I have these, and have had no problems whatsoever.

Obviously you've got a bad batch. Maybe next time you should opt for Gobi's?

__________________

Visit my space here
See my photos here

They spend a lot of time at the Welders....no matter the system.

__________________
Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

I agree in every word!

Personally I have experienced that endless corrugation kill the racks, not the crashes. But my boxes are pretty solid.

Well, BMW guys are used to that things work, also under extreme conditions. That might be one of (many) things we do wrong. We can not expect the same quality of kit from Touratech, Jesse and many others.
We can’t mount flimsy hardware from various sources and expect the same quality!

….on the other hand. Why should the luggage system be the limiting factor? Well, I spend a lot of time and money to solve this. Now I have a setup where I can drive endless corrugation, two up with camping gear and luggage.

I have Happy Trails on my DL650 and am quite happy with them. They are enormous and very waterproof (tested them a month ago while driving through a flood). While I haven't had a substantial fall on my bike, I've tipped it over quite a few times and only have a few scratches and no bends on my panniers.

I had the exact same experience as TravellingStrom -- I wanted Jesse's, waited 3 months of "only two more weeks", and ended up buying/loving my Happy Trails. I have been asked if they were homemade and I doubt that would happen if I had Jesse bags.

__________________
http://davegtravels.com - RTW on a DRZ
All the way south - Texas to Tierra del Fuego in '08-'09

you break one....you get another FREE!

__________________
Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

I refuse to pay stupid money for boxes. I use Alpos boxes which, though half the price of many other boxes, still cost too much.

But anyway, these Alpos boxes do the business and are cheap (ish) and cheerful.


PS I made my own racks, so can't comment on Alpos racks.

Down with overpriced boxes......don't pay more...

I'd consider it a mistake on any dirt or potholed road when doing long distances. But if riding like a retired pensioner, then you can do with ANY boxes setup w/o anything braking.

I had Givi plastics (a bit older models, but the mounting system seems to stay same for them, only outer design is updated) on my Susuki GSX bike, even here in Estonia, mostly on very shaky USSR style paved roads I nearly killed the plastic mounting points (where metal frame meets with the plastic box), sold them. If i'd take it to out gravel roads, they'd certanly fell off at one point taking all the pot holes

Givi pannier frame twice broke because of vibrations, first on our bad roads and again it managed to broke less than 12,000km on one of my tours on a nice european roads. Needed to re-weld it twice. Can't imagine if I fit the same system on my trusty BMW GS that ride very hard on dirt and gravel, at one point I'd probably see they're missing from the bike.

My Suzuki had amazingly lot of electrical and some mechanical problems per little 50,000km I rode with it, I whish Suzuki gave me a new bike every 10,000km or so, even more problems than the plain italian boxes created per that distance, but still, I'd recommend eighter soft or alloy boxes solution if you want to ride the bike hard and/or load the panniers hard.

In fact I've seen older Givis (with those absolete outer shapes) and they had more robust fixing system than the new ones, visually seemed to be better. But still I think indeed you can use plastics panniers like new Givis, if riding very carefully, slowly over potholes, not loading them hard, then you'll have no problems on what ever boxes you have and can praise the boxes sky-high after coming back from the trip. As always it's up to the rider.

Another thing is "crash-proof" question that most of people don't consider, fortunately or unfortunately. Solid "bending and un-cracking" alloy or a soft (textile) panniers don't fell off even on high speed crash, they have a material deformation "reserve" compared to plastics. In Poland I've done a approx 100kph crash after a car decided to do an illegal maneuver. Bike slided more than 10m on tar first, off the road the over 300kg fully loaded bike did 2 saltos together with us. Thick 2.5mm boxes stayed on till the end (VERY strong frame and very strong mountings), boxer cylinders had protected my legs (i.e. with inline or V-configuarion bike my leg bones probably had been into multiple pieces) and alu had boxes protected my g/f's legs. Basically in combination with cylinders they created a "protective space" for our legs. From the situation, I can easily tell that if we had plastic boxes, my pillon's legs would have been damaged, and other worst things happenined I don't want to imagine.

Pic of the aftermath:


See those boxes and now replace the thick 2.5mm aluminium with any comercially available plastic box that is mounted on the bike with fragile frame. What would have happened to my and her legs then?

In my definition after being through this: plastic boxes would have been simply "vaporized" with these kind of forces.

More about it here: Caja Sahel

Most of us think it's mostly our own faults doing crashes etc, but this story proves you must be careful of other mad cage drivers that can end your travel in a very unexpected moment. Choosing correct boxes can play a crucial part for your own security and protecting your bike too.

Ride safe, Margus

Sorry late reply, I have been away for a while..


