- 1). Strap the buckets to your bike rack with bungee cords. Start with the buckets centered along the rack. Test ride your bike to make sure your heels don't hit the buckets. Adjust the buckets toward the back of the rack if necessary.
- 2). Mark each bucket about four inches below its lip in two places where the rope hooks should go. Try for a gap of about six inches horizontally and make sure the hooks will fit into the wire frame of the bike rack without hitting a crosspiece. The goal is to have the buckets about one or two inches higher than the top of the rack. Remove the bungee cords and the buckets.
- 3). Create slots in the buckets' ridges the width of the rope hooks, using a Dremel tool. Mark the position of the two holes in each rope hook. Drill two holes wide enough for the bolts to slip through using your marks as a guide.
- 4). Saw two backing pieces of 1/8-inch plywood about three by seven inches wide. Lay a bucket on top of the cut plywood pieces so that the four holes are centered on it. Press the marker through the holes from the inside on the bucket to mark the places to drill. Drill four holes in each piece.
- 5). Bolt the rope hooks upside down on the buckets, backing them with washers and nuts.
- 6). Clamp the end of the spring in a vise and use a screwdriver and pliers to bend a loop in the end. Repeat in the other end and repeat for the second spring so that both springs have loops in both ends.
- 7). Drill a hole a half-inch below the horizontal line between the bottoms of the rope hooks and centered.
- 8). Fasten the spring to the bucket using a bolt and washer on the outside of the bucket and a washer and nut on the inside.
- 9). Hang your panniers to the bike rack using the rope hooks. Stretch the loop in the spring over the projecting arm of the bike rack near the wheel hub.
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