Kelvininin said:
Any chance Jesse is going to run another special anytime soon? I have preliminary spousal approval to buy the panniers.
OK, after selling the Caribous, trying to get Holans (rack fitment issues) and subsequently thinking this over far too much I finally pulled the trigger on a set of Odyssey II 10" with the narrow fit kit today. Black S10 w/Charcoal. They should be here early next week. I will try to take copious pictures and notes since it has been a while and I think the Jesse system has evolved a bit.
In the end the decision went like this:
[list type=decimal]
[*]I wanted top loaders so sold the Caribous the PO had installed - they are great side loaders but I wanted top loaders - simply personal preference
[*]I tried the Holan - Jason at ADV Motorad was great but the rack was not. No way it would work. Weeks of waiting on the factory was just unsatisfactory so I moved on. I will gladly give Jason business in the future - he was simply awesome to work with. Not his fault. I would have stuck with Holan if the rack had worked. Oh well.
[*]Now we are down to about a dozen other choices
[*]I narrow it to full systems to avoid having to mate up incompatible designs
[*]My short list: Happy Trails - Teton or Cascade, Touratech Zega Pro 31/38, Jesse Odyssey 10" or Safari 9"
[*]Lots of questions and reading here and over at the other asylum
[*]In the end the factors were:
- Rack strength - Jesse FTW - look at pics of people standing in the case and bikes suspended by them from a crane .... and very few if any reports of failure that I saw, HT - many reported failures - TT - wide and good rep like Jesse but the win goes to Jesse
- Width - Jesse FTW - TT - too wide and a mack truck of wasted space. HT - close but not as good as Jesse.
- Volume - Jesse hands down at the width. The Safari 9" were just too narrow on the left side - I think they said 5.25" - not enough so went to Odyssey. With the tight fit kit I should be able to get it pretty darn snug.
- Reputation - Jesse again - TT great, HT - great. Jesse just seemed to bubble to the top time after time. Their one shortcoming is install instructions but it seems they all poretty much suck at this. One of these days they will all figure it out?
- Clearance - Jesse look to be slightly higher mounted than the others but that is hard to tell. Draw.
- Price - fortunately not a limiting facto but was taken into account. The Jesse's were in the middle. I just could not believe TT wanted extra for locks at the price. Seriously they can't put $5 of locks in a pair of $1500 racks? That annoyed me. The HT were great price and if price were a constraint in this purchase it would have quickly tilted to HT hands down. I can always weld an messed up rack if needed.
So ... now we will see! Thanks to everyone that posted pics and responses and contributed to previous threads! [/list]