We received the first prototype bike seat backrest today from our factory in China and overall we're very pleased. The backrest installed easily, was very sturdy and comfortable, and panniers were easy to hang onto the side rails of the backrest frame. There are some elements of the prototype to clean up, but overall it met all of our requirements and is very close to being ready to start manufacturing! 

The factory did a great job packaging the prototype, almost too good in fact. It was triple-wrapped in bubble-wrap, then completely taped up. It took me almost twenty minutes to cut away all of the bubble-wrap!

Blake explored a couple different designs for the pannier hooks, focusing on maximizing the amount of weight that the hooks would be able to support. We ultimately settled on this geometry, though without the additional lip on the end of the hook, which only increases manufacturing cost and adds nothing in terms of additional load capacity.

We haven't yet started talking to the factory about the pannier hooks. We want them to stay focused on finishing up the backrest prototype and begin manufacturing the backrests first. As soon as production of the backrests has begun, we'll start exploring the pannier hooks with the factory and get some feedback on the design and how much it will cost to make. We're hopeful that manufacturing for the backrests will begin sometime mid-March. If there aren't too many changes to the pannier hooks design specs, it's possible that we'll be able to start manufacturing the pannier hooks sometime in April or May!

After reviewing some video footage from the factory of our first bike seat prototype, we realized we had to make some design modifications to make the backrest more sturdy when installed onto the bike seat. We added a second hook at the end of the backrest frame arms to hang over the side of the stash-box to make the backrest sturdy and secure whether or not there's a passenger on-board. Here are some pictures of this modified prototype: