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ZEGA (Touratech)Alu Boxes ? Good or Bad ?
Is anyone using or have used ZEGA Aluminium boxes from Touratech. I was about to buy these for my Africa Twin but I have just read a really awful review of them.(see below)
http://www.smellybiker.com/cgi-bin/s...paration.shtml If anyone has any comments on these, please let me know. Thanks |
Yes this is sad true. ZEGAs are good for higway use but not offroad riding.
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Can anybody recommend some strong Alumunium boxes and rack system for an Africa twin then. I really cant afford to spend over £600 but they need to survive 8 months in South America.
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Second hand Jesse's if you can find them or the Caja Sahel panniers:
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthr...threadid=40366 Reviews: http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthr...threadid=49854 http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthr...threadid=44443 I've not seen them myself but they seem pretty good. Only drawbacks I've noticed are that they're not quick release and that the removeable lids are curved, not flat which lessens their usefulness as tables etc. No idea on cost either, just making you aware of their existence. |
If you are a bit skint and have basic workshop skills you could make your own. You could buy a rack aftermarket, as that is the tricky bit, then fabricate the boxes out of sheet Aluminium. I just made some boxes out of sheet steel (I really AM skint!) for my Enfield to fit in the aftermarket Indian Army racks. Cost: £11 for the steel, £12 to powder coat them. £8 for catches and a quid say for pop rivets. Total cost: £32.
I see no reason why making boxes out of Alu should be harder. And Metal Mules are pop riveted together so it must be a reasonable method of construction. They are a bit rough but seem very solid. I dont expect them to be totally waterproof though. matt |
Iv just looked into this and unfortunatly they only make panniers for the BMW Gs series.
I found there website: http://www.littleireland.ie/cajasahel/index.htm The search continues..... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif |
I've got Caja Sahel and very much like them. Decent room (41&43 litres) and cornering room (unlike Zegas the bottom arc is cut)
Yes, currently they only make them for BMW R-GSes only. But i've heard they have plans for making them for other makes too. E-mail them about that. As for Zegas, skip them if you can. They seem to be cheap alternative, but i've heard many bad storyes too. While i was searching for panniers and feedbacks I've heard the good ones are: Bernd Tesch: http://www.berndtesch.de/ Caja Sahel: http://www.cajasahel.com/ Al Jesse: http://www.jesseluggage.com/ Vern: http://www.projectvnd.com/ Happy Trails: http://www.happy-trail.com/ |
hello,
I just travelled for 6 months in central-south america. I had Tesch aluminium cases. they are strong and can take a beating, but I would recommend you take soft lugguage instead. a lot smaller and cheaper. and remember, the more space you have got, the more crap you are going to take with you. it is no fun weaving through traffic with wide metal panniers. this is just my personal opinion( I must agree, big metal panniers look cool on the bike), but travel light and have a great trip, Mark |
This is true Mark! Soft luggages are better in hard terrain, if you hit and crash. This is simple, alu boxes are good for closed cars and cargo roof racks. Heavy box can easy loose connection between bike if you crash, and how to repair this in this conditions? I was test ZEGA on African deserts, and no comments. This is joke. Maybe if you ride 5km/h will be ok. I was lost my soft bags at 120km/h on desert section I was hit in little jump... and all was ok.
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I agree that soft luggage is best in bad conditions but I am worried about security. If i leave the luggage on my bike, while i got into a shop etc. Someone can easily steal soft luggage. I am going around South America, and many places the bike will be left unguarded with luggage on.
I just dont know what to do http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/frown.gif Can anyone recommend a good Pannier rack / soft luggage system then ?? [This message has been edited by tedmagnum (edited 28 July 2005).] |
I believe everything that I've read here about the Zega panniers. However I must point out something.
In the Long Way Round dokkie (groan) E.McG is hit by a car from the rear. The bike apparently shot up and was barely kept under control. The car was completely immobile due to a busted radiator and slightly mangled front. The panniers took the full brunt of the hit and survived with minor damage. How do you explain that or should we thank the rack and not the panniers? P.S. If Charlie reads this: I actually enjoyed the LWR very much! [This message has been edited by LuckyStriker (edited 28 July 2005).] |
hello again,
you could go to the outdoorshop and get a steel mesh net, the kind people use to secure their backpack to the roof of a bus. attach this to your rack first, then the softbags, close the net and lock with a small padlock. you don't need a strong rack, just something to keep the bags away from the exhaust and the wheel. maybe ortlieb, they make systems for bicycles. Mark |
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If you don't have expensive pannier rack made alloy u-shape plate and mount on rear part of your bike. Drill few holes and easly attach your stuff. This is best bulett proof solution.
