Just wanted to give a nod to Greencats post.

Whether the cans have catalysts or not, has no consequence to it's fitting with the H&B panniers/rack. They are seperate issues and have no influence on each other. Catalyst free cans have, more or less, the same outer dimensions as those with catalyst. Going with the H&B rack/pannier gives you pretty much freedom of choice with regards to what kind of cans you can purchase at offtheroad.de. And propably a few other makes as well. Bear in mind, that all bikes within the EU have to have catalyst installed. Buying a different make of bike will not solve this issue. All of them have a theoretical risk of clogging up. I can't help you decide if this risk is worth taking. Suffice it to say that I have never heard of an overlander cutting out because his cans were clogged. But I'm not sure enough to place my money where my mouth is :).

As for the durability you asked about in a post further up I can't bring testament to it (apart from my friend who put it down on asphalt somewhere in Austria). But I can asses the craftsmanship and general feel of them. When fitted, there is no slack or sluggishness. When you grab them and try to shake them about, the feel like an integral entity of the bike. This is very important, since any slack will cause the whole case to vibrate. Anything that is allowed to move even a millimeter, will eventually grind itself to the breaking point when you submit it to the vibrations you're bound to encounter when riding across Africa. As I said, I haven't crashed with my bike. Either on or off road. But I feel confident that the H&B's will remain where I put them, during the expected rough and tumble across the pistes. And yes, I think they'll stay on there too when/if I drop the bike at relative low speed.

I don't know about Metal Mule, but here's a few things that I have found usefull about the H&B's:

1. The quicklock system is a stroke of genius. You can unlock the fitting clasps with the same key you use to unlock the actual pannier lid. This means that you can take off the panniers in a matter of seconds. Litteraly. No screws, no bolts, no nothing. Just turn and click. Same goes for putting them back on, obviously. This means that you can leave the panniers secured when you are just away from the bike a few minutes, and no one will run away with them. And you can take them off easily when you plan to leave the bike out of sight for an extended period of time.

2. The double handles on the top of the lid makes it much easier to carry the panniers around when you need to. The handles are esily removed so the pannier will serve as a good camping table/stool. The handles are also good to grab when positioning the panneirs back onto the rack.

3. Metal versus softpack. I'd just hate to park my bike with softpacks in a multitude of ogling locals, whilst argueing with the local border official in his "office". Ofcourse, if you realy realy want to break into the metal panniers, you can. But you'll need tools to do so. You wont need tools to rummage around a sofpack saddlebag. Get my drift?

Having said all this and generally given H&B the thumbs up, I can't stress enough that these are the panniers I have chosen. What works for some might turn out to be ****e for others. Some people swear by softpacks because they dont brake (allthough everything inside it will), others swear by Metal Mule, some by H&B. And some choose something completely different. I don't swear by any of them. But H&B were the ones I got. This was based not only on price (allthough I am cheap gitt) which is quite competetive, but also based on practical use and good reviews from other overlanders. I'll tell you in May 2008 if I stand by my choice :).

And yet again the post got a lot longer than I had intended. Sorry about that.

Yeah...everything that McThor said.

Also, if you do go for the H&B panniers I highly recommend buying the top box rack, even if you don't buy a top box. It integrates well with the pannier rack and gives you a nice strong surface to strap other stuff to and gives you a decent grab rail to boot...can't be bad.

Here's me wee beast with trusty H&Bs attached enjoying some midnight sun action...
:viking:

Nice!
 

Pretty sweet setup you got there Greencat.

Have to admit that I hadn't considered the top box rack thing. Looking at yours, I wish I had. Oh well, too late now :(.

Mcthor and greencat or others

I have been looking around on the internet and at the moment cant really find many different people that are selling the H and B panniers, or for that a rack for the XT660 R for those. I dont know wheather it is what i am typing into the search engines or what. so where did you's get yours? and if you's dont mind how much was it all?

seen on one website it was �166 for the 1 panniers so around �335 for 2.

I bought mine through the dealer where I bought the bike. I didn't buy the panniers straight away so whatever discount I got, wasn't combined with the purchase of the bike.

I payed �531 for the rack, backrack, 2x43l panniers. I also ordered the H&B centerstand which cost around �113. But the dealer had messed up the order and was very much delayed dispite his initial assurances. He felt realy bad about it and eventhough it wasn't realy his fault, he gave me a discount on the whole deal ammounting to what the centerstand cost. So basically I got that for free. Quite decent of him. So totally I payed �531.

No doubt a dealer will take a slice of the cake if you buy it from a motorbike dealership. Offtheroad.de propably does the same. Only real way to save money is to buy direct from H&B. I pressume they sell their stuff to dealers at a standard price. I just skimmed their webpage and can't realy find a "order" link :(. So you'll propably have to buy from a dealer near you, or online. The price you list is quite cheap. I'd say go for it (without having searched more than you've allready done yourself).

Bear in mind when you buy online, the shipping cost. It's quite a package to send and then there's all the hassle of waiting home a whole day for a package that may be delayed. Think carefully if shopping online realy will save you some money or if you'll just end up paying exactly the same anyway when shipping's been payed for.

I bought mine a few months ago through www.offtheroad.de.
They can give you a quote which will include delivery and there is no additional duty or VAT to pay on top of this. I paid using PayPal and it takes ~3 days for the payment to go through. It then took about 5 days for delivery.

McThor...the rear rack that takes the top box fits around the pannier rack so you can fit it/remove it independantly of the pannier rack. I'll try and do some photo's if it'll just stop raining.

I got SW Motech racks from here

http://www.motohaus.com/acatalog/Yam...Carriers_.html

and got the adapter plates for the H&B Luggage. If you ever chop and change luggage this might be more practical than one rack for one luggage and the prices are too bad either.

Hi Alison. You obviously rate the MM set up. Did you have to change any engine management settings to get the bikes to run smoothly? I have read elsewhere that the MM exhaust can make the XTR even more lumpy than we paid for as standard :-)

Tim I am not sure if DakotaXT (Alison) will write back to you because I think she got the 'ump and left as you can see in this thread http://xt660.com/showthread.php?t=3708

But also bear in mind she and her hubby don't have the XT660R but the previous model XT600 (carbed) if I remember rightly so perhaps her reply might not be any help to you.

been a bit busy since i last looked at this so here goes

Mcthor

staying home for a say is not too much bother for me when i am at uni!!! But i also have my granda and granny just 100metres up the road so they can always sign for it. Also very good you getting the centre stand free after some waiting/ordering trouble.

The only website i can find or that i quoted the prices from is the HandB's own website. Havent looked at wheather there is a massive shipping cost or you have to add VAT or some other stupid charge. Will have to look that up.

At the moment its looking like i am gonna get the HandB panniers, but still dont no what size to get, wheater to go for the 38L or go all out and get the 41L. Dont think there is much differnece in price just a bit in sizes.