I spent almost a thousand pounds on the official Moto Guzzi pannier boxes for my V100S.
I’ve had panniers on numerous bikes over the years, but never have I had boxes which are so damn difficult to fit and remove! Mine require several hard blows from a gloved hand to slide them sideways into the correct position for the “daggers” under the passenger seat to lock them in place, and removing them is equally vigorous and noisy.
Am I missing something here? Or are they all like this? And how could Piaggio make such a basic mistake when developing the bike?
I might try some kind of spray lubricant (one that won’t harm plastics). I think that white lithium stuff is OK, as (probably) is WD40.
You have to push them in sideways THEN slide them forward. The forward bit is where it gets a bit stiff.
I just use silicone lube…Mr. Sheen works quite well. I found that the effort required is NOT to get them to move sideways, but instead, back and forth.
Once the bags have worn in a bit, you will find that they get a bit easier to mount and dismount.
Just be careful that the lugs engage front AND rear. …or they WILL fall off.
At least they have bike specific keys…unlike the Krausers of the 1970s and 80s. One size fits all!
I’ve just realised that I’ve confused everyone by my use of the word “sideways”! I was referring to sideways with respect to the box, whereas of course I should have been talking with respect to the bike.
So, to clarify:
Step 1 is pushing the box fittings into their holes on the bike;
Step 2 is pushing on the back of the box so it moves towards the front of the bike.
Step 2 is the one that takes a ridiculous amount of effort, with much slapping on the box with my hand. (Ditto when removing it.)
I find the whole thing quite bemusing - pannier boxes have been fitted to motorcycles for many, many decades. Of all things, it should be comprehensively sorted - a complete non-issue. And yet here we are in the 21st century, with Moto Guzzi celebrating a hundred years of motorcycle production, and they’ve managed to invent the worst system for fitting panniers that I have ever come across in 50 years of motorcycling!
It takes a special kind of talent to totally f**k up something that is so comprehensively sorted out. I cannot imagine what on earth they were doing.
There is something amusing to report. MG have produced a video showing off all the accessories they produce for the V100 Mandello. It shows them being fitted and removed, and let’s us see how they look on the bike. However, the scene demonstrating the panniers is a masterpiece of editing. It shows a person offering up one of the pannier boxes to the slots, and then it artfully jumps to showing the boxes fitted. In other words, they’ve cleverly omitted all the slapping and banging that is actually required!
Another odd thing. When you get the bike it comes with two spare key barrels, which match the key for the ignition and seat. When you order the panniers they come without key barrels; the idea is that you fit the barrels to the new panniers and you have a “one key fits all” situation. Very helpful.
Until you order the top box. It matches the panniers in overall appearance, but it comes with a lock already fitted and uses a completely different type of key.
So you end up with two keys on your keyring: a black key that works the ignition, fuel flap, seat, and both panniers; and a little red key that opens the top box. Ridiculous.
Presumably the manufacturer of the top box based it on one of their standard designs and either refused to change it to use the Moto Guzzi style of key barrels, or wanted too much money to do so.
I’m guessing MG didn’t want to invest a lot of money in such a change, on the grounds that top boxes aren’t “cool” and most motorcyclists care more about appearance than function.
@SteveThackery - That key thing is quite bizarre! Personally I’m a top box person rather than panniers - from a filtering perspective and that the stuff doesn’t all fall out when I open it
Yeah, I must say I feel a lot less confident filtering with the panniers fitted. Whether that is rational or not I’m not really sure.
One observation about the top box: compared with those on the other bikes I’ve owned, the top box does seem peculiarly high and far back. Even I - a fan of top boxes in general - think it looks a bit odd.
The load platform on the OEM rack is IMHO, far too high and to the rear.
Aftermarket racks such as SW Motech or Hepco & Becker have it in a more tradtional place. You can get topbox QD adapters for these racks as well, giving a much nicer topbox position.
I like the way the MG top box matches the panniers. Is there any kind of adapter that will let me fit the standard top box to the SW Motech or Hepco & Becker racks?
This might be helpful:- I have a Breva 1100 with Guzzi panniers. Fitting them to the bike was always a bit of a hastle. I then checked each hanger fitting, 4 for each side and found that one of the fittings each side was adjustable. Once adjusted, they are easy to fit.
@SteveThackery - apologies for the “Thread drift” as we appear to have moved to top boxes from panniers. I’ve just fitted a Hepco & Becker rack and top case - first time I have ever used H&B. Have to say the quality of the parts, the fitment and the instructions etc are excellent. Finally, whilst not ridden yet the top box is absolutely rock solid on the rack with no such minor movement / rattle that Steve experiences with the MG system. Appreciate top boxes are not for everyone aesthetically so my comments here are solely about the quality.
That top box looks to be a much better size than the MG one. That will just about take two bags of shopping, provided they aren’t too full. My helmet takes a large proportion of the space - you certainly couldn’t put two helmets in there.
This is the larger one they do and will take two full face helmets plus other stuff. The whole thing (frame, plate & luggage) is just really well made and fits really easily.
