Originally Posted by
TiHabanero
External pockets are not needed, thus I did not mention them. Looking at the bags I can see the fabric is good quality, and realize it is the mounting system that has caught me off-guard. The use of plastic hooks didn't bother me when looking at them online, however in my hands they don't present themselves as durable, even though there are few reported issues. The panniers I currently use have no external pockets, have metal hooks and have survived 20 years of continuous use, plenty of crashes without even a tear in the fabric let alone broken hardware. I'm guessing the plastic hardware of the Ortleibs get brittle over time and break when stressed, and this is likely what is going on with reported failures.
We've had ortlieb panniers and bags for more than a decade now. Some of them are and have been in daily commuting use. We haven't noticed any embrittlement on the plastic clamps. We've broken exactly zero of the many QL2.1 clamps we have. And we haven't been exactly gentle with them either. Those bags have seen some abuse. My front panniers have patched holes in them after I collided with mountain. No damage to the clamps though.
I tried looking for info on what the clamps are made out of since back in the day I remember reading that Ortlieb used fiber flass impregnated plastic for the clamps. But currently any info on what the clamps are made of is fairly difficult to find.
Things to keep in mind however. The clamps strip paint off racks like anybody's business. They're hard and abrasive. Neither of those qualities are typically associated with plastics.
The old QL1.1 clamps were also shatter prone if you over tightened the adjustment locking screws. I shattered some clamps by over tightening said screws. Learned from that mistake. But shattering isn't something plastic usually does. Plastic likes to plastically deform before it breaks and then it usually rips or cleaves. That doesn't seem to happen with Ortlieb clamps.
Don't go making assumptions on a material by just how they feel in your hand. Ortlieb wouldn't be considered the gold standard if their clamps were prone the brittling and breaking.
Add to that when fitting to the rack the bottom hook can only be fit all the way forward, and even then it only just catches the forward rack strut. The other struts have a fender support near them and the hook won't clear the hooks. This fit issue is not an issue with the bags, it is an issue of working with the set up on the bike. No fault of the bags.
I put the hooks facing backwards even with the fender struts. Hasn't been an issue for me.