Firstly, thank you all for responding. I was beginning to think, why even bother if noone bothers to make a comment.

Another day's ride and another discovery: pants and base layer means need to unzip the expandable top section to avoid stress on zippers. Wasn't warm enough at 55 and 20 mph winds to drop the windbreaker yet. But I've heard warmer weather is coming in a month or so.

Crawdaddio
I didn't really want panniers because of their increased wind resistance. This is a fairly high wind area and every benefit helps. I did review the entire ortlieb line, but wasn't ready to take that step.

Kidpurple
Don't know, I haven't used the drop yet. I just picked up the bags with the drop just in case I needed more storage. There a group ride coming up the end of the summer, I wanted a little extra storage.

The side panels are semi rigid and when opened they drop down 90 degrees. Topeak does not recommend using the drop down on the beam seat post rack without side supports. I picked up the supports, they are very light and easy to install. I'll probably install this weekend just to see what that's like. I can't test as we have about 3 inches of snow coming tomorrow. I'll give a test on a clearer day sometime this next week and let you know.

I had an old rack that I replaced with the Topeak seat post beam rack. I really like it better. it comes with straps to hold down the flapping of the sides if desired. I'll have a review of the rack itself later on when I can find the time and clear weather to run some weight tests.


Lambot_vt
Topeak makes many similar bags. Look on amazon and you'll see this is a $75 to $80 bag. Rei has it priced at $100. I think the primary differences are: semi-rigid side, and big plastic clip to hook into the rack. The REI guy said this is the new model and it has improvements over the previous models.