Axiom Panniers - WTF!?
 

I recently decided it was time for an overhaul of my commuter/grand tourer, necessitated by my rims going south. So I sacrificed by commuting on the beater for a over a month (long story) while I had new wheels built around my rims. I also took the plunge on new Axiom panniers and their Odysee rack in order to get them before the prices went up. So they sat around waiting for the wheels to get built. Finally, this weekend, it all came together (pics to follow... eventually).

Now, for the money, these seem to be the best built panniers I can imagine. I'm sure Arkel's are better, but I would only get about 2/3 of an Arkel for the price of the Axiom set. And the rack is the best rack I've ever owned (and I've had a few). I was actually carrying the bike around by the rack while I was working on it - it's that solid. Is it an Old Man Mountain rack - no. But it's mighty good.

But the pannier hardware doesn't fit the rack. The "sweptback support" bar interferes with the "Posiclip" lock. And I'm not sure the "Posiclip" lock would fit real well on the large gauge rack anyway. Normally, I sort of expect this kind of incompatibility, but from 2 products from the same company purchased at the same time?! Perhaps I'm doing something wrong.

I will likely just swap the hardware for the Arkel mounting system anyway - at least that's adjustable.

I've also been struggling with Axiom panniers and racks. The Axiom panniers seem to have a longer bungee length than many racks can support. Like you, I really liked the quality of the axiom bags and the only solution was to get a matching axiom rack. It was a $40 rack and I had a bear of a time finding it, but bicyclewarehouse.com really went the extra mile and got it for me. It's the perfect combo on my commuter. I'll take pics soon. I got the Axiom Kootenay's and the Axiom Streamliner Sport Tour rack.

FWIW I use Axiom LaSalle on front and back Surly Nice Racks and the posiclip and bungee worked great out of the box.

Now that you mention it - yeah! The bungee is long!

But again, I'm pairing it with their rack - and the hook on the rack is at a somewhat fixed position (relative to the top rack where the hooks are. And the bungee is too long!

So, are the rack and bag divisions not talking to one another, or what?

I have axioms, and I shortened to bungee's by simply untying the knots (at the top), and just tying them further down the cord.

As for the posiclips and the gauge of the rack, didn't you get another set of clips?
I think one is for 8mm and the other for 10mm

No extra clips. Just the ones that were mounted, and a spare pair (meaning one set). I'm pretty sure they're the same size, but I'll look again.

Come to think of it, there might be a second set hidden away somewhere - I got the Champlain Panniers, and they are LARGE - lots of places a second set might hide.

But I'm still leaning towards just getting the Arkel bracket and being done with it.