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news
Packtasche cardboard pannier (picture source Packtasche)Architecture students design cardboard panniers (+ video)
Could the sight of supermarket carrier bags dangling from a bicycle’s handlebars become a thing of the past? It will if a nifty solution to carrying groceries home devised by two architecture students in Vienna gets adopted widely – a cardboard pannier that you load up with your shopping then put on your bike.
The product, Packtasche, was designed by Philipp Moherndl and Matthias Lechner, the idea being that stores would offer it to customers at the checkout instead of shopping bags, reports the architecture and design website ArchDaily.
Quick to assemble, light in weight and recyclable, it would do the job of getting the shopping home without having to worry about whether everything you’re buying will fit in your backpack, or having to deal with the weight on your shoulder.
And of course, while many cyclists already own panniers, not everyone wants to lug them around all day when off the bike.
The designers told ArchDaily: “Due to the mass appeal of the bike, conventional cycling accessories do not fit the lifestyle of many urban cyclists. The limited transport capacity of usual bicycles makes shopping difficult and inflexible.
“People often do their shopping spontaneously, on their way home or whilst cycling in the city. Therefore we wanted to come up with a more flexible solution: a multi-use bag for bicycles, which is low priced and environmentally-friendly.”
The design incorporates a handle to make it easy to carry while off the bike, and once on it the panniers fit over a rear rack, with this video, narrated in German, showing how it works.
Die Packtasche- Die einfache Transporthilfe für Radfahrende from Matthias Lechner on Vimeo.
Lechner said: “Our main goal was to make cycling in the city even more practical and attractive than it already is. The Packtasche is our small contribution to make cycling more attractive to people and hence support sustainable urban mobility.”
The pair are currently seeking customers in the European market and are also planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign for the product.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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18 comments
fab idea, hope manufacture takes place ...
I cycled 70 km with my laptop yesterday and I wasn't remotely worried about it when I got caught in a heavy shower: it was in an Ortlieb pannier. So I'm a "believer": I like my panniers and I use them a lot. But off the bike, they are fairly awkward and inconvenient and weird-looking, and they definitely mark me out as a mad cyclist with a capital C in a way that the bike itself doesn't (and in situations where I'm not wearing my mad cyclist clothes). If I only needed panniers for shopping (and not also regularly for keeping my laptop, a spare set of clothes and/or a yoga mat and blanket clean and dry, I would just get some cheap panniers that could "live" on my rack because nobody would want to nick them. That's what I see a lot of people doing (basically a similar idea to baskets - nothing to lug around, carrying capacity when you need it).
Design and architecture students the world over are remaking regular everyday objects from cardboard. Because it's easy to form and very cheap.
Very occasionally these objects are brought to the attention of and get written about by possible target market press. Wasn't there a cardboard bike helmet a while back?
My mate has a full-size grandfather clock and probably loads more things made of corrugated cardboard - and he's an architect, industrial designer and lighting designer.
How many bottles of Lambrini can they carry?
Designer... We can help with the affordable, sustainable tooling if you want to do a production run...
erm [at] laserdie.co.uk
Do they require a rack? Yes.
This is aimed at the people who bought a rack or a bike with a rack but did not get the panniers at the same time.
It's not an uncommon situation in many parts of Europe, including Austria I believe. A bike will come with a rack by default. Panniers are extra.
That's probably the majority of people who buy a bike with a rack - as has been said already there are plenty of bikes that come with racks as standard these days and their are plenty of people who have a rack and occasionally bungee something on top of it but have never gone to the extra expense of buying panniers. And of course there are lots of people who have panniers but don't have them attached to their bike on a semi permanent basis.
That's me. Some reason that seems odd? A rack with a bungee cord on it is a terrifically handy thing, but I have no desire to cart expensive panniers around all day. I usually use a small rucksack, on my back if I'm on and off the bike, or bungee'd onto the rack for longer distances. The rack also works for bulky boxes, or sometimes for a carrier bag from the supermarket (when the rucksack's full) . So this sounds like a great idea.
These would be very useful if available at the checkouts similar to free wine bottle carriers.
Handy for the days that you nip into the shops with only one pannier on, but then buy slighty too much, or you are out, and have to nip in for a few bits..
May even make some people who have a bike with a rack, but no luggage actually take the bike to the shops.
I like the product but I can only see it working "out of the box" (sorry) on a small proportion of the bikes I see in this country. Clearly in Austria everyone has a spring clip and long chainstays.
And when it rains...
it's not beyond the wit of man and the bounds of science to make corrugated cardboard water resistant enough to survive a few miles in the rain. people make boats out of the stuff.
It's a fair point, but it'd be interesting to see their cost-effectiveness when compare with a more durable recycled material that would be easier to stash when off the bike.
You don't go shopping? It doesn't rain that much in many parts of the world. Certainly not so much, so unexpectedly, you couldn't get from the shops to home before the cardboard disintegrated if you picked your moment.
No doubt someone will get caught out sooner or later of course - probably as often as you see someone collecting their shopping from the road while a torn plastic bag flutters forlornly nearby.
reduce, reuse, recycle,
On that basis which is better reusable well built panniers or recyclable cardboard?
I buy their points about people not wanting to carry panniers around etc
It is a nice idea, but i think you need to re-educate people to reduce the use of things rather than come up with ways of making things that allow business as usual but with a green tinge?
Think about it not as an extra thing to consume for someone who already owns panniers. Rather think of them as something to displace the plastic bags someone would have bought and then carried on their handlebars. This will be safer, more convenient and I would guess, better for the environment.
What if that person carried a couple of screwed up carrier bags in their back pocket or hand bag, Agreed it doesn't solve the safety bit, but it is the reusable v recyclable bit.