Monday, June 23, 2014

23 June 2014 – Gear Review 2 - Panniers


The hard-shell boxes, saddle bags or Panniers (whatever you want to call them) I used on my bike were the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) boxes which in this case were Yamaha. I paid big $$ for these boxes thinking they would be the best but I was so wrong. For a bike that performed so well Yamaha is selling crap for their adventure add-ons for much more $ than you have to spend for better quality aftermarket items. The OEM boxes look good and if you are in the 90% of people buying this bike that never go on an extended wild country trip then they will be OK. If you want boxes that are tough the look around. I saw a number of bikes with Tourtec and other boxes that would have been my choice if I had not bought the OEMs at the same time I bought the bike. Here the issues I have with the OEM boxes.

1                   They mount to the bike with plastic parts. The hanging rails bolted to the bike are metal and very strong but the box mounting gear is all plastic. There is pictures on one of the adventure forums where a guy dropped the bike and the whole mechanism broke off the box. He had to wire to box on to finish the ride.

2                   The key lock system is absolutely JUNK!! It feels so flimsy that I was concerned every time I opened the box or took a box off that it would break or the key would break.

3                   The key lock fills with dirt and then won’t work. I was able to finally clean out the dirt on my left box but what a pain on an adventure bike.

4                   The one time I dropped the bike while standing still it knocked the right box off its bottom mount which also jammed the release mechanism so I couldn’t get the box off to fix it. I finally stood on the bottom mount while lifting on the box to get it back on and relieve the stress so I could remove the box to look for damage. I do have to say it did not appear to damage the box in any way but the bottom mount is now only halfway inserted in its mount. Something I have to evaluate for cause later.

All I’m saying is look at other options before you by the add-ons from OEM.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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