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The luggage rack of Touratech is known to be pretty tough. Besides that they fit the bike you order it for exactly, holes, screws, connections, everything. On that rack your're free to mount any pannier.
The disadvantage of extremely tough boxes & racks is that in case of an accident your luggage might still be in good shape, but your bike frame might be stuffed :-( Hans |
I recently bought some Andy Strapz canvas panniers :
http://www.andystrapz.com/expedition_panniers.htm They seem to be well made and tough, and have a good reputation here in Straya. If you're worried about security, I also have some Zegas which anyone could open in about five seconds with a decent screwdriver. They really need a much better latching system. Good luck in your travels, Phil |
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Try Paul cave as he does a really nice set which are stronger than those other ones and cost under £400. Hi details are; EIBC Ltd t +44 1256 889989 m +44 7879 627911 e paul@eibcltd.co.uk http://www.xrv.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1812 This should let you view what they look like on Paul's bike. |
These Paul cave ones seem great and he really is highly sung about on www.xrv.org.uk.
Cheers for that link mate, its helped allot http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif |
No problem, i am presently saving for a pair myself for my Africa Twin.
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Hi, I have just bought a set of touratech boxes for my AT,previous to this I was using Oxford throw overs, good kit it survivied me throwing the bike down in Maroc 12 times, down a road in France once, mostly low speed stuff. However, the draw backs are when it rains your kit will get damp and if your camping its no fun having wet bags in the tent. Also there is a limit to how much you can carry. As for the strenght of boxes, aluminiumm isn't renowned for its crash proof properties, hit hard enough it will bend, who makes the box at the top end of the market is in my opinion academic. If you want boxes buy them, the advantages are obvious.
PK |
Iv just found the perfect pannier system. check out the link below
Its very highly recommended, the rack is also quick release, it fits with race exhausts. The boxes are fantastic quality and the bonus is that there £200 cheaper than TT. The guy who makes / fits them is a top bloke. Im putting my order in this week http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif http://www.xrv.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1848 Also, email the guy: paul"at"eibcltd.co.uk http://www.eibcltd.co.uk/ [This message has been edited by tedmagnum (edited 12 August 2005).] |
Hi Everyone,
Traveled from the USA to the Arctic Circle, then to Tierra del Fuego and back to the USA. Lots of dirt roads in Bolivia and Argentina. Two nasty crashes. I used Jesse Bags. 100K+ miles on the Jesse system. They are not perfect and honestly no bag system is. If you have soft bags you will have to drag them into every hotel room you stay at and that will get to be a PIA, especially if you travel with full camping gear. Security first. Beware of soft baggers. No way they are carrying full gear. Ask where the tent stove and cook kit is? And the sleeping pad and bag. Figure it out. Your stuff has to go somewhere and if you live off your bike for long periods you need stuff or you do without, think it through if you plan to camp, carry books, clothes, a decent medical kit and clothes for both a tropical and a temperate climate. And a bike cover and electronics and tools and spare parts, water filter, dop kit, Yada, Yada. Man, it takes cubic inches of storage. You might think the guys at Zega are stupid but come on, they have made these bags for many years because the design is durable and VERY easy to pack giving the most packable space of any bag. This is very important when you use the bike every day. Also it is not just the bag to consider. The rack is just as important, you do not often hear complaints about Zega bag mounts fracturing, they will stand up to a repair when you crash and you will crash. Everyone I rode with in Central and South America that did any off road riding crashed. If you get hit by an automobile and have soft bags your equipment wil be ruined or strewn all over the road. Saftey. Which bag do you want to come down on your leg? Nice rounded edges on the Zega bags if you noticed. Also if they get crushed being a square design makes them easy to pound out. OK, you should know I just bought a set of Zega bags for my new-used '02 KTM Adventure 640LC. For the money I could have had any system. Ya they are wide but no wider than Happy Trails or the Jesse system. Use a 41L on non exhaust side and 35L on exhaust side to keep overall width down to a minimum. The worst part of the Zega system is that you can lose the lids and they need a leash to prevent this, Also the locks are junk but they are on all bags. At least with the square design it will be easy to install a heavy hasp and a big lock. Security first. Consider everything. Bill Shockley, Tomahawk, WI. |
I was thinking about getting hard luggage for my next trip but reading this thread the main advantage of hard luggage seems to be security. I had to ask myself "How much are my scants actually worth and how many times could they be nicked before my outlay of cash was the same as a set of Touratechs?"
