I typed in a search and found almost nothing about it. Thus I'll make a little introduction of the "hand made in a shed" panniers called Vern Worldbeater panniers. Why I post this is that I've seen and owned various types of both alu and plastic panniers (Givi, H&B, Al Jesse, Caja Sahel, TT ZEGA and some others), but none of them compare to the craftmaniship of these, so I reckon you all deserve to look at them as well. Vern makes them in UK but sends them everywhere in the World. Sent one set to me Estonia (Eastern-Europe) He're mine how they came: Courtesy of Vern pics: Frames. The "V" type of interconnect behind - breathing room for the different aftermarket exhaust (different heights) while stable fixed operation between the 2 panniers. Inside the normal pannier. Inside the exhaust-cutout pannier. Supporting mounts from inside. One upper support that supports also the lid limiter wire. No welds on the frames and they're strong as hell! Bottom mount supporting itself to the pillon footrest. Exhaust cutout fitted even my longer-than-original Leo Vince exhaust very nicely. Same from the exhaust cutout side. Vern panniers come with additional heat shield you can cover your pannier with, but I decided to put an exhaus extension instead. On the bike, lids open - they open on the correct side for me - no accidental opening or loss of lid while riding. Bottom corners cut, for better aerodynamics and ellimination of the "Achille's Heel" corner of brick-design panniers when falling. He has also black colour or combined versions, different sizes and different sizes of lids available as well. Currently they're R850/1100/1150GS+Adventure limited, coz he put so much development time into the frames (and I reckon they're the best frames). But I've heard 1200GS and some other bike versions are planned as well, currently under testing. While they're extremely strong "permanent mount" panniers they actually can be dismounted off the bike fairly quickly with the help of one hex key - around 5 minutes and they're off the bike if you require to dismount them. They're probably one of the few alu boxes really seen a wind tunnel tests up to 200mph to avoid any high-speed death traps with crosswind, that according to tests some "brick" design panniers can hold. Those with more interest HERE's an interesting thread about them and different opinions about Vern panniers. Ride safe you all, Margus
Looking at this UK pound to US dollar converter. It's pre production set which was £525, which makes about $1050. If you're hurry, you can get it Production versions are set around £625 depending on the accessories, which should make around $1250.
Very nice looking. Kinda similar to the Jesses. My only concern is the way the lids open. If you pack on top of the seet across the lids you have to remove it to open the lids. On my Jesse bags you can usually lift the bag on top a little and the lids will open. Not bad at all looking, and nicely finished! Jim
Very nice boxes! I like the bolt on boxes, i've made both of my sets that way, although my only complaint would be that you need to open the lids and remove some stuff to un-do the bolts. I've never seen the attraction in quick release boxes, the mechanisim usually break in a crash or can be hard to fix in remote places. Security has never been an issue either. The only time the boxes come off my travell bike is during maintinence and washing. I really like the removeable lids with the foreward opening hinge, i made mine the same way. They make great tool-trays and can be very handy. Nice boxes all around!
First, on the last picture I see two helmets; did you have a pinion or does it belong to another rider? If you had someone on the bike, could you ask him/her if the panniers affected his/her comfort? Second; can you explain how you remove them? I read "one hex key", but is relatively easy, would you do it every night when you stop at a hotel (tent? Are you mad?), is "5 minutes" a idiom for "not very long" or is "15 minutes" more accurate? I like them very much, but when we (wife and I) remove the panniers almost every day to spin around, before installing them again and riding on. [TaSK] PS: Your bike looks very nice. Would have been even better with the red seat (which makes the bike faster)
Hi Jim, howzit? IMHO, that's exacly why I like Verns lid opening idea - Jesses longer-sideways opening lid will require to slightly move luggage roll on the same way if you want to open the lid, but Jesses hinge design is a bit stupid since it'll distract you on your natural place when you want to access your pannier aside the bike. you can even damage the lid or hinges with your own weight when pushing heavy stuff out of the pannier. Verns open shorter-sideways, thus giving you a much better access position to your stuff inside the pannier. Mostly I'm two up, so the luggage roll is over the pannier edge and I can open the lid w/o any distraction from the roll. So I do love that lid opening design :)
Yes, that's my better half and she very much like the panniers, giving her a bit more secure feeling while riding as she says. You also can attach some soft stuff ON the panniers with quick straps and waterproof bags, so they work as a comfty hand-supports. This makes the rear seat rather comfty and desirable If you're experienced on wrenching, yes, I'd say around 5 minutes and they're off. Maybe for beginner it's 15 minutes. Basically you need to release 4 bolts on each pannier. They rather are permanent mount type of panniers giving you much better security than quick-release type of pannier while on the crash scenareo and long term reliability. Native QR panniers have more fragile mounting parts compared to "permanent" mounts. With QR panniers I'd have to replace panniers every few season coz of Estonian potholed roads, corrugations and vibrations. I rarely take off the panniers myself - while doing maintanance on the bike or if going for serious offroad riding solo. 90% of the time they're on anyways. I use cheap big inner bags inside the panniers when I need to get the stuff out to go to the hotel/tent etc. And mostly we have things also separated into smaller plastic or vacuum bags, so mostly we only take the stuff we need, only sometimes the full stuff of the pannier when we need to re-organize or clean things etc. Mosty I don't want to carry the weight of the whole DIRTY (riding mostly gravel roads) pannier into the hotel room or tent. Nah, silver with black coloured engine and seats is the fastest colour GS And has to have silver panniers, too: Cheers!
Update: just read today - Verns are now available for R1200GS too. Nicked a pic: See thread about it here.
The thinking is that - We ride down to the gelateria for the afternoon treat, no panniers at all. - We ride our day-tours, having lunch at some remote trattoria. Then we don't carry much, and we can use the original, ugly, round and un-functional BMW bags. - We ride to Sicilia or Norway, then we can have (much) larger bags firmly installed on the bike. We make inner bags that fits nicely inside, and carry those in during the night. After some thinking, we have understood that having snap-on isn't that important after all. So I have orderd a pair today. [TaSK]
I like the two-tone color. Same bike as mine. Maybe a bit too cop-like (unless it was plastered with ADV and Wall Drug stickers). Jesse, are you reading this? I would like the Vern cases more if they offered a bigger left-side box and exhaust relocator.
Does he make them any smaller? Those things are huge. Being an experienced back country hiker I know that you do not need all the stuff half of you want to pack around. They do look to be well made.
Just did an install of Verns Worldbeater panniers to my GS last night. Ever so easy to fit and are VERY well made. http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151534 Billy
When it came to panniers for my 1150ADV, I looked, pondered and generally cogitated over all the common options...... from ridiculously overpriced, dodgy racks (QR), flimsy biscuit tins to 'austrian exotica' . A very, very knowledgeable GS technician (Steptoe) was doing some work on my bike. Naturally the subject of travel and panniers came up, he showed me his pair of Vernatechs , very well made, lightweight, incredibly strong with no nasty quick release catches to let theifs hoof it with your kit. A few emails to Vern, and I trundled off up to Chester to get some fitted. The man is an absolute gem, he was thoughtful enough to get a huge butty in for my lunch, and kept me filled with coffee and great banter all afternoon while he expertly fitted my pannier system (and also fixed a couple of other things on my bike). Seriously, if you want the best, get them 'handmade in the shed' http://www.projectvnd.com/index.htm Vern has posted these all over the world, having met him, seen them, used them, I know why these are in such high demand.
Done some Ks with them now, mostly gravel and I can tell more about them. Waterproofness: they are completely waterproof after hours of riding in the pouring rain. Water didn't get in even when washing with pressure-washer. Integrity and bombproofness: have done offroad, with some slow and medium speed falls - the corner cutout does the job, just some scratches and dents, unlike ZEGAS that my mate got twisted on fall (the "Achilles heel" corner of the square shaped boxes). Also bike has ticked over couple of times from sidestand onto the tarmac and panniers aren't affected or bent. No mounting bit or bolt hasn't loosened up or broken on carrying more than 10kg of stuff on each panniers over Estonian potholed and corrugated smaller tar and dirt roads. Finish: the anodizing quality is absolute top noch compared to the ZEGAs for example that already have it peeling off and corroding on damaged spots, and mate of mine is amazed that after this abuse mine are still mint! So don't be fooled by "anodizing" many manufacturers advertize, it can be seriously crap (just a thin almost non-existant layer on Zegas for example), also painting or varnishing is mostly short-term solution. So IMHO a good quality anodizing is the way to go for long term usage w/o annoying aluminium corrodation inside the panniers making your stuff silver-dirty, your food poisonous or outside the pannier looking old and collecting dirt. Capacity: haven't calculated precicely but they are more than 40L each. Roughly calculating the r/h side is around 48-50 liters and l/h exhaust-cutout side is around 45 liters. And with that relatively huge volume the width of the bike is down less than a metre - 97.5cm to be precise. Aerodynamics: fuel consumption has stayed the same. I do around 100-120kph on gravel, which is optimum speed for my GS. While my previous boxes did around +0.1 to +0.3L per 100km fuel consumption rise with those speeds. With Worldbeaters there's no apparent difference whether the boxes are on or off - Vern's wind tunnel tests obviously start to pay off(?) I'll let you know the autobahn tests when I ('m forced to) get there... Pillon comfort - no restrictions for legs or comfort limits - Kariina rather likes them and feels more secure. Fixing some softer stuff on the panniers will make them nice comfty hand-supports which makes the rear seat rather desirable place to be. The only minor (actually my own) con I've found so far: although I already have 4 tie-downs on each pannier I maybe should have ordered additional ones in the middle, since I often place my tripod on the pannier for short photo-trips out in the weekends and I'm lazy enough to tie it with 2 ties as a lazy bugger. But then again with 2 tie downs fixed it's more scure and my £££ tripod won't fly away when the one belt decides to broke. So maybe I better get used to fixing it with 2 belts Anyways I'd recommend geting decent 4 tiedowns on each pannier. You can put loads of stuff on the pannier whether for very long trips or for just silly-shaped things to transport that are too long to put in the pannier or you can just use soft stuff in waterproof rolls on the panniers for additional comfort for your pillon. Shortly: love 'em! Does my bum look big through wide-ange lens? Actually they're less than 1 metre wide Front. The exhaust cutout side of the pannier. Fits me nice sounding Leo-Vince ALU exhaust very nicely, and enhances the all-silver looks With rider (erm... pillon) placed on the bike, just for the perspective. Cheers