Any comments on/experience of using throw-over saddlebags?

[weirdo]

I found the cambridge sports to be perfect. If you set them high up, level with the passenger seat, you can sit a great big holdall luggage type bag (the big sort with wheels) across the lot. Bungee the lot together and this also stops the panniers from sagging onto your cans. The amount of kit you can carry is astonishing, and i prefer this to riding with a tank bag any day.
I make sure my sleeping bag is in the holdall where it can put a bit of pressure on the lower back on longer journeys when you need to sit up occasionally.

I also found that anchoring the forward lower rings of my panniers to the rear footpeg hangers is much easier using puppy/cat collars, (the nylon, webbing type). cheap as owt and very adjustable.

I think i paid @ £30 in an end of season sale for my panniers, £15 for the luggage holdall, and £1 each for the collars. (going back a few years)

You don't have to spend shed-loads.

ps. i don't have a rack or grab rail.

[Demonbaker]

Used oxford sports panniers when i went to Poland and back a couple of years ago. No problems at all even doing 140 down the autobahn .

Mine are up for sale if you are interested

Thanks for the offer, but I need to figure out just what I will be needing to carry with me. Just not organised enough, yet. And, somewhere, I've got a set of fold-down bags which strap onto a kind of saddle arrangement; something I bought yonks ago. I need to check those out.

However, did those plastic infill panels survive your trip intact? (My God, I'm obsessing about a stupid pair of bits of plastic )

Must sign off and have a quick whizz up the A24 while the weather's still nice today.

Panels on mine are Carbon fiber so are a bit stronger, but i have had no problems with them.

[wreckah]

never had problems with the panels on my raptor, and i did a lot of traveling with saddlebags...

mind you, i DID have problems with bags catching on fire (not kidding),
so make sure your bags are not touching the exhausts (they will drop a few cms after an hour's riding or so, so make sure you have about 5cms clearance)

almost lost my bike in the UK a couple of years back...



luckily only my pants on fire

[slartybartfarst]

I use these.........they say Honda but hey they are cheap!

http://www.davidsilverspares.co.uk/parts/part_104509/