I started with an older Jesse system. But had to change the locks on the lids, reinforce the boxes and change the way they mount to the frame. The boxes themselves are pretty robust with lots of bends – witch makes them stronger and keeps them away from you feet.
The old Jesse frame is thrown away, when designing a new one I would say the important factors are:
-Keep the boxes as close to the frame as possible
-Minimize the length of horizontal tubing for attachment points to the frame (remember Newton)
-Use rubber dampers to minimize vibrations
-Make sure that the boxes doesn’t flex inwards (solid tube from one side to each other and solid mounting to rear foot rest)
-Three mounting points at the top
-Use circular tubes (forces go in all directions)

I don’t have a lot of pictures, but here is one. The right side is a bit difficult to make on my BMW because the cardan is big




Yes I know, but sometimes it’s not doable.


I guess it depends on how you use them. A friend used some Givis (I think) on Iceland and they were far too wide. When he was leaning the bike over the panniers hit rocks. The mounting hardware was a bit flimsy and he had to secure the boxes with belts. The system lasted pretty good for the trip but I think it would have made a lot of problems on a longer trip.





I don’t know Smellybikers problem, nor do I know much about the 650 or other “newish” BMWs. I stick to the older ones. Mine has 190kkm on the clock and will last for many years, I also have one with less then 30kkms and it will probably outlive me
Every bike has issues. We had to rebuild the top-end three times of a Honda XL on a trip, enginemounts break on the tiger when it’s stressed, a friend had to change cam-shaft on his DR twice a year and the list goes on forever.
Can you believe that on some bikes you have to remove the engine to do some top-end maintenance?




Next weekend I will drive an Ural with 2WD and sidecar…. That's fun!!!




I have to admit that I have started to think of building a touring bike based on the HP2 and the 900RR tank and front, but it will probably never happen….

Thanks Ali for the great pics and reply.

Pelikans on the way....GIVI racks going it for re-build! ($100)

__________________
Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

i've always travelled with soft luggage but i'm about to go for the hard stuff due to the fact that its just easier! with soft luggage it's easy to steal and everything has to go in waterproof bags.
anyway, whilst i'm out and about everybody seems to be using TT's on their bikes. i do 3ooo km's a week in my truck and i'd say 9/10 bikes that overtake me with alu panniers are TT's! so surely they cant be that bad!
i'm gonna try them out though as the price of €700 compared to £700 for MM's is a big difference! lets just hope that touratech in france are better than in britain! going in 6 wks!
if i'm wrong i'll cry and then let you know!

Quick and simple question: Are MetalMule available outside of the UK. From what I'm reading they make a fantastic pannier, but can they deliver to North America??

__________________
We're here for a good time, not a long time...
Mini-on-Tour

Its funny no one has mentioned Berndtesch panniers. Racks
I have these fitted on my r80gs, In the past i have used soft luggage, plastic boxes (the Gobi stuff was excellent if not small and heavy but still excellent) and the Tesch stuff. The good points of Tesch - massive capacity (I have the larger ones as they carry more for two up travel) but still retains its narrow profile each pannier is 8 inches wide (my hole set up on the Gs is max 87cm wide total - narrower than handlebars and slightly wider than cylinderheads). additional toolboxes on inside - back of pannier keeps everything seperate, Lids are flat profile and have a good locking set up and remove easy and are also usable as table top etc. the panniers are very very strong my panniers (are second hand when I bought them and have survived trips to India, middle east, arctic etc and have covered in excess of 60 to 70,000 mile and are still largely unscathed. They sit on strong box section racks they are still waterproof and have survived a rear end shunt off a van (saving the bikes sub frame, back wheel and rear end from crumbling)along with being dropped on and off road which has had no real effect on them. The only bad points I can think of is they are fixed - ie not removable without undoing 4 bolts after emptying them- which you soon adapt to - I use soft bags inside so its easy to take what I want out of the pannier. but being fixed may be a small problem in some situations. They are fairly heavy with the racks - but also very substantial. I still think in many situations more so where vast dirt and gravel roads are going to be covered soft luggage is in most cases a better choice - but for a metal box the tesch panniers to me are one of the best.

They are and they can !! BUT !! They're ludercrously expensive over here let alone when you've had them shipped, payed duty and done your conversions.

Really, they look lovely but they are NO WAY worth the money. Unless you have money to burn, look elsewhere.

They don't crash very well at all either. The mounting system is fragile and overcomplicated and the first thing to be torn off in a crash . Makes them easy to remove when they are straight though.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I had 2 pair. Totalled 1 pair and the other pair are sitting in my garage for storage. The locking mechanism kept 'adjusting' itself, and the straight edges at the bottom kept 'seeking' my lower legs through the difficult dirt stuff. If you want to seek dirt roads, stick to soft luggage. For a latte trip on the tar make your own narrow panniers. Any sheet metal place should be able to knock something up for the same price. Make a cardboard one, take it to the tradies and you get exactly what you want and waterproof.

__________________
Tacos Tyring Travels.com

Where are you reading that?

__________________