Freerider 31L Pannier

It works great on my bike!

This bag is the best purchase I have ever made. I bought one for myself, and then went back and bought one for each member of my family. It's the perfect design. It's just so brilliantly practical. My favorite bike accessories are those that I don't have to think about -- I can just set it and forget it. This bag is just that.

I came across this pannier while searching for a solution to carry my backpack to work. I wanted something I could put my existing backpack IN, as opposed to buying a new backpack. After a ridiculous amount of online research, I settled on this pannier (the other things I originally considered were foldable metal pannier baskets, or metal/netting grocery panniers). Now that I have it, this pannier does a significantly better job than those alternatives (and it was way cheaper to boot!)

I can't overstate how perfect this bag is. It holds my work backpack, but if I'm going somewhere for fun, I can throw whatever random stuff I'm bringing with me in the pannier without thinking. It's great for groceries. It holds a shocking amount of stuff. I have yet to be carrying something that I wasn't able to fit into this pannier. One time, I won a giant cardboard case of German beer glasses as a pub trivia prize, and I thought there was no way I could possibly get them home on my bike, but I just threw the giant box of glasses in the pannier and they made it home without a scratch. The open design makes it much superior to a traditional closed backpack style pannier because I can just chuck whatever in there without any consideration.

I carry my work backpack in this, which holds two laptops. Probably I carry about $4,000 worth of computers every day. It's also super heavy. I trust this bag with both of those computers without even thinking of it. This pannier also survived me getting hit by a car (LOL) only a little worse for the wear with a small rip. It's tough and made of good materials, but still looks stylish. I don't worry about it if it gets wet since it dries pretty quickly.

It's super easy to put my backpack into the pannier since it is so open, and then I can secure it with the clips. My backpack is a North Face backpack and has some loops I can put the pannier's straps through, so I feel super confident it won't fall out. It's a brilliant system overall. The clips are super secure.

I talked about how great this bag is so much that two of my colleagues also bought one. Now we all match at the bike racks. They talk about it to everyone now too. We all have the "Earth Tone" ones. My bike is green and the earth tone colors make it look like it came with the bike. I also bought the neon one, which is cool but a little more sporty of a look than I like personally. Depends on your preference, both are super cool designs.

About me: I bike to work every day year round, so I'm biking when it's cold. Biking is my default form of transportation for any trip I take. At my workplace, probably at least 200 of the employees bike to work, so it is very crowded at the bike racks every day.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT? - The only thing I would improve is the velcro for the folding.
PROS: It folds with no problem to be completely flat against the bike, which I LOVE. I also have a more traditional pannier on the other side, and it's sometimes annoying that it makes my bike much more wide while trying to park.
CONS: The velcro that secures the folding is sometimes a little fiddly. You can kind of see it in the example photo where you have to align the velcro.
It's a little annoying to put down all my stuff to use two hands with the velcro. Also, now that it's cold, I have to take off my gloves to get a grip on the velcro. I don't know about for others, but for me, I have to squat down to fold up the back, which makes it difficult when my bike is already parked at the crowded bike rack (vs. being able to just kind of lean down). If Green Guru made another version of this bag, I think I would prefer a tiny clip instead of velcro to help fold up the bag. Not a reason not to buy this pannier, just feedback for future iterations!

This pannier is great. It fit on the bike perfectly and arrived quickly. I appreciated that someone called me before the order shipped to ask about colors, really great customer service.

I love this pannier. It folds away when not in use, but opens up enough to hold my work/laptop backpack without me having to switch it over to some other pack. Just clip it in and go. Perfect for my commute.

I put this on the rear rack of my cargo bucket bike and use it when I have both kids in the bucket but still need to carry more stuff. It easily holds a large tote with library books, diaper stuff, water bottles, and snacks. It folds down very flat when you don't need it. It's easy to take off too.