I am planning to fit a couple of panniers to my MUZ baghira 660cc. The frame for the panniers i am gonna have welded and fitted to the bike by a welder friend of mine. the panniers i am still not sure what to do i have two choices:

A) 2 heavy duty plastic ammo boxes (dimensions: outside 50x27x30cm and from inside 42x22x29cm) they are not very big but not too small either. (picture attached)

OR

B) 2 home made aluminium boxes.

The ammo boxes will be cheaper and less time consuming to fit and definetly water proof. But they are not too spacious inside . On the other hand the aluminium homemade boxes will be more time consuming to manufacture, but they could be made to measure and to what size i want.

I will probably go for the aluminum ones. i am still not sure though what grade of aluminium to use and what tickness?? and also if to use welding to attach the four walls of the box together or just rivets and silicone (to be waterproof)

I also have to keep in mind the exhaust of the baghira, since it comes up high as shown in the picture of the bike attached.

any thoughts about my little project would be appreciated

Cheers !

Attached Thumbnails

 

 

My preference would be the ammo boxes, with an ally heatshield to keep the heat from the exhaust from melting the plastic. They look pretty tough!

keep us posted with pics on your progress, Nice to see someone using a "Baggi" they were not very popular in the UK, I think I was the only person who went into the local dealers that actually LIKED the style of them, but couldnt afford one at the time........lol

Martyn

cheers martynbiker,

that was a response i was not quite excpecting, infact i was excpecting to find that the aluminium panniers would be the definite winner ! Yes they are quite havy duty being ex army ammo boxes, they have double walls and very durable and light too. the only down side is that they are not that deep inside, that is less space. one ammo box i calculated has a capacity of approximately 27 litres. (if i figured out well the internet conversion table)
Having two ammo boxes will make it 54 litres and having 3 ammo boxes makes it 81 litres total luggage space.

keep on riding .... I dream...

plus say a sleeping bag, stuffsack for clothes and a tent and bedroll......... maybe a front rack for bedroll and tent?
how long did you say you were going away for?????????? roflmao!

here are some pics of Lois Pryces XT225 Serow kitted out for trans america trip. looks like she was keen on ammo boxes too. the front rack was a smart idea too.

For what it's worth here are my thoughts (and I cheated and bought some Metal Mules - so what do I know? )

If you go down the aluminium box route I'd suggest a thickness of around 2mm which is what the pro manufacturers seem to use.

There are pro's and con's with rivets vs welding. Rivets would be easier to make and will give your box a 'failsafe' in the event of an off. On the downside you will end up with more bits sticking out on the inside of the box, unless you have access to a blind riveting machine.

Welding aluminium is not easy to do. You need to get it right if you want the boxes to be waterproof - but it would give you an uncluttered box inner (depending on how you plan to mount them).

You might want to consider something like an Ortlieb bag as a waterproof liner - I've used these for years to keep dirty and clean clothes separate and they work very well.

The metal boxes would have the advantage of being whatever shape/size you decide you need but the downside of being more time consuming to make and probably quite a bit more expensive.

The ammo boxes look like a quicker and cheaper option with the disadvantage of being the size that they are and, from the sounds of it, wasting valuable space with a double lining you don't really need.

But I think you already knew all of that...

If you re going for 1 week or 2 months you still have to take a tent and sleeping bag and all..
we were thinking of thicker aluminium sheets at first but the thicker it is the more expensive and the more wieght you put on the bike.
We were going to rivet the walls together, apart from the lid which will probably has to be welded to a shape like that of a shoe box lid. ?? I do not mind having the rivets poking from the inside, i ll use a liner or something. have been looking up ideas on the net and found some other threads as well which are interesting i found one in particular but in unfortunately it is in German.

Lovely work! Love the front rack, what a great idea... I may have to steal that!