I reckon I'm going to get a set of softies and a top box for my valuables. My question is this though: Anyone used the Ortlieb Motorcycle Saddllebags? They look good and simple and they are supposedly waterproof. My Ortlieb roll top bag is great and survived a crash which wrote off the bike so I like the brand. Would be interested in peoples experiences though. matt |
Oops, just reread the thread and seen Ians entry re:Ortliebs. Sounds good enough for me. I have the same issues regarding isolating the bags from the silencer though. I'm thinking of making an aluminium plate bolted to the passenger footrest and parcel rack but am not sure if this will itself heat up and melt the bag. How far would the plate have to be from the silencer? Alternatively is there an insulating material I could stick to the alu plate to prevent heat transfer?
matt |
If you have two plates between the exhasust and the luiggage it will keep most of the heat away.
Most of the heat seams to be radiation - so the second plate colects that. Convection should not be a problem uless you are stoped. A 10 mm spacing should be enough between the sheets - provided you dont seal the edges - sealing the edges does not let cool air flow between the plates. |
Hello. Just my two cents on this topic. I prefer hard bags. I was never impressed with what's on the market and the price, so i made my own. A solid 2mm aluminum sheet bent into a trough (for turning clearence)and capped on either side, TIG welded throughout. The lids are much the same, simple square with a 1" lip and a rubber seal. I used weld-on aluminum hinges, which leave the lids removeable and very usefull for trays, wind-block, etc. I've now discovered how fragile the hinges actually are and will be adding clip-on cable lanyards to prevent them from hitting the groung when they do fall.I lock them with barrel-locks, available in any country. My boxes are mounted with 1 1/2" angle, one mounted to the box, one mounted to my sub-frame. They sit on top of each other and are bolted together with two bolts. I added a strut from the very back of my sub-frame to the footpegs to create a strong tri-angle, The bottom of the box has a welded tab on the lower front which bolts to a tab welded to this strut. The two boxes are attached together across the back with another strut. The complete unit is as wide as my handle-bars.
Each box is attached with four easy-access bolts. I can remove the whole system in under five minutes without opening the boxes and exposing their contents. If i wish, i could fasten them with special torx-head bolts to make it more secure, but i haven't bothered. The boxes only come off the bike when i feel like some serious off-roading anyway. In my opinion, any high-speed crash has the ability to bend the frame, boxes or not. We're not susposed to crash at high-speed anyways, right!?! My boxes are slowly getting scratched and dented from off-road downs, but actually act as a strengthner to my frame and as an enormous crash-bar, protecting my levers and handlebars. It's also really easy to pick-up, because it really never falls far. I puposely built them wider and not so deep to provide more ground clearence. This is also very important when you get into a situation where you put your foot down to regain balance (yah, i know, a rookie mistake, but after 25 years of off-roading i still catch myself...) your leg doesn't get caught under the box and rip your knee to shreads! You still have room to get it out and remind yourself never to do that again! Granted, i'm a metal fabricator and have access to all the tools required to build this stuff, so to those who don't, try this: Build your boxes out of card-board parrerns, then give the patters to a qualified metal shop. They have the gear to cut-out the sheet and brake (bending machine)into shape in a few hours. If i wasn't a welder, i would definately rivet them together, using a marine-adhesive on the seams. Every plane you see flying above you, and nearly every bridge you will cross has rivets! |
I think you guys need to take a look at the Zega cases and custom rear frame I had made:
http://tinyurl.com/6gymm |
A mate of mine has Metal Mules which are very good. If I could afford hard panniers I'd probably go for a set of them. As long as you don't specify too many features you could get a set of 2 38l panniers and rack for £600.
Matt |
Despite my awful review on the Zega cases - the Touratech rack IS GOOD !
