The name for bags that hang off the side of bikes seems to officially be "panniers" in English. "Panniers" is in-word in bike subculture that most United States folk don't know.
That makes it harder for me to talk about functional bicycling with folks. "Panniers" is a foreign word that makes carrying stuff on a bike sound, well, foreign.
Motorcyclists often call these "saddle bags". That's much more evocative. People generally know the words "saddle" and "bags". It's not a big leap to put them together and visualize what that looks like.
Cyclists who would normally refer to them as panniers would also readily understand "saddle bags", so there's not much of a need to use different terms for the subculture and the broader culture.
I want using a bike as transportation to seem normal. Easily comprehensible. So from now on, if you ask me about hauling stuff on my on bike, I'll tell you I have saddle bags. Like a motorcycle. Or a horse.
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