John & Mick's BIG AdventureForging ahead
Shortly after acquiring our machines, I decided to follow a known route, and opted for a set of Berndt Tesch panniers, which had come already fitted on Johns machine.
It took some time to contact and make the necessary arrangements with Herr Tesch, but as I was planning a trip to Germany at the time, seemed to fit in. However, due to delays for my travel and a holiday for Berndt, things didn’t quite work out, so I ended up with the panniers and rack being shipped to the UK. A rough fitting seemed OK, but when in recent weeks I tried to fit them, I discovered some serious discrepancies between the fitting positions on the bike and those of the pannier rack. It was just possible to force the rack to meet the footrests and one of the existing holes in the sub-frame, but it was all at great strain.
Fortunately I live in one of those wonderful English Market towns, where we still have, what some may term, a blacksmith.
The Forge, in Thame, is the place that fixes all things metal. After dropping in and explaining my predicament to Dave, he nodded wisely and after dropping “The Camel” in for the day, came home with a pannier rack that finally fitted. At such a reasonable price, my next suggestion may be to find an extra way to secure the panniers onto the frame, other than just the bolts provided.
My other foreign supplied modification was a single seat. This also didn’t fit, so I had to strip the cover and cut away the insides to make it fit the bike. Our local leather repair man had the seat cover back on with no trouble and looks like a perfect fit.
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