Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Ron D Swan

Summer in Melbourne is great for enjoying a blissful, car-free existence. I'm sure when the next bitter, erratic and squally winter comes around I'll be singing a different tune, but right now I'm loving the head space and sense of freedom and connection with my surroundings that I get from jumping on my bicycle to get where I need to go.

It's also handy that my home and work are both located just a stone's throw from the Capital City bike path; a 20 minute ride is all it takes to get to work versus 40 or 50 minutes on tram and bus. That's good motivation!

Anyway naturally since moving house I threw myself with enthusiasm back into riding my beloved (yet somewhat neglected) bicycle and requested a pannier as an xmas present from my family. Not just any pannier mind you, but a locally & ethically made Ron D Swan bike pannier that was made in Castlemaine!

Ron D Swan pannier on my bicycle

The extra cool thing about this pannier is that the hooks are attached to your rack rather than the bag itself, and it comes with a nice wide shoulder strap tucked inside. This means you can carry the pannier around comfortably like a normal bag when off your bike. Clever!

Ron D Swan pannier - as a shoulder bag and attached to the rack

Totally love it and highly recommend getting one ... and as a bonus you're supporting a small local business. Win.

x

3 comments:

Clare said...

That's a lovely bag, and bike for that matter, I tried a Charge similar to that, but it wasn't right for me and I was really disappointed! Cycling somehow makes you connect better with your surroundings, I have to remind myself about that though when it's freezing/peeing it down :-)

Jay said...

Nice bag! I couldn't find any panniers I liked the look of so I went with a Carradice Nelson Longflap saddlebag instead:
http://www.carradice.co.uk/index.php?page_id=product&product_id=37

If I'd know about these I might have gone the rack and panniers route.

Tom (Guvnor) said...

Awesome – that's one sleek piece!
Did you end up ordering your new grips?