Originally Posted by rekmeyata

Keep in mind when you say "the best you can buy" you need to be asking yourself a question: is this purchase for a one time tour, or is this purchase for a lifetime of touring? In other words are you only going to tour once or are you planning a hundred tours. There is no need to have the best if it's only going to get used once, so a $1,200 set of panniers for one tour is a waste of money when you could a set of panniers for $300 from Performance that would work very well on one and probably two or three long tours. Same is true with length of tours, if you only going on a bunch of overnight tours then again you probably don't need the best, but if your going on a bunch of month or longer tours then you should buy the best. The Performance line of touring gear is not bad stuff by the way, it won't last 4 or 5 several month long tours but it's more then adequate for a bunch of overnight or a couple of month long tours.