Great job Andrew, but why isn't it colour coordinated to match the bike?
A black bag with red straps would have blended in nicely with your black panniers and red frame.
I would have made a few alterations to the design if I was making one similar to that:
- Extend the top flap so it runs along the entire length of the bag for additional strength and better protection against the rain.
- Put the zip along the centre of the top piece so that the zip, along with the wires entering the bag, is concealed by the Velcro flaps.
This would also remove all load from the zip when the bag is hanging from the flaps. - Punch a couple of holes and fit some eyelets at the front and rear of the top flaps to allow a couple of small suitcase type padlocks to be fitted.
- Stitch some fabric carrying handles inside each of the top flaps, positioned around the centre of gravity point. These would remain totally concealed whilst on the bike, but would come in very handy for carrying your battery pack indoors for charging etc.
Andrew, I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't have a go at the needlework yourself.
My first attempt at sewing was with an old treadle powered sewing machine, which I used to make a seat cover for one of my mopeds when I was sixteen:
And this was my second seat a year or two later:
A few years ago, I bought this lovely cheap bike on eBay, but it had a very badly worn seat cover that was basically just held together with duct tape:
I decide to take what I thought would be the easiest option, and purchased a replacement seat cover
(also on eBay). Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I could not get it to fit properly and it looked awful.
I picked up some fabric backed black vinyl and some heavy duty thread from a local material shop, and used what was left of the old cover as a template to make a new cover from scratch.
And here is the end result:
Although, I have to admit that the wife's electric sewing machine did struggle a bit with the thick material, but at least I managed to complete the job without breaking it.
So don't be afraid to try something new, I was genuinely amazed at how easy it was to get a professional looking result with just a bit of practise and a lot of determination.
Alan 
