howierart said:
I would like to do some touring on my road bike but it has no drilled holes / eyelets for fitting a rear pannier. Does anyone know of a pannier that does not need these to be fixed on? It is a new world to me! Thanks
You have several options.
Option 1: You can add eyelets. I think Blackburn and others make these little vinyl coated straps that wrap around the seat stay and give you an eyelet location where a rack can be mounted. This would be my choice. You can also make creative use of heavy duty nylon zip ties to do some attachments. But get the largest size good ones. On my Cannondale mountain bike I attached fenders and a blackburn rack with zip ties. Because it had V-brakes I didn't have a brake bolt attachment point so I simply zip-tied it to the frame at that location and it is very solid and secure. I had eyelets on my drop outs that take most of the rack weight. The zip ties only attach it to the upper seat stays and mainly stabilize the rack rather than bear the weight.
Option 2: Use a seatpost rack with pannier supports. These are racks that attach solely to the seat post and obviously can't take anywhere near the load of a traditional touring rack fastened at 3 points to the frame at the brake and dropouts. And they will give you some sway if your cycling style isn't perfectly stable.
Option 3: Forget about panniers and use a large saddle bag. Quite a few bike tourists who ride racing bikes use seat bags for their gear and just travel light. Carradice Bags from the UK and Berthoud Bags from France both make large saddle bags that use a special rack that only attaches to the saddle rails. You can see them and buy them from Wallingford Online Bike Shop:
http://www.wallbike.com/
Option 4: Use a trailer like a Bob trailer and forget about hauling gear on your bike at all. This would be my choice for very long distance touring through rugged terrain.