Soft panniers for daily driver?

[7kings]

Hey guys. I'm considering soft panniers for my new ST and I'm looking for opinions from those who have been down this road...

The ST is my daily driver (well, this and my Road King, but I'm considering trading the Road King). I need to be able to use it as a grocery getter as well as general transportation. This means that I need some decent on-bike storage for tools, water, groceries, short hookers - whatever. I've looked at a few different soft pannier setups from Giant Loop and Wolfman and there are certainly some cool setups out there. If this were a bike that I would only be packing stuff on periodically for trips, I think they would be fine, but I'm concerned that they're not going to be very convenient for this sort of use.

That being said, how much of a pain is it to live with soft panniers in daily life as I describe above? Feel free to drop a pic of your bike with soft panniers on it if you'd like.

Thanks!

 

[worncog]

Don't forget Mosko Moto.

 

[VRODE]

Ortlieb Drybags are simple enough.

 

[regder]

Not the answer to your question, but for my money, there is nothing more practical for day to day usability than a decent size top case, something 50L+.

One large squareish bin makes carrying large awkward items much much easier than panniers that have a comparatively letterbox size opening. My Givi E52 has even been known to carry a medium pizza a few times, try that with panniers.

Want to go touring? Sure, pickup a waterproof duffle in around 50-60L size. Strap that to the backseat and you have an amazing budget touring luggage setup.

 

[Checkswrecks]

I agree with Regder on the topazes, which always have my tool kit, compressor, and a tiny 1st aid kit. I switch between a Holan Nomada 45L(iirc) big square box and a little Pelican case when just riding with friends for a weekend. It's 4 easy bolts to swap them.


The Holan is big enough to hold the normal stuff, plus either my laptop backpack & lunch, or the helmet, gloves, and Helite inflatable vest when parked. Without the backpack, there is lots of room for groceries, a beer run, etc.

 

[7kings]

There's no question that the top case is probably the most versatile and certainly has the greatest capacity. I'm not a fan of the looks of a top case without panniers, however, so I'm not really considering it for now. It's really coming down between hard cases (OEM, Givi, whatever) or soft panniers (and i'm really liking the Mosko Moto Backcountry 35 bags). Hard panniers are doubtlessly easier to get into, but soft panniers definitely have a lot of attractive points to them. Unfortunately, the Mosko Moto bags aren't exactly cheap, but I really like the system.

 

[trickydc]

look at twisted throttle's website at the SW motech sys bags. Haven't seen any reviews, but they look like they would be pretty good soft bags and easy to get things in and out of.

 

[doc187]

I have the kriga bags. I got the older version at a discount. The mounting plate quick disconnect system didn't fit my rumbux bars so I just bolted them on. I like kreiga bags. They are high quality. I posted pics on here somewhere.