Its quality steel, well made, and very strong. Six crashes, 50000km, and no signs of damage. My 2cents on soft luggage. I got hit side on by a car in Brasil. The metal boxes took all the impact, saving a space for my legs between the bike/bumper and bike/road. ------------------ Last seen in S.America, missing presumed fed. http://www.smellybiker.com |
I will throw in my two pence worth I have had both ali panniers and hepco gobi plastic panniers and can recommend the plastic set, security wise they will stop a walk bye thief to about the same level as ali ones, they bounce much better than ali in a crash. they cost about £400 pair, they are 37 litre,dust proof, submersible - waterproof, lockable, carry 3.5 litres water in jacket of skin of pannier,they are virtually indestructable (double skinned polythene type plastic,top loading,quickly detachable with keyed locks, have top luggage mounting straps and you can get a42 ltr top box to go with the set as well. they mount quite high so are not such a problem onrough ground or when cornering. No single luggage system can do everything and these are smaller in capacity than some but I have used them for two years without any problems and they have been in several slower speed drops and taken the blows really well as the are not totally rigid like metal. for me they work well.
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Iv done some serious research now and looked at all the solutions. For me , im going for the indestructable Overland Solutions kit. Im not sure of the price yet but they really seem to be the most bomb proof out there.
http://www.overland-solutions.com/ |
Iv done some serious research now and looked at all the solutions. For me , im going for the indestructable Overland Solutions kit. Im not sure of the price yet but they really seem to be the most bomb proof out there.
http://www.overland-solutions.com/ *** Well, that's kin of what I posted before .. I have an Overland-Solutions rear end on the G/S. pics here: http://tinyurl.com/6gymm |
Hey,
I had ZEGA-cases and was happy as long as I had no crash. Well as it happens, I did some trips (one of them in south america) and so I could test them really well. Since I had a few crashes there I can tell you, that you should not relay on them for off-road trips. The boxes brake really easily even at low speed accidents. But there is one big adventage: In case they break, you can repair them quite easely (as long as the material is still ok, so done in Bolivia). I just sealed them afterwards with some silicone rubber and I could use them another 2 months. Well, now I am looking for new boxes and so I found to the Tesch-Type-Boxes. Really good but a bit expensive. However, it pays out when you do not have to buy new ones after a crash. In my opinion, ZEGA-cases are good for normal European street-travelling but not for off-road trips. Have a nice time and hopefully find the right decision Burnout1 |
I have had pretty good luck with the Pelican cases I put on the front of my bike; I will be setting up something similar in the back fairly soon. A Pelican case weighs about as much as a similarly sized 1.5mm wall aluminum case. The cases are waterproof (truly), they can take a beating because the plastic flexes a little more than the aluminum, and they are lockable. They are also much cheaper than aluminum cases. My cases work as crash guards, and at $45 apiece, if I do detroy them, they are cheap to replace.
If you buy an existing sturdy rack, it is a simple manner to drill a couple of holes in the Pelican case for mounting hardware (just silicone the holes as you put it together to keep the case submersible). If you ever have a crash serious enough to destroy a Pelican case, and the rest of the bike survives, it will only take a hand drill to put the mounting hardware holes in a new case. On top of that, Pelican cases are available in many places. You can have them shipped to you or find them in larger cities, should you need to replace one on the road. Matthew |
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Well...thanks for all the posts but now things have changed once more.
The Africa twin has gone and iv got an XR650R.. I think it will be more suitable for many reasons but i wont go into that here. Im getting a custom rack built for the bike but the guy whos building them wants me to give him the bikes and the boxes for him to make a suitable rack for. Does anyone make 2mm aluminium boxes with good locks and are waterproof which are user friendly. It seems that manufactures are struggling to get everything right and i cant see why !! Also.. Fitting systems.. Hows is it done ??? If i do go for the soft luggage.. has anyone seem any lockable soft luggage. [This message has been edited by tedmagnum (edited 21 December 2005).] |
Hola
From Sunny Donegal ! Ted mey oul flower this one seems to be goin on a long time , if you would care to email me i may well be able to help. I can Fabricate 2 - 3 MM alluminium and have the best locking locks your money can buy. Cajasahel.com |
Top of the morning to you sir. I would love to email you but your email isnt "available".
feel free to email me on: eddie(at)titaninet.co.uk I would love to see what you can knock up mate. |
Just done London - Cape Town with Metal Mules. Easy on/off, held together in falls, totaly waterproof.
------------------ Simon http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/fitzpatrick |
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