Pondboy's Bike News

My Caja Sahel panniers arrived

Much joy.

After a small delay while the powder coaters switched from a black run to a gray run, a large box arrived from Caja Sahel with two well wrapped panniers each of which contained all the necessary parts to mount them.

I had spent quite a while emailing Caja Sahel about my pannier requirements, as I specifically wanted to have panniers wide enough to accept a helmet, which added about 3.5 cm to the width of each pannier.

Once on the bike the total overall width across these panniers is about 98-99cm which is just a bit wider than the handlebars. I also opted for the flat lids with four grab handles and padlock latches and a gray powder coating.

First impressions
These are beautifully made panniers. I'm no welder or fabricator, but these look the business. Nice and true, not a single rough edge/weld in sight. The lids fit perfectly with a good dust seal and pop off effortlessly.

The frames look extremely robust and yet very simple in design and fitted very neatly.

The new rubber gasket is a great idea. It not only helps isolate the panniers from vibration, but also seals the holes the panniers bolts go through and just for good measure, holds the bolts in place when you take the panniers off the bike.

The parts:-

2 x panniers
2 x flat steel pannier frames
2 x black reinforced rubber gaskets
1 x numberplate and indicator mounting plate
1 x upper rear brace
1 x lower lower rear brace

And a fistful of nuts, bolts, washers and spacers.

Disclaimer
I am no engineer and fitted the panniers as the instructions indicated. I didn't have any difficulty other than needing to fit different indicators which I had lying around and so they provided the easiest solution. I could have been being dim about how the original indicators fitted, but that is nothing unusual for me. Finally I know that I could move the number plate up a bit, but that can wait for now as I hope to be changing the indicators soon.

This is how I did it, you may find better ways than me.

Preparation
Before I had started mounting the panniers, I lined them with 1mm butyl pond liner to stop things sliding around inside them. I also glued on the velcro to hold the padlocks in position.

First
You are going to need to move or replace the rear indicators as the pannier frames infringe their existing position.

Rear indicators and number plate mounting

The first thing you need to do is to remove the rear indicator units. They are Origami like in the way they clip together.

Undo the screw in the outside rear edge which holds in the lens. The lens comes off and the bulb and reflector unit can be eased out. The inner edge of the reflector unit has to locating prongs which also hold the bulb bit on the indicator stalk. So as soon as the reflector is out you need to unclip the two electrical clips at the rear of the reflector unit.

Now the whole bulb unit is detached and two wires are sticking out the indicator stalk.

Reach up under the mudguard below the tail light and undo the three vertically mounted retaining bolts that holds the bottom of the light unit together and loosen it so you can pull the wires back through their stalks and bring them down behind the numberplate. Re-tighten the mounting bolts.

(BTW, the screw which holds the indicator stalk in place also helps hold the whole rear light assembly in place, so if you take the indicator stub off. REPLACE THE SCREW.)

If you take you numberplate off now, you can see how the pre drilled number plate holder and indicator mounting plate fits over the black plastic lattice and the numberplate fits over the top. This is all held on with three bolts with lock nuts

As my indicator bracket was drilled for a indicator with a threaded rod in the stalk, I have temporarily substituted a rectangular set which I had lying around. Not the best match, but I had them and they fitted perfectly. I will look for some more suitable indicators as and when.

At this stage you can loosen the two side bolts on the bikes rear carrier by the grab handles and remove the bolt in the central pillar so the upper rear brace can be slipped in underneath the pillar and the retaining bolt replaced with the longer bolt in the supplied kit.

Mounting the pannier frames
Now is the time to start fitting the pannier frames.

The right side one has a clamp which fits snugly round the frame tube and is tighten up with two nuts and bolts. The top frame mounting point is located where the BMW pannier rail attaches to the side of the frame in the plasticy bit below the pillion seat. A special s/steel spacer and long bolt is supplied to ensure a good fit.

The Exhaust side pannier frame needs you to undo the exhaust mounting and slacken off the two nuts which hold the s/steel supporting "jacket" which holds the exhaust in place, so you can slide the whole mounting forward down the exhaust about three inches. Don't tighten them yet.

Fit the pannier frame to the top mounting point and then to the exhaust mounting point with the supplied nuts and bolts. The exhaust mounting bolt can now be bolted onto the hole on the special little spur on the pannier frame.

Now I loosely fitted the upper and lower rear cross brace between the two pannier frames.

So everything should now be loosely fitted into place, so check that everything is lined up nicely.

Mounting the panniers
I held the panniers in place against the frames to make sure they lined up and carefully went round tightening all the bolts making sure everything stayed straight and true.

The rubber gaskets needed drilling and tidying up with a Stanley knife, then I screwed the pannier mounting bolts through the rubber gaskets and when all four where done held the pannier up to the frame and tightened up the bolts in the threaded holes drilled in the frames.

Total fitting time about 1 hour once you have sorted out your rear indicators.

Having done all of this, I then took the panniers back off (a 5 minute job) loosened off all the frame mounting, loctited them all and tightened them back up again.

A BIG Thank You to Caja Sahel.