Anyone have Kirtland lever lock panniers?

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

It's a long shot, but it seems like if anyone else would have decades-old panniers, it would be a Mustachian...

An acquaintance gave me these aged but apparently serviceable-looking panniers. The company doesn't seem to exist any more and of course there was no manual with them. I hooked them on satisfactorily enough, but there's this lever thing on the back that I can't figure out what it does.

So if anyone has or had these and can shed any light, that would be great. Aside from the lever, I'm wondering about things like whether it's better to hook the top hooks or the bottom hooks first and so on.

[uspsfanalan]

I clicked it because I was hoping that when you typed Kirtland, you meant Kirkland, which is the Costco generic brand. That would be hilarious but awesome if Costco had bike paniers.

Back to your question - can't help on that. If you can add a picture someone here might be able to help. Alternatively, it's possible that the old strap was designed for a bike rack system specific to this brand, or to a style of rack that was more common back then.

If the strap isn't hurting anything and you're already happy with how the bag fits, doesn't seem like you'd need to do anything more.

[NVDee]

Post a pic and I might be able to assist or one of my co-workers might be able to... I work for a pannier distributor :)