So been searching till I am blue so time to ask the brethren. Wanting hard side cases and rollie top bag. In a general consensus who makes the best built pannier racks/system (Now I can carry on researching screens ) Thanks gents, promise not to bombard you with too many more questions
Std racks with the Gobi cases with an Ortileb roll bag on top. That Ortlieb kit is the business, and hard wearing I ran that for a while but it eventually self destructed off road, so went to Ortlieb (did I tell you I like Ortlieb kit?) saddlebags. Eventually switched to a Giant Loop for non camping trips. Still use the Ortlieb saddle bags plust the roll bag for camping trips or when I have the boss on the back. Still keep the KTM racks as anchor points and Akra protectors. Horses for courses. I miss the Gobis as camp tables/stools. Happy riding mate
I started with the Gobi cases on the KTM rack. Didnt like em. Too wide to split lanes, flimsy, fragile mounting system, and I tore them up pretty quickly. Martyn is a better rider than me so he probably didnt hit as much shit with his Gobis. I prefer the Pelican or Hardigg cases adapted to fit the KTM rack, or just buy Caribou Cases system (Hardigg or Pelican cases) with the nice quick on/off mounting system. With the Caribou's you need the HB rack, which is a little less sturdy than the KTM rack, but works well enough. I like the 36 l Ortlieb rollie bag as well. I also put a little wider tail rack on my 990 to accommodate the rollie a bit better. They both served me well for over 50,000 miles and 2 years through Latin America, and I am pretty hard on the equipment.
+1 on the Pelican. I got a set of panniers and a top case including all the mounts from Caribou Cases for what seemed to me to be a very reasonable price. They are lockable, easy to remove and come with all locks (cases and mounts) keyed the same. These things are very rugged. After doing similar research I found the biggest problem most folks had with aluminum panniers was how a fall can tweak them and the lid will often not close or seal after a fall. If you are on a long trip and cannot get this repaired it will be a royal pain. The Pelican are more of a Mil-spec style of case that is designed to take a beating and maintain rigidity, shape, and to continue to seal properly. I have had a get off that landed the bike on the pannier and it hardly even scratched it. Can't say enough good things about Caribou, and all the choices in case styles and sizes they offer. Great support for the product as well.
I loved having soft bags on my trip, really glad I went that route. I did my trip solo but rode with a few folks briefly here and there. I think without fail every one of these riders was dealing with some issue with their racks/hard bags, needing a welder b/c some mount broke or something. None of them would (or could) lane split in traffic. It would drive me absolutely nuts to not be able to lane split. I had a number of biffs offroad and the bags always held up and the racks didn't bend. The big shortcoming is you have to unpack the bike every night but this wasn't something that bothered me too much.
You can lane split with the Hardigg cases. You just wind up hitting some shit now and then. Not a big deal. However when traffic gets really tight you only have about a inch of space on either side of the bags. If you remember, I started out with some Wolfman soft bags. Then this happened. :eek1 All that said I still like soft bags and new wolfman rack and bags that you ran looked like a good system.
Caribou only make them for the Adv?, so will they fit the SE or require some beating, bending and welding? I would have to say my preference is Caribou with the lite weight compared to Jesse, just need to know that what we buy will actually fit, not scared of some work to do to make em fit but we will be in Phoenix fitting them up where my welder, drill and drill isn't .
Our new bike has Wolfman racks, bags and Giant loop, will send the racks and bags home for later use but will use the giant loop.
Just saw on another post that youre riding an SE. Not sure what SE rack the Caribou's work with or if they do at all. I'd give them a call and see what they say.
Feh, you didn't have the new version. I was careful to word my post that by biffs were offroad. It's tough to design a soft bag that can handle a asphalt slide. But with some duct tape and straps you can make the soft bags work in a pinch. I'd definitely go Caribou if I were going the hard bag route.
I duct taped them to get back home, worked well enough, just not waterproof unless you use a trash bag. All that said, they really didnt look too bad considering that it was sliding down rough ass Mexican asphalt at 70 mph. They would have been fine for the Colombian, high side, superman into oncoming traffic after I hit one of those damned turtles on the centerline, at night, pissing down rain.
Give them a call. The owner is very accommodating. The company is in Boulder, not too long a haul from Phoenix. Maybe all he needs is an SE to use as the template.
