Touratech Panniers

[Farmer Palmer]

touratech zegas

Hi Gav, sorry about the late reply, bin out sowing barley!! I went for the standard TT 35 and 41 litre set complete with racks and pre mounted brackets, fitted on the bike no problem including shifting the indicators back a bit on the little brackets supplied it didn't take too long to do this. the boxes look a little lop sided due to one rack being close to the bike on the offside, the nearside box is much narrower but there is a bit of storage space on the rack above the exhaust for tent poles? I'm fitting the boxes with the wee clips for mounting stuff as well as the TT canister for meths and a water bottle for the stove etc. Still deciding about small axe, folding shovel and a towrope!! Waiting time from TT two weeks so top marks! Ordered by TT Neath by phone expected a much longer wait but can't say I've had anything but good service and my German is getting much better!!

 

[RadioActive]

Chris,

With your pre-mounted Zegas were the mounting pieces on the panniers off-set towards the front? I'm just about to drill mine (yikes!!) to fit my 1100 and seems like the pannier can't be central on the frames because of the rear part of the rear pegs which forces the pannier back.

I wonder why there aren't any English instructions? Have to get 'er indoors to translate.

 

[Farmer Palmer]

A brave man drills his boxes

Hi CJG, Just been out on mine! The pre mounted panniers are very close to the back of the standard R1150 rear footrest plastic pannier mount when you look from the side you can see a bit of TT pannier hoop at the top I suppose it depends on the angle you choose. On the offside pannier even with the indicator extensions fitted the indicator is very close to the back of the box! Don't worry even my 'professionally' TT mounted ones are slightly squint with each other sorry I don't have a camera to post pics good luck with yours!: Chris

 

[RadioActive]

Thanks for checking Chris. With the indicator extensions fitted it looked to me like they could only really go in one place (for and aft wise) which was not as they showed in the diagram, but I guess that was just to give the basic idea. I'll get to it with the drill then and have a beer ready to celebrate or a tube of araldite ready to fill up the wrong holes!

Cheerio,

Chris

 

[michael d]

chris , if you go to the touratech usa site they have 'alternative ' instructions for fitting the mounting kits , quite usefull


mike

 

[RadioActive]

That's really useful Mike. Luckily I hadn't started drilling yet so I'll check against those instructions too.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[sparkplug]

Schiannini,
is there any chance you could post a few photos of the inside of your Metal Mule panniers and the frames,

Sorry Celt, had a frantic weekend and was really busy yesterday so here's the inside of the pannier:

and showing the hinge for the lid

and with helmet in for scale

of course coming back to the forums I see you asked to see the frames which I forgot to take a pic of....

The little lever you can just see (bottom left almost not in the pic) is how the panniers remove. You simply pull it up and the pannier is free to remove. When the lids are closed the lever stays on the inside so it can't work itself loose. Simple and infallible!

The more visible tab is the latch for the lock.

Pics of frames to follow...

 

[Gav]

schiannini,

Sounds like you're pretty pleased with your Metal Mules. Are they really that much better than the T.T.s? Is there any chance that you could measure the M.M.s in mm? The guys there sent me the dimensions but they don't look right.

Cheers

 

[the celt]

Thanks schiannini, look forward to seeing the frames

 

[sparkplug]

schiannini,

Sounds like you're pretty pleased with your Metal Mules. Are they really that much better than the T.T.s?

IMHO - yes!
I think the build quality and finish is about the same on both but the real world useability of the Mules suits my real world uses perfectly. It's silly things like having rubber feet so you can use the pannier as a camping seat, even on gravel, without damaging the pannier base.

I also saw the damage caused to the Long Way Round bikes due to the TTs at the NEC and I'd rather have a pannier that didn't crack my frame if I dropped the bike! In fairness I know the LWR dropped the bikes several times before the frame eventually gave and I'm not putting the TTs down as my old ones were very good.

I'll measure the panniers up properly but I had a quick visual squint down the bike and the panniers don't look like they stick out any more than the handlebars do - so if your bars fit through the rest of the bike does. I'll confirm tomorrow.

 

[sparkplug]

OK, here we go.

