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Originally Posted by ThirtyOne
So I've lived in Latin America for a long enough time to have learned the unfortunate consequences of theft. If it's not nailed down, there's a high chance it'll disappear. Additionally, the Expedition bags do not have liners or inner bags that can be slipped out with the bag's contents. I had to take the panniers off. There wasn't any other option.
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Yea, my house was robbed twice living in Guatemala and Van broke into once.
No other option for inner bag? Any common re-usable grocery or ice cooler carry bag will work perfectly as inner bag ... one of my pannier sets uses them now! But if your Wolfman's are that easy to go ON/OFF then no need. The guys I traveled with took about 30 minutes to load up in the morning ... everyday. (two panniers and Top duffel bag) But to be fair, it was their FIRST trip using the Wolfman's. Learning curve.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ThirtyOne
But, as I said earlier, I probably wouldn't use the Expedition bags again for international travel. I probably would't use soft bags at all. I was traveling solo and sometimes I wanted to stop at a park or Maya ruins site. You could ask a guard to keep an eye on your bike if it's a big open parking lot, but that's not always an option, and guards can't always be trusted. If you want to park your bike in a town or small city and explore for a few hours, hard lockable panniers is the best option in my opinion...at least in Central America.
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This is always the challenge using soft luggage and leaving the bike to go for hike, visit a ruin or shop around town. But if you think hard panniers are more secure ... well ... you may be living in a fools paradise!  Any hard pannier can be cracked into in less than 5 minutes by a kid with a screw driver and hammer. Witnessed this in Mexico!
So not an easy thing to overcome, often you just have to look around and ask, try to find a trustworthy person to keep any eye on your bike(S) usually money helps.  I generally find kids. Pay half up front, half when I get back. And I always mention Policia.
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