Top Loading Panniers

2 reviews for Top Loading Panniers

1. 

   Bill P. – October 12, 2017

   Acmemoto2 panniers
   After riding for 40+ years with about a dozen different types of soft and hard panniers, the Acmemoto2 panniers have proved to be the best for my type of riding. Most of my riding with panniers mounted is one to two-week camping trips on pavement, gravel + two-track & single track trails. While I’m 65 years old & much slower, as a former A class enduro rider & hare scrambler I still ride on some relatively rough trails at a pretty good speed. To date, I’ve ridden a single cylinder dual sport with panniers in all of the states & provinces between Georgia & Newfoundland (including 3 times across the Trans Labrador Highway) + northern California, Nevada, Utah & Colorado.
   This type of riding has smashed & cracked hard panniers in Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky & Nova Scotia + ripped a mount out of a pannier on Taylor Pass in Colorado. A soft pannier fell off when a strap broke on a two-track trail in West Va. When I turned around to look for it – it was gone along with my camping gear. I’ve melted soft panniers & some of my gear when I broke or dislodged heat shields. I’ve made numerous trail side repairs after ripping several brands of soft panniers. To date, the toughness of the Acmemoto2’s far exceeds any other pannier system that I’ve tried or seen.
   Prior to purchasing, I looked long & hard at the Acmoemoto2 website, so there weren’t many surprises once I mounted the panniers. So far, all of the surprises have been good:
   1. The seal between the bottom & top is more water tight than anticipated. The seal is so tight that you can hear & feel a rush of air when opening or closing the pannier top.

   2. The pannier top seal has a “knife-edge” that interlocks with a u-gap in the pannier bottom. When the pannier is closed, this interlock stiffens the entire pannier more than I expected.

   3. While the solid aluminum bars on the tops of the panniers serve as convenient handles & tie-down spots as expected, they also provide an unexpected level of rigidity to the pannier top. This is a big deal to me because I’ve cracked the tops of other brands of panniers. Twice, this has resulted in lost gear when the top of other brands of top-loading panniers popped open unexpectedly.

   4. The Acmemoto2’s aluminum mounting plates have proven to be more useful than anticipated. The adjustments have allowed me to easily raise the height of the panniers when I expect to be riding trails with big rocks. Over the years, I’ve found that my small dual sport handles much, much better when the panniers mounted as far forward as possible. However, too far forward & panniers interfere with the back of my legs. The Acmemoto2 mounts have allowed me to fine tune the fore-aft location of the panniers for the best compromise between handling & comfort.

   5. The exhaust side aluminum mounting plate has served as a surprisingly effective heat shield. I used to be very careful about packing heat sensitive gear in my exhaust side pannier. The Acmemoto2 aluminum mounting plate dissipates enough heat that I no longer worry about heat affecting my gear.

   Great panniers!

2. 

   Scott Olofson – May 18, 2018

   Goodbye, Tamale Carts: Acme Moto 2 Top-Loading Panniers
   Surj Gish April 16, 2018 Parts & Accessories
   I’m a utility rider (and sometime-tourer when I can get away from World Headquarters and the “real work” that pays the bills) so luggage is a pivotal part of motorcycling for me. I often schlep significant amounts of photo gear for CityBike, and I commute to “real work” by motorcycle and need a place to stuff my ‘Stich when I arrive at a client’s office, so I can walk in looking as professional as possible—which is admittedly not very professional at all. Oh well.

   Motorcycle luggage, unfortunately, is a morass of mediocrity, between fiddly latches, pain-in-the-ass locks, waterproof seals that are anything but… I could go on, but my point is that there’s a lot of “barely ok” on-bike carrying capacity available, and the more I try to improve my luggage situation, the worse it seems to get. I shoulda stuck with my once-trusty R1200R—the factory bags on that thing were bliss, and I’ve been trying to get back to that level of functional simplicity since I sold that thing.

   AcmeMoto2 Top-Loading Panniers mounted on a 2009 Buell Ulysses.
   But everyone’s riding adventure bikes now, and the go-to solution is to bolt on a pair of what Fish calls tamale carts: massive, expensive aluminum boxes. There are roughly 14,000 companies making basically the exact same boxes, though each one would have you believe theirs is the toughest and best. “Check out this picture of our boxes on a bike crossing Africa!”

   And that’s just hard luggage—I won’t even go into the world of soft and semi-hard luggage, and the associated fear-inducing claims: “You’ll surely break your leg if you crash with anyone’s luggage but ours!”

   Acme Moto 2, a small company based in North Carolina, has taken a refreshingly clean-sheet approach to hard luggage, with new materials and functional changes applied to the archetypal rectangular sidecase.

