Here's a few photos of my F800 with the Wolfman Expedition panniers fixed to SW Motech racks. There don't seem to be too many photos out there to help folk see if this is the sort of thing they want or not. I hope they are of use. I like it I took these photos late last year and the panniers have had some good use since then. The yellow softens with wear and grime to be less LOUD They are shown about half full - they can carry a lot of kit and as a little legs, I find their location is great and allows me to get real close to the bike to swing my stumps over ! Cheers, Dave
Awsome, thanks for this post. Been wondering what to do for panniers on my GS800 and I think you just made my mind up. Like the quick removal of the SW motech racks and preferred soft panniers so I'm sold. Sounds like most posters have had good experience with Wolfman luggage. Cheers
G'day Dave, Thanks for taking the time to load these photos up. I'd seen these bags and thought they would suit my needs but it's great to get a little real world feedback. I'd love to hear a more detailed review of how you've used em and what you like/dislike. Cheers, Andrew Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Hi Andrew, greetings to lovely Alberta, I spent many years in Calgary and worked and played all over the place. Great place to live and ride. So, where to start. The photos were taken just after I got the panniers, I got them to fit better and got the hang of attaching and removing them after a couple of goes. Basically there are two horizontal straps - one at top and one towards bottom of the main body of the panniers. Undo them and get the metal 'things through the metal D rings attached to the frame then do up the straps. Once you've done that the first time with loaded out panniers, you are good to go every time with no adjustment. The panniers come with 2 male fastex buckles on one and 2 female on the other panniers straps that go over the seat. Take one off each pannier and attach it to the other one. That way you can turn each pannier into a shoulder bag by connecting the male and female to each other on each pannier. Does that make sense ? It makes them easier to carry. You can carry both at the same time - one over each shoulder. Very useful. With a bit of fiddling you can get the fastex buckles to fit under the seat if you have a pillion. I use short cable locks like you get for suitcases to secure the panniers to the frames. A single ski lock cable type would also do the job. A Pacsafe cable lock can prevent someone from trying to open the panniers and can also be threaded through the frame. They are incredibly light compared to the hard luggage you can buy. This means a lot to bike stability as your C of G remains a bit lower and overall weight of luggage and contents is much lower. The reduced footprint makes it easier for a pillion to get on and off - or so my wife says compared to my old 1150GSA with luggage ! I've done some weekend trips and had the panniers loaded to twice the height you see in the photos above. No problem. I also use them sometimes on my daily 80 mile round trip commute to and from work. We've had the wettest April on record this year and I've gone through water up to 18" deep and some seriously heavy rain and the contents has always been dry as a bone. They really are waterproof !! They are also airtight so you can leave them on the bike empty but inflated with the air trapped in them when you roll the top down and they stay tight and inflated and don't flap around on the bike when you're out and giving it some. Make sure you have some clear bodywork paint protector in place where the straps rub the yellow rear quarter panels (or whatever colour you might have !). There is bound to be slight movement as you ride and put the panniers on and off and you don't want scratched paintwork do you ? As I've already mentioned, the have a smaller footprint than hard luggage and sit further back on the bike which allows short arses like me to still get near enough to the bike to cock a leg over. Hard luggage has the same volume whether loaded or not, these increase as you need them to and increase vertically only. With a Wolfman (or other) roll top bag on the back, you have heaps of volume. Can't think of much else to be honest but if you have any further questions, fire away and I'll see if i have an answer. Happy to take photos of any of the above but unable to do that right now as I'm at work and supposed to be working ;-) Ride safe ! Dave
There is a thread around here somewhere that mentioned that you can buy 2 5.2 gallon Sterilite white trash cans (Walmart is where I got them), cut them down to 11 1/2 inches tall, drill a hole in the bottom (to allow air to escape), and slip them into each Wolfman bag. They fit exactly and serve to maintain the shape of the bags. Also, when you look into the open bags to load them, it's nice that the interior is now white so things are easy to see (no big deal with the yellow bags but particularly nice if you have the black bags). This simple mod retains the advanges of soft bags but also provides some of the advantages of hard cases. I did this modification and like it a lot.
