on rail trail trips with her in a bike trailer. The trailer has a ton of room, but as I switch her to a trail-a-bike, or even a bike of her own, I'm going to need a way to carry stuff. (Snacks, extra clothes, frisbee, picnic blanket, etc…) I've never used panniers but think they might be just what I'll be needing. I like the look of those and the idea of them being joined over the rack. It's a more balanced look then just a single pannier.
Take Care,
-=SEM=-
"EssEeeEmm" on Twitter and also at gmail.com
Hey!!
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE these panniers. I'm a full-time pedicab driver, one of maybe 8 of us that have been riding through the entire winter.
I've ridden plenty of pedicab shifts since FEbruary 8th, and plenty of recreational biking, too. I have some epic shots riding right after the blizzard (including a great one of my bike parked on a snow mound) that I can provide if I'm lucky enough to win!
I could really use these, since I'm on a limited budget and preparing for a bike bike tour in the Fall. My goal is to ride from Vancouver to Mexico!
Oh, and I love Broadway and took some classes there a few years ago :-)
My email is christopher.longenecker@gmail.com
All the best, thanks for doing this!
<3 chris
I just wanted to leave a comment extending my deepest sympathies to the most of you who did not win the pannier set.
ReplyDeleteI had to order overseas for a set of Mara XL's, and it was worth the wait and cost. Worry free, durable, and reasonably priced.
Add me to the list of people that would dig this set of panniers. I'm a year round commuter, riding from Davis Square to Fort Point, and have been looking at getting a new set of bags. My son is nearly 1, so I'll be adding a child's seat to the back of my bike this spring and moving back to panniers...
ReplyDeletejodibeth at gmail dot com is where I'm found. Thanks for offering these up to the community!
I am another pannier-envier. My bike is currently parked outside my school, lonely locked on top of a snow-encrusted bike rack, waiting for me to stop procrastinating (which mostly consists of reading about bikes online) and finish my work so I can head home.
ReplyDeletebrian dot lessels at gmail
Sorry for contributing to your procrastination problem. Now stop reading and save your bike!
DeleteThank you everyone, entries are closed!
ReplyDeleteI've read through the comments and it seems that all the entries that provide email addresses are eligible. I will pick from them at random and will announce the recipient tomorrow (Thursday).
Okay! Name picked out of a hat and it's
ReplyDeletenanda
(comment February 20, 2013 at 2:51 PM)
Thanks everyone!