Ali Pannier thickness
 

These are the options I'm considering:

Daerr Box: 36lt 1.2mm thick £65
H&B Box: 37lt 1.5mm thick £170
EIBC Box: 36lt 2mm thick £80

The H&B price knocks it out in the first elimination round.

Now the only difference between the other two is the thickness.

Any recommendations/opinions etc?

Other thing is that Daerr also do the small 31lt and bigger 41lt whereas EIBC only offer the 36lt.

[This message has been edited by Bossies (edited 04 January 2006).]

I'd check with Paul at EIBC what thickness his current boxes are. It says 2mm on the website but before I ordered mine he said the boxes were 1.5mm. I like my boxes though, they've a thick band of alu about 5/6 mm thick round the base and top which makes them a whole lot more rigid. The alu sides are a bit flexible but the 5/6mm reinforcement would make them fairly crash proof I'd hope (although I haven't dropped my bike on them yet!). I certainly think they're the best VALUE on the market. If I was Ewan tho http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif I'd get Metal Mules. My buddy has them and they are v. cool.
Matt

Thanks Matt

Was tending to the EIBC boxes.

I am thinking of fitting them using the Touratech rack as it seems the most robust and simple. I don't trust my own welding to make one up myself.

Now just to decide on the mounting system. The Touratech is very simple; and simple is always good; but it seems to be a bit of a hassle to take them off/on the bike (unscrewing from the inside etc). With my touring to date with Givi luggage I know that I will want to take them off at stops etc.

Any ideas of other simple mounting systems to consider

Hi Bossies,
That's what I've done. I originally was going to make my own rack but decided the chances of my dodgy welding coming unstuck somewhere in the middle of no-where was too high!
I got a Touratech rack and the 'touratech style' fitting kit from EIBC and they work well together. I agree the butterfly bolts that form the 'quick release' are a bit fiddly but I'm only planning on using them once a day and it only takes a minute.
The Touratech rack seems extremely robust and appears to have been made in such a way as to stiffen and strengthen the whole back end of my XT. It was a bugger to fit though!
The only 'adaptation' I made to the set up was to buy larger outer diameter washers to use with the screws that hold the EIBC fitting kit 'pucks' to the aluminium, spreading the stress over a larger area.
Matt