My wife and I are about to start a few months travelling on the GS around North America two up and after much agonizing over which of the panniers to replace our BMW system cases with decided on the Micatechs rather than the more traditional (to quote someone the other day) "boxes that look as though you are carrying dangerous medical waste".

There have been a lot of threads about service support on these forums and I thought I would share our experience with Sue and Bob at Micatech. Firstly, email sent over the weekend enquiring about whether they would fit with a Remus exhaust were answered honestly on the Sunday - "we don't know but will check". When I asked whether I could ride from Manhattan to see them or if they were going to be at the BMW MOA rally in Vermont they said they would be at the rally or I was very welcome to come and see them. I chanced my arm and said that if they were at the rally I would buy a set if they fitted them. Without blinking, Sue agreed to bring a pair in my choice of colour to the rally and if they didn't fit, which they would do for me to make sure I was happy, then not my problem.

Good to their word, they were at the rally, we agreed to get there early the next morning and Bob would fit them. It turned out we were in the same hotel so at 7.30 in the morning Bob is out in the rain fitting my panniers and despite my request that I could finish fitting, he wanted to see them on properly before going to their stand at the rally even if it meant turning up late. They even took my old cases away and posted them to me.

Conclusion - happy wife and myself, great cases tested over the next few days, discrete mounts rather than industrial style scaffolding around the rear wheel and a belief that with service like this they deserve to succeed.

If anyone wonders - Plenty of fresh air clearance around the Remus, a Givi adapter plate for the topbox was also accomodated and I have absolutely nothing to do with the company other than be a very satisified customer.