BMW GS Panniers Overview

Posted on 2009/04/16

BMW GS panniers, luggage carriers or sidebags - whatever you want to call them, they are our favorite accessory for the this range of BMW bikes. Metal panniers are pricey items designed to hold your luggage when you’re on the go. Several companies in Europe and the US manufacture them and there’s quite a bit of competition in this market. There are several things to consider when you’re thinking about getting BMW GS panniers:

• Volume of the BMW GS panniers: what kind of volume should they hold and what is the size of the items you want to store inside them? Regarding the volume, you can get a good idea of how much space is available in the GS panniers by comparing it with the size of, say, a backpack. Usually people can fit 2 weeks worth of clothes, some toiletries, a book or two, a small camera and various other bits and bobs in a 40 – 60 liter pack. When taking your BMW GS on a trip, you’re usually more stuff like spare parts and tools. Give this a little thought and you should be able to figure out how big the BMW GS panniers need to be. Also take a look at the dimensions of the panniers: if you’ve got a big tent that’s very long or wide you might not be able to fit it in there. The key is to travel light: you’re better off taking less clothes and getting them washed on the road. You won’t need three pairs of jeans if you’re spending 8 hours a day wearing your motorcycle trousers.
• Size and dimensions of the panniers: the bigger the volume they hold, the bigger the boxes are. You want to make sure the panniers don’t stick out to the sides too much and you definitely need to realize that maneuverability will be restricted more if they make your bike wider (usually the mirrors are the widest part of the bike). Also, if you like to lean hard in twisties, your panniers may scrape along the tarmac. sparks are cool, damaged panniers not so much.
• Cost of the BMW GS panniers: As stated before, these things aren’t cheap. But some are cheaper than others, of course. Touratech seems to be the market leader and also makes some of the priciest items. Smaller companies (sometimes just one guy with good metal working skills) offer them cheaper, without them necessarily being crappier in quality. Don’t forget that in addition to the panniers, you’ll also need a rack to mount them on. The rack attaches to the bike and its cost is not to be ignored.
• Color and looks of the panniers: nobody wants to accessorize their beautiful bike with ugly boxes, and there sure are some ugly ones around. Most of the companies making BMW GS panniers have (customer submitted) pictures of the bikes with mounted panniers, so you can get some kind of idea what they’ll look like. You can put some stickers on it or maybe a map of your route, whether is the road of bones, or your local McDonalds.
• BMW GS panniers locks & safety: How important is safeguarding the contents of the panniers? On some models you can install padlocks, others have built in locks. Some require multiple keys, others have one universal one. The official BMW panniers can be modified to open with your ignition key, reducing the amount of keys you have to carry around to open the BMW GS panniers. Also consider ease of access: will you want to get at the pannier contents while they are mounted, and how easy is it to do so? And finally safety: Are they easy to remove from the bike? If it’s too easy then you might not feel comfortable leaving your bike + panniers out of view for too long. If you know a potential thief will have to break several locks and remove several hard to get to nuts & bolts, you might be a little more confident.