The sad truth is the lids come loose because the rider forgets to lock them.
bill

I think it's a failing of ANY pannier design if it requires the user to lock them for the lid to stay on.

Yes, you want to be able to lock it to keep people out, but if you've put a latch on a pannier it damn well ought to keep the pannier lid latched while riding down a bumpy road. I frequently ride with my panniers unlocked because I'm confident of my latches and there aren't any other humans around I need to worry about keeping out (and/or I have no intention of straying more than a couple feet from the bike). Locking them would just be an additional annoying step every time I needed to get in them.

I think a lot of the time the lids fall off because people forget to LATCH them. But again, we know that people do this, and any pannier that doesn't have some built in mechanism to compensate for something you *know* a user is going to do sooner or later is flawed in its design. There are a variety of solutions to this problem (lanyards, hinges, etc) so there's no excuse for selling a pannier that doesn't address it.

I'm ignoring homebrew panniers because we all make stupid mistakes with our homebrew equipment, or don't have the equipment required to do it "right".

Basic tip though... always bring spare carabiners and a little spare webbing or cord and never attach anything to your bike with only one connection point. I've had stuff slip out from under the cargo net that was saved by the backup attachment with a carabiner or cable. I think the suggestion to add a lanyard to old zega cases is an excellent one.

__________________
-Dachary & Kay
http://www.CorporateRunaways.com

After losing my lid once and just barely recovering it time from road scavengers I found my self triple checking to make sure the latches were locked.

Those security cables are a pain in the arse but are probably worth there weight in gold. I like the ones that BMW uses on their GSA panniers.

__________________
http://www.journeyrider.net Latin America blog (07-8)