I like your mod' but my concern would be that you would get wear/ rubbing at the same corner locations where the boxes sit which you wouldn't get normally as every time you pack the panniers, the load makes a slightly different shape with slightly different stress / wear points. Just a thought.... Although very useful for transporting semi- fragile things on ocasion. My bags came with a plastic insert that helps keep the shape of the bag but not too percisely the same. Cheers, Dave
Bury_Dave: not sure if I quite understand what you mean by a rubbing problem but I probably should have added that the 5.2 gallon Sterilite trash cans are oval in shape and as a result they do really fit perfectly in the Wolfman Expedition bags with no corners to create any problems...
OK, gotcha now ! I don't know the brand name and thought they would be square-ish. I was trying to point out that using a square-ish box as an internal shaper might mean you get excessive and repeated wear at the corner / stress points. Generally, as I pack hard stuff in with soft, the panniers are never quite the same shape nor do they ever get the same stress / wear areas. That's all. A photo, as they say, speaks a thousand words To be honest, mine hold their shape even when empty of stuff and with just air in them. They are that airtight. Cheers, Dave
That's a pretty good idea about the trash bins, I'll have to look at that. I tossed the flimsy plastic liners on day one as they were pretty useless. I've used the saddlebags for about a year now and have no complaints. It's no-contest between the soft bags and the hard jesse-types. As mentioned, the weight savings alone do it for me, and they're water tight. Plus when the bike decides to take a nap it's nice to not worry about damaging them or the mounting points since the soft bags by definition can absorb some impact. I guess you can't put all your hardcore-adventure stickers all over the wolfmans though But mainly what I wanted to add to this was about their duffle bag. I got tired of bungee-webbing everything to the back so instead finally picked up their open top duffle from the open-house a couple weeks back. It's pretty sweet so far. It's essentially like one of the saddlebags turned into a duffle, with the roll-top. So you get the easy access compared to just a bottom or bottom/top opening like most dry-bags and it can expand or decrease as needed. Sorry for the crappy iphone pic, but it's all i've got right now:
I use the wolfman expedition also. I am downsizing to the the large rollie bags (smaller than the expedition) as the expedition setup is pretty wide. I have got hung up on 'stuff' and need to narrow it down. So less gear, less width. I downsized on my sleeping (by 1/2!) to allow myself to do this, which is contained in my top duffel. Its a puzzle to get everything small/tight. Pretty waterproof although I put many things in plastic bags to ensure dryness. Wide load.
I've got a similar setup, except that I opted for their double-ended duffel. Its advantage is that you can open either end without having to unstrap anything. So if you pack with forethought (not my strong suit), you can get at things you might need without a lot of hassle. Plus, it's not too big, so there's room for it to act as a lumbar support even with a small Pelican case mounted on the rear. Oh, and their MSR bottle holders are pretty cool too.
I have been running the Wolfman expedition bags on SW Motech racks for about a year. I used this setup last year on the WABDR and it worked great. (My avatar shows a stress test from that trip. ) The SW Motechs have their issues, but they have held up for me and the ease of removal is a real plus. I recently bolted a MOD tool box inside the right rack and this has also been working really well. As for the Wolfman bags, what can you say other than they are a fantastic piece of gear. Hard cases are OK on the pavement, but off road not so much.
Thanks...looks like a hot setup. Wolfman bags were my intial choice but then I've spent the last year trying to decide if this is the way to go (the whole hard vs. soft debate).
Well, I've written and shown just about everything i can think of and my reasons as to why they suit me personally. I've not slated hard luggage - i had it on my 1150GSA - but i don't need the same volume for every journey i need panniers for and i like the fact that when not needed, one rolls up and fits into the other and that rolls down again and takes little space in my garage or attic - I'm pushed for space and that is a great feature. Also, personally, I don't need the volume of the big cases. I did Europe, camping, and only filled the 2 paniers and the top box not at all ! I reckon the max volume of the Wolfman are actually bigger than the 1150GSA cases. I have the space as and when i need it and not all the time. Oh, and i forgot to mention that they are equally sized and shaped unlike hard cases that mould to around past the can ! The choice is yours and enjoy whatever system you go for. Dave
Bury Dave, are you attaching your Wolfmans via velcro attached D-rings? Seems a little sketchy in bouncing conditions or a get off... The great thing of Wolfman side racks are the 100% secure mounting. No not removable but solid crash bars also.
Go ahead, guess how many times I've done this with bags attached with velcro D-rings. Seriously, no worries.