Re: [ST] Leaky panniers.....

[Gavin Lawrie <gavin.lawrie@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 23 May 2007, at 07:01, gkeslin@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Is anybody else experiencing leaky panniers?  I washed my 02 ST  
> over the weekend and when I popped open the left pannier to throw  
> some stuff in there, I found a little puddle at the bottom.  I've  
> never noticed it doing that before even when riding through the  
> tail of a hurricane a couple of years ago.
> If they've leaked what did you do get it to stop?  I was thinking  
> of putting a small bead of silicone caulk or a thin piece of  
> weather stripping around the seal.  Any suggestions would be  
> appreciated!

Mine leak in similar fashion, but not really worked out where it gets  
in.  More annoying is once it gets in, it tends to stay there -  
meaning you have to get in and dry inside of panniers after washing  
them.  Previous threads in this forum suggest that the leaks are  
fairly common, and there is not much that can be done about it.  One  
suggestion from such threads was that the leaks got worse when  
Triumph started making the panniers themselves, rather than buying  
them in - i.e. could be poor manufacture rather than poor design -  
but that doesn't help fix it.

When travelling, I find the pannier liners (freebie from past owner  
when bought bike) helps a bit - they are not waterproof, but do help  
stop the leaking water spreading about inside pannier.  Anything  
important I put inside ziploc bags inside pannier to keep dry.

The (not very practical but effective) alternative is to fit panniers  
that work well.  In the 80s I had excellent leak-free panniers from  
Krauser on my Z650, and I've heard very good things more recently (in  
this forum) about Givi's too - and they are much cheaper than Triumph  
kit.  It seems possible to shift panniers / mounts via eBay, so if  
you are very keen you could maybe do something along those lines  
without huge expense.

Regards

Gavin Lawrie
ST'03

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