   Acme’s panniers are black, top-loading, long-rectangle sidecases with dual aluminum rods along the top. They have the familiar look of Pelican-type cases, and are made of Polypropylene Impact Copolymer, which Scott Olofson, one of Acme’s founders, tells me was chosen for its toughness and resistance to deformation on impact.

   This “toughness” theme is apparent in many aspects of the panniers’ design. The ¾” solid aluminum tie-down bars that run the length of the lids—silicone-bedded and held in place by stainless steel screws—add rigidity to the lid and box. A single stainless steel pin runs through all three hinges on the outside edge of each box, for enhanced strength. My first impression upon unpacking them was, “Damn. These things are beefy!”

   That beefiness come with a weight penalty similar to typical aluminum cases—Acme says each case weighs 11.11 pounds. Using the best technology we have here at World Headquarters—a funky old bathroom scale—I compared the 33 liter Acme to a 45 liter Bumot case. The Acme weighed in at 12.4 pounds, and the bigger Bumot was 15.4 pounds—a useful relative comparison even if the numbers aren’t exactly the same as Acme’s.

   Outside of AcmeMoto2 Top-Loading Panniers Close-up of lock and rubber hold-down strap on AcmeMoto2 pannier. The lid of the AcmeMoto2 pannier sits almost perfectly horizontal when open.
   The Acme boxes mount to almost any existing tubular rack by way of a 5mm, powder-coated aluminum plate. Installation of the plate on my 2009 Buell Ulysses was trivially easy, literally a few minutes of work. The plates are extensively slotted to allow for custom placement, so after testing several positions I mounted them as far forward as possible without interfering with my legs. This required removal of the passenger pegs, but no one else wants to ride on that thing anyway.

   The interface between the box and the plate is simple and solid: three Delrin pucks slip into keyholes, and a single hand-bolt snugs everything up. I haven’t crash-tested the panniers (yet) but the whole affair seems as bombproof as any, and better than most.

   The cases are long and narrow (10.5” wide x 21.8” long x 11.6” tall), unlike many square-ish aluminum boxes. That may not matter on the road to Fairbanks, but here in the Lane Splitting State, I’m glad for the narrower profile of the cases.

   Day-to-day use of the Acmes is a real pleasure. The cases haven’t seen extensive rain duty, but Acme’s knife-edged silicone-rubber gaskets have kept the contents of the cases dry in what passes for rain ‘round here these days. The rubber hold-down straps that secure the lids are easy to use and function independent of the locks, meaning you can leave the cases unlocked and just use the straps, unless you need security—a welcome difference from cases that must be unlocked to open, like the OEM Super Ténéré cases.

   Internal width at the top is 8.1” and 7.3” at the bottom, and the shape of the cases is good for a backpack or messenger bag. Acme also offers nice-looking waxed cotton bags that are sized to fit in their panniers, along with some other sizes and shapes.

   The lids sit almost perfectly horizontally when open, meaning I have a place to rest my junk while loading up. Well, not my junk, but you know what I mean.

   The tie-down bars on the lids make good carrying handles and even better tie-down points, for example if you want to strap a drybag on the seat behind you. Also, they look extra-hardcore, you know, like real adventure.

   Rear view of AcmeMoto2 Panniers mounted on a 2009 Buell Ulysses. AcmeMoto2 Top-Loading Pannier and mounting plate.
   Complaints? Of course! But they’re minor, especially considering the early-stage status of the company behind this excellent luggage.

   First, the mounting plate and its attachment hardware is well thought out, but the bolt arrangement used on the lower part of the plates seems a little “v1,” primarily because of the exposed threads facing outward. It’s not noticeable with the cases on, but when removed, it’s a potential “ouch” waiting to happen, and less importantly, doesn’t look as refined as the rest of the system.

   I mentioned this to Scott, and he told me they’ve just finished v2 of the mounting system which resolves this issue and will ship with all new orders. He’s sending us the new setup to check out—we’ll report back once we’ve received it.

   Second… hmm… that’s it, I guess. Sure, I could complain about how a full-face helmet doesn’t fit, but that’s a “problem” most sidecases suffer from, and anyway, that’s what topcases are for, right?

   The whole setup is $883, shipped to the lower 48, including panniers, plates, all the mounting hardware and a one year crash damage warranty. Yes, you have to provide the racks, but that’s still a good deal.

   So what we’ve got here is functionally innovative, handsome new hard luggage from a new American company at a fair price. If the price—and conformism—of tamale carts has got you down, Acme’s panniers are worth a look.

   $883. Learn more and grab a pair of your own at AcmeMoto2.com.