You can buy hard luggage for only ¨200? Wow - please tell me where! :-)

I have rented bikes over seas with hard bags, and tour here at home in North America with soft bags.

I personally would much rather have hard bags. You can lock them, they are more weather proof, can't be (easily) cut open or snooped through.

One fellow mentions that he thinks hard luggage is more dangerous in a crash. I dunno about that: if anything I think in a low speed spill the bags will help absorb the brunt of the impact, thus protecting the bike itself.

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Bruce Clarke
brclarke@islandnet.com
www.islandnet.com/~brclarke

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

I got a set of Kappa K33Ns with bike-specific racks for about 230 euros... but that was a very friendly dealer with a lot of overstock.

I'd agree that at least on asphalt, hardbags can act as crash protection. I scuffed mine up almost immediately, but they saved my paintjob in the process, if not my legs... low-speed hard-surface stuff though.

I would not necessarily agree that hardbags promote overpacking. My first few trips, I had softbags - first just a pair of soft panniers slung over the pillion with a rucksack strapped on top, then a full Motodetail set with a big rollbag for the pillion. Learning not to overpack was a function of experience for me. Granted I've not gone RTW, but I did go on a month-long trip around Europe packing everything into the panniers, with small electronics (phone, camera, powerbank, GoPro) in a quick-remove tankbag. Top box stayed empty for locking my helmet and tankbag at stops. Camping stuff was in a separate rollbag on the pillion - never ended up needing it, stayed in hotels/hostels. So basically all my clothes, laptop, souvenirs, spares, etc. fit into the two 33L panniers. They're not flat boxes and don't promote strapping more stuff to the top of them, which was a matter of discipline on its own!

In terms of security... beyond the de-facto ease of breaking into the panniers, there are two other factors to consider. One is your own mental well-being. Your panniers are probably not going to contain anything massively expensive or irreplaceable anyway. The financial loss from getting a few jeans, shirts and cooking utensils stolen is probably not catastrophic. But with soft luggage, you will spend your time away from the bike worrying about it. Hardbags save your nerve cells moreso than your possessions.

The other factor is the same as the "invisibility cloak" of a bike cover. Everyone Knows(tm) that hardbags are super hard to break into! So nobody will even try. Softbags attract idle hands and cheeky looks, hardbags don't. In my experience.