No better place for Trawling! Your questions today are somebody's answers tomorrow.....The knowlege base just keeps growing.

Good answers from everyone.
Grant is right about the fairing and bags.
The last two times I flew the bike I basically rode it to the air freight terminal and bent the mirrors in, shut off the gas, and disconnected the battery. The cost was based on weight not volume and I flew it uncrated.
I did initially have some concerns about the fairing surviving the trip ( I think Grant did too) as I was told, its not a question of if you will fall over, but when...The fairing held up well in three low speed or stopped fall overs and I believe it would offer good protection in a moderatly fast crash.

The stock plastic bmw cases will only cause you grief.

I chose aluminum saddlebags and was happy, and lucky as they worked out well as crashbars, and chairs for when we were camping, with the topbox as a table.

Dougieb is right too. It's a question of your comfort, both physical, and mental and what you think you will need to acheive it on the road. Cheers, Peter

Cameron says:
The stock plastic BMW cases will only cause you grief.

Oh dear. I had grief with the older type BMW panniers, (Krauser?) they both spilled their contents and dropped off the bike but I've not had any bother with the later BMW plastic panniers, the catches/locks seem to be far better. I've done 50,000 mls approx so far. Oh, come to think of it, one of the frames, the tubular type, broke after 10,000mls or so, I brazed it back together and it's been ok since.

I'll be setting off soon on a trip, but, having already spent a fair bit on my '82 R100RS I'm reluctant to go splashing out on panniers. So, apart from keeping the weight down, any suggestions/precautions I can take please?
Thanks
John
PS: thinks: this would do a new thread. Here goes.....


[This message has been edited by John Roberts (edited 10 February 2005).]