First pic shows the frames:

Again from a different angle:

Funny I'd never noticed how badly I need to do the weeding until posting on this forum

So here's the pannier showing the quick attach in the open position:

I left the dirt on so you could see where the rail goes.

Move the lever down and this would now be locked onto the frame:

and finally with the lid closed so you can see it can't work loose:

I chose this side to show why I'm tempted to go for the exhaust system that stops the carbon build up on the pannier...


And now for the dimensions:

Narrow pannier = 470mm x 395mm x 245mm

Wide pannier = 470mm x 395mm x 290mm

Top box = 390mm x 315mm x315mm

Overall pannier width = 980mm
Overall handlebar width (with handguards) =980mm

You'd almost think they'd measured it

As you can see from my weeding, I'm not big on cosmetic maintenance and if the panniers look filthy it's because I was out on the bike all weekend and have been too lazy to clean them. They actually look nice when clean!

Phew that was hard work - off for a coffee break now.

Hope it helps

 

[Gav]

Thanks schiannini,

Handy that the overall width is no more than the handlebars. I believe that they're not allowed to exceed 1 metre.

According to your measurements, the big pannier is only 45mm wider than the smaller one. I thought it looked massive at the show. I suppose the smaller one is quite big.

I have been thinking about the balanced system but an extra £200 for the exhaust. I don't know how the extra length will affect performance.

Thanks again for all the info. What a helpful chap.

Gav

 

[sparkplug]

No problem Gav. Glad to be of help.
I've not ridden with the extended exhaust so have no idea about performance etc. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has tried this.

 

[Gav]

schiannini,

Still looking for a bike- most likely 1150GS or Adv: do you know how the after-market panniers compare with B.M.W.'s own Adventure alloy boxes (just in case I saw an Adv with boxes)? Obviously the Adv ones are a bit smaller.

This thread seems to have created a lot of interest judging by the no. of times it's been viewed. Didn't know people would be so interested in luggage.

 

[sparkplug]

Hi Gav,

I've used but not owned any of the BMW luggage.

It's basically OK but there are a few things I don't like.

The rounded shape is pleasing on the eye but a pain if you try to stack the panniers in the garage when not in use or try to rest anything on them. The locks are very exposed and I think they would be easily damaged in a crash (although I'm just guessing) I've also read that they are not all that secure as they wear over time.

I don't like the plastic hinge, I don't like the fact that they have the same flywheel arrangement as the TT so you need to faff around to take them off.

I don't like the glued bottom - I don't actually know of this ever being a problem but it just doesn't sound right.

Things I like,
The size and proportions are good, crash helmets fit well.
The panniers fit the topbox mount so you can interchange them.
One key for the whole bike!
They have feet so you can sit on them without damaging the base.

I wouldn't personally spend money on buying new ones to add to a bike but if a bike came with them for not a lot more I would be more than happy to use them for a while..

If I remember right some of the early ones didn't have the internal flywheel connection and were prone to falling off on bumpy ground - again I have no experience of this but have read it somewhere on the forums.

 

[sparkplug]

Sorry about the poor quality of pic, drunken theft of TT panniers from John's bike resulted in this photo being possible but I only had my phone to take the pic and it was dark (and I was drunk)

So for size comparison you can see the Mules are bigger than the TT and you can see that they stack better - even when a few beers have been consumed.

What a good weekend it was.

 

[Larry]

More a question for Schiannini as that's where the MM pannier knowledge font seems to be but anyone else feel free to answer. Reading the threads and looking at the pic of the soot on the pannier I take it no exhaust extension is needed when using the (unbalanced) pannier set with a standard GS1150 exhaust. Is this correct?
Ta.

 

[sparkplug]

I was hoping someone else would reply to this as I'm getting a reputation...

You are right. The unbalanced set is made that way to fit the standard exhaust. It works with standard or remus exhaust (or pretty much any other aftermarket I guess) This is what I have and it works fine but it does leave the black deposit..

The Metal Mule exhaust (which I don't have) is designed so you can have matching 'balanced' panniers. Essentially the exhaust is positioned further in and further back and is much narrower than the BWM one so the left pannier mounting rail can come right in.