Here's another view on the subject with an upgrade mentioned using Ortlieb hardware: https://translate.google.com/translat...21%26t%3D26360 .

Pics: https://www.leonpoels.nl/arkel.jpg . Note the knot in the bungee cord to tighten it up like Nicolai did.

Cool! Not sure I would bother with that though unless easy pannier removal was important.

Sorry for reviving an old thread but just ordered a pair of these. At $80 I didn't see the harm in trying them out. If they work out well hoping to use them on the Southern Tier when we leave on February 15th.

I've read through most of this thread but looking for some follow up from those of you ordered them but never posted a review.

One of my concerns is that there's no place to attach a light on the rear of the pannier. I like having my light as close to the road as possible. My other two options are putting my light on my CamelBak (which has a spot for a bike light) or on my cargo net (which would require adjusting it daily). For those of you who have these where did you put your rear light? I'm not interested in purchasing a new light and my current one doesn't have a way to mount to the rack.

Also, are they really waterproof? They wont be full so I'll be able to give them a few good rolls. I do keep all of my stuff in Sea to Summit bags as an extra precaution.

The last set of velcro attached panniers I had weren't the best and ended up kicking them a lot cause I couldn't get them back far enough on the rack.

Currently running with Nashbar Front Panniers on the rear. They're 3lbs for the pair so would drop 2lbs if these work out.

Any chance of adding a hook type attachment? I'm interested in what you think about the drylites.

I bought a pair of Dry-lights about a couple of years ago. There really isn't a good place to mount a light on them, at least nothing that's occurred to me though I haven't actually tried to engineer anything. You'd have to attach something to them to make that work I think.

They are completely waterproof though and they really are very light. The only thing is that they are pretty slow to mount and take off, but that's just the way they are designed.

Thanks for the feedback. Once the panniers go on my bike the 15th down in San Diego I don't see them coming off again until I reach St. Augustine. For as light as they are I can leave them on empty if we're out exploring after setting up camp.

The upside to the velcro is that they're not grab and go for a thief like my Nashbars are.

Right now I'll plan on putting my light on the tab on the back of my CamelBak.

You won't be able to attach a light to these panniers, so I would look back to your rack. What rear rack do you have? My Old Man Mountain rack had no mount, but it does have a big platform. If your rack does, too, it is easy to simply drill a hole near the back and screw on a short piece of 1" wooden dowel (pointing straight down). Then use a seatpost mount to attach the rear light.

And to answer your other question, yes, the Arkel Dry-Lites are 100% waterproof. I did a week in southern BC last spring and it pretty much dumped on me the whole time. But no leaks whatsoever. It can actually be a problem if you want to dry stuff out, in fact - you need to carry a mesh bag to lash on top of the panniers for when the sun comes out.

Transit rack. It has a hole already in it.

Glad to know they're waterproof though! I'll pass on the mesh bag. I carry a cargo net so anything that needs to dry can go under that on top of my sleeping bag.

Perfect - a few inches of wooden dowel and wood screw and you should be in business, assuming your rear light came with a seatpost mount.

It didn't but I'm sure I have some laying around in one of my bike part boxes. There's not much clearance between the bottom of my rack and the top of my tire though.

Think I may opt to put it on my CamelBak instead. If I buy a wooden dowel I'd have to find a way to cut it. Might be more trouble than it's worth.

Your idea is a good one though!

They came today and not sure I installed them right. No instructions. I guess you get what you pay for.

What are the two extra pieces of lose velcro for? Laying across the top of my rack.

It's strange on how they only attach on one side. Without gear in them they look like they're going into the rear tire.

I put the velcro straps that wrap about the rack between the 2nd & 3rd cross velcro instead of the 1st and 2nd.

Does this look right?

Looks about right. What do you mean only on one side? The extra velcro seems to be in case the front-back velcros are too short. Those thinner velcros serve to prevent fore-aft movement. Your panniers are far back on the rack, so there's more chance of bouncing into the wheel. Move them forward if heel clearance allows. I was worried about contact with the wheel since I was mountain biking. That's why I used a strap (or two) to connect those D-rings one can see in your photo. That tightens things up and greatly reduces movement of the bottom corners of the bags. If you do this, make the connection only tight enough to prevent movement; you don't want much load on the D-rings since they're not designed for it.

They only attach on the cassette side of the bike, not the other side. The two lose velcros are the same length as the two attached velcros. The attachment doesn't allow them to be moved anywhere except to the front of the rear pannier in which case the velcro is all too short. I ziptied all the D rings to the rack.

Ah, you mean the asymmetrical position of the thin velcros. I think they put them there so they could wrap around the rack's cross-bars. One side is enough. AFAIK the extra pieces are extensions to those velcros.
Looking at your photo again, I would "tighten" the big velcros more. This will move the panniers up a little bit.
Not sure your zip-ties will have the effect I'm talking about. Throw some stuff into the panniers and push the bottom rear corners towards the wheel. Then pull the two front D-rings toward each other and try again.
There are also racks that have the rear vertical stay angled more towards the back to prevent the panniers bouncing into the wheel.

Someone asked about waterproofness. Mine were 100% waterproof, even in a totally insane downpour. A tiny amount of water does drip in when opening the panniers after rain.

Just ran across this thread. I used Dry-Lites on my Pacific Coast tour. They worked great and really helped to lighten the load. For my rig, I used Dry-Lites in the back, a Revelate frame bag, and an Ortlieb handlebar bag. I also had a few dry bags strapped to the rear rack and the fork.

Total weight of my bags was around 3 pounds, compared to almost 10 pounds with front/back Ortliebs and the extra front rack. I found that the smaller bags also forced me to reduce my packing list to a reasonable size, which shaved another 5-8 pounds off the load.

Here's a pic without the front dry bags: