Originally Posted by
GaryinLA
That isnt the type of riding I do. You arent bike commuting, not parking for long stretches in the same place day after day. Also your stops are short, not all day or hours long. Also you arent parking on group bike rides with 100+ bike riders all very attentive to what eqpt is on your bike (that they may want.) The type of bike rides I am talking about are urban group rides with a lot of young people none of whom i know, i do it for excercise, it isnt like the other group rides i do where there's a handful of people and it is the same people every Sunday and we stop for lunch.
Actually I've done all that type of riding as well - I just mentioned the shopping trips since those were the ones where I'd have the most risk of theft of items in the panniers. When I commute I take the contents out of the panniers since I'd have my work stuff in a plastic bag inside a pannier and take it in with me. Since that's basically what you do now with items in your crate I'd think it would be the same if you used a pannier. And on group exercise or century type rides I don't normally have the panniers along since all I need to carry fits in a small saddlebag that stays on each of my bikes.
Thieves look for things that they can sell quickly and easily and AFAICT, they don't go after panniers. I've had bikes stolen (although fortunately not recently) and some thwarted attempts (evidenced by cut marks on my locks) and various bike components taken, but my panniers have never been touched.