I have Shorty 6's on the Airborne -- a little extra toe-in solved the problem for me, but they do have a godawful shriek otherwise!!

I'm interested in the U.S.-made pannier question, too, I'll be keeping an eye out for any responses. I'd like to get a set of panniers this year (soon) and I'd love to support the home team if I could, but I'm not sure how many options there are for that. I think I prefer the Arkel approach (lots of pockets) to the Ortlieb (throw-it-all-in-one-big-bag) method, but of course, never having toured, I'm not sure! (Maybe I should get one of each; different sets for front and back. ) On the other hand, I'm not real keen on zippers -- I know they're beefy, but still, it's a pretty obvious failure point.