Originally Posted by Philly Tandem

Looking at the photos of Ortlieb panniers, one thing that never made sense to me is why they put black fabric at the front/back of the panniers, right where I'd want the brightest fabric possible. I have two full front/rear sets of Ortliebs: one yellow and one red. The bright colors are great from the side, but don't do much for visibility from the back, where most hits seem to occur. Even their "high visibility" panniers have black panels in the rear (although they are reflective, so not as bad).

We run a big yellow Ortlieb duffle sideways on the top of the rear rack, which I think helps visibility a lot as it's more at eye level for drivers. Coupled with a bright blinking light (Dinotte in our case) it makes up pretty visible on the road.