Went through all this last month, which to buy, when I re-searched this on this site, there was plenty of solid arguments for both types, in the end I settled for the Ortlibe Bike packer plus, yes I got ripped off @ £107.00 from wiggles, not ripped off by wiggles but Ortilbe, so I thought. What convinced me was a guy and his wife had both been touring the planet for the last 7 years, so he has crossed , well more borders & climates than me and stated, all the other panniers his wife had never lasted, but his Ortilbe which he had from the last ten years was still good and would not dream of getting rid of them. As this was now going to be my 3 rd or 4 th pannier I thought well if I bought the Ortilbe first time round then I would have saved my self buying 3 or 4 sets over the years. I go camping & riding every friday no mater what the wheather. The Ortilbes are realy exclent, never got anything wet, and ok if your clothes get wet then you have to stick them in a I use web tex bags, to seperate the two, and as for food you dont seal up the panniers, with the bike packer you can place the lid over the opening off the panniers, but dont thighten the draw string, food is always right on top of the panniers anyway and this way the moisture gets sucked out as you are cycling and the panniers will still keep dry. The other good thing with it was I came off at 27.5 mph as the idiot in front in a car slammed his brakes for no reason, I just mannaged to avoid a full impact, but clipped him and rolled with the bike for 12 -15 odd feet, tumbling with the bike. I finally rested with the bike on top, feet still strapped to the pedal and wheels spinning. The panniers were sill attached to the bike , I did not have to adjust anything, just gave the driver a thick lip and went on my way.
