Soft or Hard Panniers

For long trips, IMO a quality set of hard panniers with solid mounts work well. I used a set of the Jesse aluminium panniers. Everything inside stays dry and is protected. In the event of an off, the panniers usually take part of the hit and often protect your leg. The weight is kept low so helping the COG issue. I used several plastic snap containers inside the panniers to keep items separated categorically and easily accessible. Kick off the mud and a quick wipe down with a wet rag gets them clean and functional.

I don't like zippers as on some soft luggage makes as they get mud in them and wind up getting stuck and/or breaking.

Soft waterproof bags are also very good (ie. Wolfman, Ortlieb) and can add to a pannier system easily as required or just use the soft bags without the panniers when only minimal luggage is required. I highly recommend the use of Rok- Straps for attaching these to the bike. They do get dirt/sand etc. all around the folds of the bags so when opening them, especially when wet and dirty it's inevitable that some dirt gets on the inside contents. Cleaning them up is a little more involved as compared the hard panniers.

My 2 cents.

My main concern is security. Some of the time I'd like to be a tourist and park up to wander off and have a look at things away from the bike. Whilst I've heard many people say they have never had a problem with soft luggage I always felt really uneasy whenever I parked up my old sports bikes with their Oxford soft panniers. So much so that ultimately it deterred me from going too far from the bike or for too long.

But I also don't want to be riding around on a wing-nut which is what a lot of the hard cases end up making the bike look like. I had a VFR800 back in 2002 with Givi cases. It was almost as wide as the other half's car - where's the fun in that if you get stuck in traffic? I know - I shouldn't be in traffic with the Africa Twin but sadly in the UK and a lot of Europe this is pretty unavoidable en route to off-road paradise...

So, I'm favouring the travelling light option - which for me (I can't pack to save my life...) is a top-box for valuables (not the ugly Honda OEM one though), a seat pack if the other half is at home, and perhaps a tank bag although I generally don't like tank bags for some reason. If the other half ever does come out I might have to go for side cases (one for her shoes and the other for her make-up, hair dryer, hair straighteners, hair conditioner, face wash, hair brush, spare hair brush...). And if I'm camping I also might have to have panniers.

There's no perfect solution is there? And that's despite the ones you can buy being priced for perfection...

I was debating this topic with people over on the Horizons Unlimited board recently. Lots of people there who really do the whole round the world bike travel thing. The considered view seems to be that soft luggage all around is best from the point of view of weight distribution, and crash survivability. You don't want hard panniers on the side as they deform in a crash, and you don't want a top box on the back as it's a lot of weight in exactly the wrong place.

Most seem to believe that a hard box also attracts attention - "what is so valuable in there that it needs locking up?" wonders the thief - and can be jammed open with a screwdriver almost as easily as a soft bag can be slashed. So most bring a bike cover with them, and cover the bike whenever they're away from it, opening an out of sight out of mind policy. The cheaper looking the bike cover, the better.

Then your real valuable (passports, documents, electronics) go in a tank bag that you carry with you at all times when you're away from the bike.

Also, re: top boxes - whenever I've used them in the past I believe that they do impact fuel economy a bit.

Well I think the argument is that if you put a fairly shabby looking bike cover on it, no-one knows that there's a top of the range new bike under there without going to the effort to look. Therefore it's less likely to catch the casual thief's eye.

Ultimately, if a professional thief wants your bike & possessions then he'll get them whatever you do.

I may also use Pacsafe mesh with some of my soft luggage though, to make it slightly harder for someone who does look under the cover.

This is the approach I think I'm going to take with luggage for long-distance touring:

Tank bag that comes with me at all times for really valuable stuff - money, electronics, documents, etc.

Soft bags with pac safe for stuff I don't want to lose but wouldn't ruin my life if I did - camping gear, tools, spare parts, specialist riding clothes like heated vests

Soft bags for stuff that I don't care too much about losing - casual clothes, food

Then every bag will be taken off the bike at night to come into the hotel/tent with me.

I've looked in more details at their products now, and the Backcountry Pannier System looks even better! I did have a question, about security again, so emailed them and they came straight back to let me know that the next production run of their attachment system would allow for a padlock to be added to it.

Because here's the thing with motorcycle luggage. Most of the time, what you've got in the luggage (dirty socks and the like) isn't as valuable to you as the luggage itself. So you want to make it annoying for the thief to remove the entire bag, so that they take the content instead and leave the empty bag attached. It's way easier to buy replacement socks in the middle of Africa than it is to buy an entire new soft luggage system!

So anyway, based on my first impressions, top company! It's really striking with their products how they must have been designed by people who actually go on motorcycle trips. There are myriad little annoyances that can happen with luggage on trips and they've obviously experienced that, thought about it and designed a way around. It's very likely now that this will be the luggage I get for the AT.