What's the best way to organise stuff in a pannier?

[glueman]

found £5k in a box in the loft. Jammy gits ..

I once left a really nice Suzi Cooper style period dinner service in the loft of a house I sold. Completely forgot about it until I moved again a few years later. I was too embarrased to demand something back from a house sold that long previously. It was worth a packet but as I gave a fiver for it from a jumble sale put it down to easy come, easy go.

[Gunner]

Someone mentioned compression bags, we are motorcyclists, and quite a few folks pack their clothing in vacu bags as sold in argos (page 1023 spring/summer 08 catalogue)

You are meant to suck the air out with a vacuum cleanerm but there are ones which you roll up which do the same job. They are 100% water proof, these would be ideal for your grundies etc. Not sure if the size of them would be suitable for a cycle pannier.

[Basil W Bloke]

Wallet, phone and keys go in the zipped pocket on the top flap.

I used to do this until I had my "off" last year. Luckily I was conscious enough to refuse to be wheeled into the ambulance until my pannier was recovered. It took some time to stop the parameds telling me not to worry about my bike and to make them realise that I was not going to leave wallet keys and phone there.

[workhard]

cycling was seen as genuinely freakish and probably communistic.

so what has changed?

The topic of conversation was which car had the best 0-60 speed and how soon the aspirant might have one.

see comment above

One was to get there early enough to take a moment from battling it out with vans and taxis. Predatory offices can sense fluster and cyclists need a few moments to undo one head and adopt the next.

in the average macho super-competitive male dominated IT dept I would have thought (i.e. I found) keeping the cycling cut-n-thrust head on was a tactical advantage. I remember one crisis ridden morning, where the fan had been hit by something nasty, when my Director pointed out that I was marshalling the troops at around 15:30 still in my cycling kit and reeking

[minkie]

Just wanted to say thanks for the tips - I'm giving quite a few of them a whirl:
I've reluctantly started to use my 2nd pannier - thought it would get on my nerves but it doesn't. What it does do - as suggested - is make it much easier to organise stuff.
I've started keeping wallet and phone in trouser pocket. I think I'm more likely to get separated from my pannier than I am from my trousers
The Argos compression bags look like a really useful idea, but too big for my panniers. Have tracked down some at Lakeland - home of plastic nick nacks - at a reasonable price, so I'll try them to squash up my waterproofs.

Also like the irony of gaining adulation from small-minded colleagues by flaunting a piece of designer zippered nonsense around the office, whereas it'll be packed full of my unsavoury, smelly tat. Just need to find a Ted Baker bag reduced to less than a fiver

Not looked in the loft yet - maybe a Ted Baker there

[john4703]

I use a few of these and find them great. I have one with tools, puncture kit and spare inner tube and two more with my lights and spare batteries. I like them because they are 100% waterproof and also protect the contents from knocks and scratches. For the rest of my stuff I use plastic bags.