A friend posted a comment on this blog asking me about the soft luggage. For this bike and this trip, I love it. If you look at the photo at the top of the blog, you will notice that I have mounted two 50 caliber ammo cans, spray painted black with rattle cans, as my first luggage on this bike. They were mounted to Happy Trails racks, and I only had them to use because Happy Trails didn't ship the panniers with the racks like they were supposed to.
Then I received the Happy Trails Cascade aluminum panniers, which Happy Trails had incorrectly drilled the holes for the mounting points. The Cascade is a very deep and narrow pannier, with quite a bit of capacity. The depth allows you to get the weight low, which is a positive. However, the top has a very narrow opening, about 7 inches wide, which limits the size of items you can put in it. They did, however, remain dust proof.
I started reading more about the options available for panniers. This article by Jonathan Hansen was one of the first I read. I think his analysis is pretty good. Basically, the bigger the bike and rider, and the easier the road, the better the choice for hard luggage. Conversely, as the bike and size decrease, and the more difficult the terrain, the better the choice for soft luggage. The article has plenty of opinions by various long range riders, providing anecdotal evidence to support the conclusions of the author.
After I read that article, I started looking around at off-road riding sites on the web. When it comes down to riding in Siberia and Mongolia, one guy stand out: Walter Colebatch. A Russian speaking Englishman, Mr. Colebatch has ridden extensively in the wild country. His blog has very well written articles on the selection of motor bikes for riding in Siberia, Central Asia, and Mongolia, and his ride report on ADV Rider of the trip to Siberia in 2012 is a classic. When you get to the selection on luggage, his analysis stands up. Here are the key points:
Soft luggage is lighter, it can not bend or break, if used with a waterproof roll-top liner your gear will stay dry and dust free, and you can pack it tighter to the bike frame. Hard luggage can bend or break, you must still use a roll tip waterproof liner to keep your gear dry and dust free, and it really hangs out into the traffic and wind stream.
What about security? Can't thieves rip the bag off the bike, or cut into the bag to get at your stuff? Yes, that is why I chose the Magadan Panniers, designed by Colebatch, because it has a kevlar membrane under the Cordura nylon to deter knife slashing. I also use cables and locks through loops on the bags to lock them to the moto. Andy, from AndyStrapz (a maker of a competing line of luggage), agrees that the heavy duty Cordura nylon bags are the way to go, but doesn't think much of the kevlar (he makes this statement in a comment on the Magadan Pannier listing at ADV Spec). You can also buy fabric luggage from Kreiga that looks awesome, and from Wolfman as well. I looked at all of them and decided that, because where I am going security is a bit of an issue, I would get the added layer of kevlar.
So my direct response is I like them very much. It took some time to become familiar enough with them to feel comfortable, because until you cinch them in, they can be loose and sloppy. I use streams with cam buckles on them, and I can get them pretty tight now. They aren't perfect, but I like them.
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