First off, the tail bag. What you get in the box: bag, shoulder strap, waterproof cover, a couple of elastic bungies and a slab of 5mm neoprene that can be used for padding/paint protection. It velcros to the underside of the bag. Handy. Not shown are a couple of plastic stiffeners that I'd already shoved into each side of the bag.
Fixing would be interesting: all four straps had the same ends...
The underside came with a couple of slots for bungies, but the trouble is they were attached to a flap that was held on the bag by a strip of velcro. Not sure what that was all about...
Once expanded it does make a useful-sized shoulder bag. 12" ruler for scale. I was wondering why the logo appeared reversed when I put it on the bike.
What you get with each pannier is a small spare strap, rain-cover, slab of 5mm neoprene which velcros to the inner side of the pannier (it slips over the main straps too), and, not shown, a plastic stiffener. A bugger to insert, it does firm-up the bags nicely. The main zips, for access to the panniers, are NOT the same quality as the others. Take it easy and help them along every time. Something to watch out for...
On the bike they are not bad. Forward movement is restrained by small straps at the rear, upwards/sideways flapping is taken care off by small straps at the bottom corners. Load is taken by two velcro main straps. Clearance for the exhaust is good, with the main straps over the seat. I tried them with the straps below the seat but found it a faff trying to refit it. I think I'll just try them like this, they seem fairly well attached, especially as the rear straps can be fed through the grab-handles.
The Tutoro oiler is TINY! I'm in the process of fitting that this week. Sometime I'll pen a review on it also.
Having the Renntec rack onboard helps a lot...sorry guys!
The pannier handles could be used as extra support but the velcro strips don't match up. Out with the needle and thread, methinks...
As for the tail bag the underside bungies work okay but the bag overhangs the rear of the rack and it tends to flap (a bit like my wife...arrf, arrf!). Not only that there's still the problem of the velcro flap they are running through. The shoulder strap leant itself to a wee experiment.
I was wondering what to do with the straps having all the same ends. They could be tucked away under the flap...
...or, as in the pictures on the Autokicker website, used to attach the bag to the panniers. Bit of a stretch for the front pair though!
All in all I think there is room for improvement. Quality-wise, they are not bad for the price. Heck, you could easy spend £87 on a tail bag alone! They'll work but if you are serious about touring then invest in something of a higher quality. Me? I'm poor so 'they'll hafta dae me'!
No doubt I'll be out with the needle and thread for reinforcing weak spots and maybe modding the tail bag a little too, by swapping over some of the clips. Size-wise, they'll hold quit a bit. I wouldn't buy any larger though: they are up against the rear indicators. Carrying a pillion might be a problem.
Final note: when I looked at the instruction sheet I noticed 'GIVI' on it. Are these chinese knock-offs? Certainly the interior labels say 'Made In China'. Mebbe some poor lad in the graphics department forgot to erase it...
(I had an airbrush like that, a DeVilbiss copy, complete with a copied instruction leaflet, with 'DeVilbiss' still showing in a forgotten paragraph!)
Now, where's my map of europe? Germany sounds nice...