Originally Posted by john_mct

I killed an ortlieb pannier on a two month coast to coast US trip...maybe I didn't baby them enough but from what I read they shouldn't need to be babied. One of the clips broke removing the bag early in the trip and I was forced to strap the bag to the rack but the resulting rattling unscrewed one of the bottom screws which then allowed the bag to flop around a lot. Finally just gorilla taped horizontally around the whole bag to the rack. One low speed crash put a hole in the bottom rendering it non-waterproof... Returned for full refund to REI at the end of the trip...

Not saying they're crap but I surely wouldn't expect a lifetime out of them unless all your roads are smooth as glass and you never crash...