i usually camp or hostel, and not for more than 3 nights at a time, so i find that for those situations i can just leave my luggage on the bike. i'm using bmws hard panniers that came with my 2001 f650gs so they keep the water out and such. so i'd just take the tank bag of food and wash bag, and that would about do me, anything else i can go out and find if needs be.

on the occasion that i do want to take everything... well.... as a man, everything must be one trip. but i cheat because the backbox doesnt come off anymore. so its a hard pannier in each hand, duffle bag on shoulder strap and tank bag in the teeth.

They're some sort of 70's leather substitute and the material is completely waterproof - only problems are where I've drilled extra holes in the back for mounting on different bikes.

It's one of the advantages of never throwing anything away - I was rummaging around in the loft recently and found a matching set of 70's throwover tank panniers in good nick, so now I can load even more onto the poor little thing.

Back on the original topic, that setup on the 125 requires three trips to unload and drives me to distraction whenever I have to manhaul it into a hotel, particularly as I've usually got a room on the top floor at the other end of the building. It consistantly took me over two hours from waking up to leaving each morning. A similar trip by car a couple of weeks ago took under half that to get on the road.

Ted thanks for the tips, appreciated.

backofbeyond - you certainly got plenty of kit on your 125 - did you find it slowed you down any/much?

That set up was for winter use - last year's Elephant rally, but yes it did slow things down. The central part of the screen was sized to be no bigger than my frontal area so doesn't make much difference but the various "wings" covering the bars etc that were "mission creep" add-ons do make a difference.

The panniers have an effect as well and all together it made for a bike that would only marginally pull top gear. In adverse conditions - head wind, uphill etc most of the time was spent in 3rd gear. After the trip I downgeared one tooth on the front sprocket and that made a "big" difference.

In the summer, without the wings / muffs / panniers, it was about 10-15mph faster.

Managed to get my packing down to the following on the last trip:

- Magadan bags
- Kriega US-20 rucksack, empty when riding apart from hydration bladder and dry bag with documents in.
- Camera, phone, wallet, etc in a Kriega US-10 on the tank.

Had it set up that way so that I could leave the Mag bags locked, and if I wanted to walk away from the bike during the day I would just unclip the US-10 and chuck the whole thing into the rucksack. Everything really valuable was then with me, and the rest was tolerably secure.

Back on topic it also meant I could, just about, do a single trip from bike to motel room with one pannier in each hand. Rarely did though, because it was a lot of awkward weight and easier to make two trips. That was generally motels though, might be a different story if you were on the fifth floor of a hotel

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dashmoto.net

Sorry to pull up a slightly dead thread. I've managed to get the gear down to a pair of Enduristan panniers, a 60 litre roll-bag and a Kriega US10 as a tank bag.

I can carry the whole lot in one go by wearing the panniers like a poncho, my head between the straps and one pannier on the front, one on the back. Then I carry the rollbag by the handle with the Kriega strapped to it. It's ungainly and the thought of descending stairs scares me enough to want to keep my helmet on but it could be done.

The issue I have though is hooking the #¥₩@#$ panniers back on.I've only got a sidestand on my Derbi so inevitably the weight of the pannier on the lower side attempts to pull everything across the bike. Add in the fact that the seat's distinctive hump means one of the straps has to go under then the other through the rear rack and it's a mass of velcro and swearing.

I appreciate that throwovers come from an age when seats were flat and horizontal and you could drop them on easily, but why hasn't anyone come up with a better way now that lots of modern bikes have seats humpier than a dromedary's back?

Or maybe they have and I just don't know it?

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60 liter Roll bag? Are you kidding?
Far as carrying in your crap .... I have a solution for you!
The below from my post #30 in this thread. Inner bags are the way to go. Leave you panniers on the bike. Hard to use an inner bag with a top roll bag ... I use a 30 liter one, can't fill it. With Inner Bags ... it's just Grab and Go. Panniers stay on bike. No fiddling with straps, velcro or clips. I always do this unless bike is left in really dodgy place ... but I try never to do that.

No, not kidding. It's actually a duffle bag with the opening on the end not a top-opening roll bag. It's strapped lengthwise on the pillion and rack which means I've got a nice back rest and less air-brake effect on the 125 I'm riding.

I should say it's only ever 1/2 full but it's what I had before I bought panniers and I'm too tight to buy a smaller one when I can roll mine smaller. It does have the advantage that I can open it while it's still strapped on and stuff my jacket, gloves, etc. if I fancy a stroll. The only time it's been full was last year's HUBBUK. The combination of a long weekend and a short journey meant I thought to hell with space saving and took a full sized down pillow with me just because I could, so I had 60 litres most of which was air. Plus Overland Magazine wanted to borrow my bike for their stand so I had to "dress it up" a little bit ;-)

Like you I do tend to leave the panniers on and just take out what I want (bin bags for me though not fancy liners) but I thought I'd share the pack horse carrying method just in case. You're lucky, my wife was going to take a photo, at least I spared you that. Instead here's one of the full load somewhere in deepest darkest Brittany.


Doesn't seem overloaded to me.

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That's a nice tidy set up there. Really fits the scale of the bike! Well Done!

My Dry Bag rolls up too. I guess it's nice to have that extra space available ... just in case. I use my Dry Bag for NON camping rides ... so far working out well.

PS: My inner bags are just Grocery store re-usable plastic/nylon bags. $1.50 ea and pretty strong.

Helps to have a good looking woman. Back in the Eighties when I was riding a Goldwing, I had a wife who was nearly indescribably, stunningly beautiful. Pulled up to a motel in Missouri one afternoon and we walked in and started checking in. She went out to start unloading while I completed the check in. After about three minutes, I went outside to start humping all the stuff to the room and saw five college guys each carrying a bag up to the room. I didn't have to move a thing,

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Submariner
Life Member DAV
BMW MOA member
BMW Riders of Oklahoma

Pics, or she never happened

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That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing...

Well, that was back in the film days before the "pixels-are-free" digital wonders we have now and I was actually quite poor. I do have one pic, but wouldn't want to share it

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Submariner
Life Member DAV
BMW MOA member
BMW Riders of Oklahoma

seemingly a yorkie will sort out everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJVWjCVnVzU

I had 2 roll bags on the ktm one was a rackpack ortleib 49l and the other was about the same size generic thing I had lying aroundand was really only a dust cover for my tent and where my dirty kit went.

Unclip 4 rokstraps and that was it, one trip to wherever

I would have less next time, I took a netbook last minute and between this and camera chargers and leads/adaptors a lot of space was consumed.

I think ratchet straps and eyebolts is not necessary and overly heavy, well cinched rokstraps never budged even riding hard across rock fields.

I can also thoroughly recommend kriega cam straps, I've never liked cam straps, even the big bike tie down ones have slacked off on me, but those kriega ones were used to hold my fuel cells in place and were steadfast, highly recommended and not that bad for price

I just get the bell hop to do it and let him wash the bike when he's finished

Steve