I have a whole page on my website about Ortlieb panniers, and it is the most frequently accessed of all the pages...which is pretty cool since I get about 28,000 hits a year. In short, Ortlieb panniers are worthless, and I go over every single argument the Ortliebees give you.

***They are WATERPROOF. Thus..what goes in dry stays dry (more about this in a minute) but more important , what goes in wet STAYS WET. In order for your stuff to dry out you have to keep it out of the panniers, so you end up looking like a two wheeled bag lady as you go down the road.

***I might add that since they do not breathe, any DRY clothing you have in your panniers promptly picks up moisture from the wet clothing..unless you have both in their own separate set of plastic bags...which defeats the whole point of ortlieb to begin with.

***Finally, the company admits that its own standard bags are so heavy, that they even manage (wow, man!) to offer ones that are lighter than their standard model.

I have used arkel, i have used cannondale, I have used Kirtland Tourpaks (THE BEST I EVER HAD), I have used Nashbar..and have always been happy with water resistant breathable bags. By cleverly using an assortment of ziploc plastic sacks inside the panniers, you can keep your things separate and allow them to dry when the weather finally clears and warms up. Nothing make it more clear how pathetic ortlibes were than when i was in the Deserts of south america. It would be cool and damp at night, so my stuff would get a bit damp when i camped in the evening. The next day, sitting in the Ortliebs (which I took on my world tour to test them..for two years..in every climate..in every cituation)..my stuff got steamy and mildewed in bags that can't breathe because of the way they are constructed.

With the possible exception of GORE-tex, I can't imagine a camping or cycling product which is more over hyped and more over rated than Ortliebs are.

roughstuff