Gear: BMW R1250GS Lightweight Luggage Part 1: Outback Motortek/Enduristan Monsoon Evo Panniers 4K

[@aleksandarkanizaj]

Admittedly I don't do such long tours as yourself, but I gave up on panniers for few reasons. For trips for me a top box is a must, and I will be using a dry bag somehow steapped to the back sead and top box.

[@PeakMotorcycles]

Hi, I do love the convenience of hard luggage, particularly a top box, but it’s a lot of weight to carry big up on the bike. I love the ‘luggage free’ riding days on a tour when I can remember what it was like to not be carrying all the extra. I’ll give it a try without and see if I can notice the 12-13kg weight saving. It’s about 5% of the weight of my GS, so not a great deal, but it is about the weight of stuff I normally take. So if riding with soft luggage is the same weight and feel as riding with empty metal panniers and an empty top box, then that’s worth considering (for me 😁). Not sure what, if any, difference it makes to drag 13kg less weight to Romania and back. I’m sure there’s a difference though perhaps until I drop my bike, I’d not notice!

[@wayneh8767]

Those look good on there, the weight saving is nothing to sniff at for sure. Thats a good clip system.

[@PeakMotorcycles]

Thanks Wayne. It encouraged me to look at what else. Replacing the Vario top case with a similar sized drybag on a luggage plate saved another 5kg…. So with soft luggage I’m 12-13kg lighter before anything else… now I need to work out if the weight saving is worth the faff of the clips vs just opening the lid of the panniers or topbox. Is that convenience worth 12kg?

[@sally5371]

I use the Monsoon 3 tied across, but under, pillion seat and on BMW standard pannier frame. It’s a simple cost effective solution. Inside the panniers are 2 gym bags to pull out and go. When I’m not touring I take the pannier frame off in one piece.

[@PeakMotorcycles]

That sounds ideal! Thank you 😁

[@0HARE]

Very nice work, and a tidy fit. I like the weight savings you achieved, as well. I’ve been thinking of bolting a Pelican case to the luggage rack of my KLR. I’m definitely envious of all the rallys and riding events you are able to attend. That kind of thing is hard to find or organize around these parts. Happy Trails

[@PeakMotorcycles]

Those Peli cases are great. Especially for anything delicate and they are almost bomb proof. I’ve been lucky this year that there’s been quite a few events to go to. I still have a few more to come, but I’ll see how many I get to go to. We had a bit of bad news last week, so you might have noticed a gap in videos… I was going to finish at the end of June anyway, but I have some video recorded from the ABR Festival, just haven’t had the time to do anything with it. I’ll see what I can do in the next few weeks.

[@sally5371]

Looking at luggage rack for GS 1250 again and reviewing your video I notice how much space there is between Motortek rack and bike on non exhaust side compared with BMW OEM rack.. Obviously Motortek made both sides same width based on the width required for exhaust and to look balanced.

[@PeakMotorcycles]

Hi Sally, they do a tool box that fits on the inside that can balance it up visually. Though the other thing which is a little deceptive is that on the non-exhaust side, you need space for the swing-arm to come up. I haven’t measured the clearance of the OM vs OEM but will probably do that in the future. Enduristan have some adapters coming out to fit the BMW racks, so perhaps I’ll try those and measure when I do. If so, there will probably be a video (though I am way behind on videos at the moment… too much other fun I’m afraid…)

[@davidgower2512]

It’ll be good to see how you fair with the panniers on the Romanian trip.

[@PeakMotorcycles]

Thanks David. Looking forward to it! Less than 4 weeks to go 😁

[@LuigiM1971]

Hi, thanks for your video. Just a question. Why you didn’t use the original frame from BMW? 8 kg gained is a very good results. I’m thinking about something similar on my bike. Not a BMW but a DesertX. Regards. Luigi

[@PeakMotorcycles]

Hi Luigi, The standard non-Adventure GS that I have doesn’t have pannier frames. I’d fitted some GSA frames to my bike which I’d used with metal boxes. Unfortunately the GSA frames have some welded tabs that fit the BMW luggage and these tabs get in the way of the Enduristan fittings so it was either cut them off, or buy some other frames. Since I did this, Enduristan have launched some BMW specific adapter plates which allow you to fit them to the GSA frames. I did think about trying some, but as this also adds extra weight, and I already have the new frames, I don’t think i’ll try them. As for the weight, I suppose 8kg on a GS isn’t a lot on a 250kg bike, but as it’s weight which is high up and to the rear, it makes a surprisingly big difference to the handling. More so than say 5kg saved on crash bars low down on the bike. Good luck with your Desert X. It’s a great looking bike!

[@LuigiM1971]

@@PeakMotorcycles thanks a lot for the explamation. Regards. Luigi

[@michsky46]

hi, how is the quality of build? possible to lock somehow??

[@PeakMotorcycles]

They seem pretty solid and are waterproof. I haven’t crashed with mine yet. They can lock with padlocks through where the pins go.