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Hard or soft luggage? Hard or soft luggage?
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Equipping the Bike - what's the best gear? Anything to do with the bikes equipment, saddlebags, etc. Questions on repairs and maintenance of the bike itself belong in the Brand Specific Tech Forums.
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 19 Aug 2017
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Originally Posted by PatOnTrip View Post
When you get stuck in the sand, you just need to go behind the bike, grab that metal loop, lift the rear end of the bike to remove the rear wheel from the sand hole. You are good to go in no time. It is so much faster than digging with your hands under the bike. Of course, this works better if you ride a 650cc or less bike and your are in ok shape. The legs are doing the work.
there is better method out there simply lay down bike on one side, that will cause rear wheel to go up and hole in sand will bury itself. Stand up the bike back and you're good to go.
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  #2  
Old 19 Aug 2017
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damn, my givi trekkers are heavy to carry even when empty but it's the best choice when I travel 2-up which also implicates good roads most off the time.

When riding solo and bad roads or off-road dominate soft luggage only, no really other alternative here. Who wants break your bike subframe or destroy your pannier in the middle of nowhere?

BTW, soft luggage is also waterproof theses days.
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  #3  
Old 19 Aug 2017
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Originally Posted by tremens View Post
damn, my givi trekkers are heavy to carry even when empty but it's the best choice when I travel 2-up which also implicates good roads most off the time.

When riding solo and bad roads or off-road dominate soft luggage only, no really other alternative here. Who wants break your bike subframe or destroy your pannier in the middle of nowhere?

BTW, soft luggage is also waterproof theses days.
Or ... have that heavy hard bag trap your leg and break it. Many documented cases of this over last 10 years following ADV Travelers.

Some will defend and say how the hard bag protected their leg, and kept the bike OFF the leg. So that can happen also ... if you're lucky!
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Old 19 Aug 2017
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Originally Posted by mollydog View Post
Or ... have that heavy hard bag trap your leg and break it. Many documented cases of this over last 10 years following ADV Travelers.

Some will defend and say how the hard bag protected their leg, and kept the bike OFF the leg. So that can happen also ... if you're lucky!

yeah, same debate goes with boxer engine whether it protects your legs or actually can cause injury. Some report on the net about busted knee by that sticking out cylinder heads. I rather leaning towards the latter, the less hard parts during the crash the better
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  #5  
Old 22 Aug 2017
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I would allways go for hard panniers as they protekt your legs and the bike when the bike is falling and they protect your expensive stuff from rain and burglers.
Hary panniers can easily build by your selfe: Build your own panniers made easy

Last edited by ta-rider; 22 Aug 2017 at 17:43.
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  #6  
Old 22 Aug 2017
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I think the 200 quid luggage was from before this thread was old enough to vote, get married, join the army, buy a round....

Times have changed.

My current set up is all soft except this



Andy
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  #7  
Old 4 Sep 2017
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I've been riding for tens of thousands of miles with Ortlieb QRLs and have been very happy with them. That said, the mounting bar should be made of something other than plastic, however, although it slightly bends under load, it has yet to fail and that even included a down in the middle of a creek AND my new laptop inside was still dry once I drug myself out from under the bike and got it unloaded. The mounting system is easy to detach, so theft at least at night is not a problem as you can just snatch them right off your bike and bring them inside or stick them in your tent. And while on the bike, unless you know how to take them off it is not that easy for a casual bystander to take them off.

With all that said, however, I am stoked to see what Lone Rider is coming up with. Ought to see their new soft panniers by early 2018. Super cool system with watertight bags and a system of attaching stuff to the outside (kind of a molle wrapped around the watertight inner bags). I've been chatting back and forth with Fred since they started planning these and I think it will be a superior product once done.
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  #8  
Old 11 Sep 2017
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Originally Posted by ta-rider View Post
I would allways go for hard panniers as they protekt your legs and the bike when the bike is falling and they protect your expensive stuff from rain and burglers.[/IMG]
no, they do not protect your legs nor valuables - try crash at some speed and you'll see. Hard panniers will be torn off the bike mounts and all things inside thrown around. The rider can be smashed or squeezed with sharp edges of panniers. You were thinking about just tip over weren't you? LOL
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Old 12 Sep 2017
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Originally Posted by tremens View Post
no, they do not protect your legs nor valuables - try crash at some speed and you'll see. Hard panniers will be torn off the bike mounts and all things inside thrown around. The rider can be smashed or squeezed with sharp edges of panniers. You were thinking about just tip over weren't you? LOL
I think you both are RIGHT! I've seen it go both ways. One time the riders legs end up protected by hard bags because rider kept feet on pegs and sort of "rode out" the fall. In this case the Alu box took the HIT, then held the bike UP off the riders leg.

I've also seen the opposite ... where riders leg somehow got UNDER the bag.
Not good.

Also, personally witnessed a minor broken leg at walking speed off road: Deep sand, rider started to go down, tried to jump clear of bike ... but his leg got trapped under Hard box. Not good!

NOTE: this is very similar to how Ted Simon broke his leg in Africa. Took him a long long time to recover.

Our guy was able to still ride the bike. Only a minor Tibia crack, not a real break. We followed him to hospital. (2.5 hours away) A week later, back home, his Surgeon put in a couple pins, all OK in 6 months. He was lucky, but it can be much worse with bad luck.

I know when I had hard boxes on my BMW I constantly smashed the backs of my legs while trying to paddle through sand or dirt in slow riding. Hated that.
Never fell off that R100RS so don't know about trapped legs or ... protection.

Like I say, can go either way! Do you feel lucky!
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  #10  
Old 13 Sep 2017
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Horses for courses I reckon

My wife and I hire a bike when we travel abroad and we use soft panniers from Andystrapz.

andystrapz.com.au

The pannierz are connected and either sit over the pillion seat or go under it. We use the tank pannierz which are also multi use.

And finally one large bag for the rear that is multi fit.

When we fly the pannierz are our large carry on and the tank pannierz are our small ones. The rear bag goes in cargo.

At the airport I can actually wear the pannierz like a front and rear backpack. Looks dopey but works. Saves $$ on paying for panniers etc when you hire the bike.
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  #11  
Old 20 Aug 2017
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Originally Posted by tremens View Post
there is better method out there simply lay down bike on one side, that will cause rear wheel to go up and hole in sand will bury itself. Stand up the bike back and you're good to go.
Tremens, I'll try that next time and see how I like it.
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