Sounds pretty sensible to me. I switched from soft to hard for European touring years back and would never go back but have gone soft again for my African jaunt.

Nice pic too!

Another often overlooked but seriously important factor to any luggage setup is width. I see some seriously wide setups that extends beyond the width of the handlebars. Cats don't have whiskers for nothing. Nature figures it out but it's often ignored.

https://youtu.be/EQgaZ_jc-aM
Minute 33.55 of the vid shows what a wide setup does to an expensive hard pannier.

Second the handling. Riding a bikes is very dynamic and requires frequent rotation along the bike axis. Tight rope walkers use long poles to slow this movement down. It's to do with the moment of inertia. For all the physics lovers this is I=mr2 where m is mass and r is radius from the axis of rotation. This is squared making it twice as important than weight. Another reason why I hate needing steel racks.

Keep it light and keep it tight.


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One thing I haven't seen in this thread is soft luggage's vulerability to termites.



I put my luggage away while waiting for spare parts to get my bike running again in Congo. Some weeks later I thought I'm ready to go again, but nope. Need some stitching done.

Yea, but Termites can get into your clothing and other vulnerable items that are inside your Hard Alu cases too. Once they get into your clothing bags .... same result.

Easy solution. Keep a few Moth Balls in your cases or bags. I use Dryer strips from GAIN detergent. (used to condition clothing when in dryer)
God knows what horrible chemical this useless product has in them ... but they do keep bugs out, probably Termites too! Also keeps Mosquito's away ... I keep one in each pocket of my riding jacket. The Gain dryer strips actually seem to help!

Sound advice mollydog!

I'm planning for another Africa trip (have done a few already) and I'm trying to decide whether I want to get hard or soft side panniers. Actually I know that I prefer to ride with soft ones, because they are less likely to break if the bike drops and generally more flexible, but I'm worried about the fact that it might be easier for them to get stolen.

In total I've done 18 African land border crossing on my last trip, and most of those involved leaving the bike unattended for at least a few minutes to go into some house and get the permits to cross the border. That's exactly the moment when I'd be worried with soft luggage because I think some random guy might decide to take some of them off the bike, with hard boxes that's less likely to happen.

Do you guys consider theft when you decide between hard/soft boxes?

Hard or Soft ... or BOTH ... there will always be those who have no idea how to travel light.


How W I D E is too wide??

Hello


First I thought Photoshop, but there are pegs underneath.
Where can I get these?
Get some short skis under that and no more problems in the snow.


sushi

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My RTW:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrXt660ztenere

So tell me again how you would be expected to go around bends with these!!!!!

You can;'t beat this for soft luggage that does not need a rack for any bike 250cc - 1200cc

Reckless 80L System (v2.0) | Mosko Moto

check it out. I just ordered for my NX400 Honda Falcon I ride in South America.

xfiltrate

Hello travellers, my 2 cents "updated" :

I've made 40 000 km during the last 5 months, from France to Kazakhstan then Morocco, with Touratech Zega Pro 2 panniers. Mainly road, from excellent to awful, and I've just made 170km of tough offroad in Morocco.

Here are the main points I will remember about the soft vs hard luggage debate :
- It's better to travel (reasonnably) light. And hard luggage add 'dead weight' even empty.
- If you intend to drive mainly on correct roads, no problem with hard luggage. They are even a plus because they are quicker to pack, and you can let the bike without surveillance without having to worry too much (but most of the time in addition of panniers you have also a soft rackpack above them....). Anyways, during my trip I've never been stolen anything on the bike (of course I avoid letting my stuff packed on it overnight or in wrong places, and when needed I secured the rackpack with a steel mesh PacSafe).
- If you intend to drive on damaged roads, or offroad, go for soft luggage. I haven't tried them (except the rackpack), but I've travelled with another rider equipped with soft luggage, properly packed and strapped to the bike, it was clearly an advantage offroad. You can feel that both the bike and the luggage suffer less. And less wide too, which is important in traffic.
- If you go for hard panniers, my experience with Touratech Zega is good, except concerning the system Pro2, which has failed on one of my panniers (overloaded). I would go for the classic Zega Pro system, more robust. Choose the narrowest panniers (31 liters). And follow the manufacturer's recommandations for max load.

In conclusion, the next time, I will travel lighter, and with high-quality soft luggage (and perhaps a small and solid topcase loaded with light stuff, in order to have a lockable place on the bike).

The advantages / disadvantages of using a rack for holding luggages has been discussed before. But after offroading a lot in Africa, there is one advantage that I have not seen mentioned: using a luggage rack with a metal loop that goes behind the rear tire is really great for deep sand riding.

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.

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!