OEM Panniers = Ankle Breakers in fall?

[Bushyar15]

Anyone else fall with the stock panniers and break or fracture an ankle/leg?

There are 4 of us in the Metro Denver area that go riding together. I've casually named us the "Denver Usual Suspects"…. We do 50/50.. We only ride pavement to get to the dirt.

Just this year alone in what has been a short riding season due to the heavy snow and rain, 3 of the 4 of us have injured an ankle from a low speed fall that shouldn't have caused any injury. I know for sure that 2 were due to the pannier trapping the lower leg causing the injury. I'll let 14kmtnman chime in if it was his panniers that caused his break…

I've injured mine twice. The first I know I must have fractured it but refused X-rays as I could walk even though it was unstable and clicked when I walked. I went down in sand again this past Saturday. As I lay there with my left leg trapped, I looked down and sure enough the lower edge of the pannier was laying right on my ankle. While not as bad this time. Its swollen, unstable and painful.

But the worst was our buddy who I watched go down at maybe 5 miles an hour as he was coming to help me pick up my bike. Sand got him, he went off the right side and rolled and was immediately holding his leg. He heard a pop. He broke his Tibia and fibula 3" above the ankle and dislocated it. He is due for Surgery this weekend.

He too said the pannier pinned his leg or trapped it causing the break…

I'm wondering if its just these panniers with the right angle lower edges or is it the size of the panniers compared to say the Jesse's that are angled at the bottom? Just seems odd to me this would happen to 2 of not 3 of us, and twice for me.

Its not a lack of riding ability on our part. I welcome anyone that comes to Denver Colorado to join us on one of our rides…. if you dare!

Anyways just curious about this...

 

[Dogdaze]

I hate hard luggage! I like the look but that's about it. Years ago I bought a 1150GSA from a guy that did the 'Long way Round' as a recon for Charlie and Ewan, and he had folding pannier racks on, and he said he only ever used soft luggage, if they ever thought of going even slightly off road, for exactly that reason. The bike had more national stickers than any bike I ever saw, and 48k miles on a 2 year old bike. I know he was abroad, as all the service stamps in the book were from all over the planet. Sorry, off topic!

 

[Koinz]

Anyone else fall with the stock panniers and break or fracture an ankle/leg?

There are 4 of us in the Metro Denver area that go riding together. I've casually named us the "Denver Usual Suspects"…. We do 50/50.. We only ride pavement to get to the dirt.

Just this year alone in what has been a short riding season due to the heavy snow and rain, 3 of the 4 of us have injured an ankle from a low speed fall that shouldn't have caused any injury. I know for sure that 2 were due to the pannier trapping the lower leg causing the injury. I'll let 14kmtnman chime in if it was his panniers that caused his break…

I've injured mine twice. The first I know I must have fractured it but refused X-rays as I could walk even though it was unstable and clicked when I walked. I went down in sand again this past Saturday. As I lay there with my left leg trapped, I looked down and sure enough the lower edge of the pannier was laying right on my ankle. While not as bad this time. Its swollen, unstable and painful.

But the worst was our buddy who I watched go down at maybe 5 miles an hour as he was coming to help me pick up my bike. Sand got him, he went off the right side and rolled and was immediately holding his leg. He heard a pop. He broke his Tibia and fibula 3" above the ankle and dislocated it. He is due for Surgery this weekend.

He too said the pannier pinned his leg or trapped it causing the break…

I'm wondering if its just these panniers with the right angle lower edges or is it the size of the panniers compared to say the Jesse's that are angled at the bottom? Just seems odd to me this would happen to 2 of not 3 of us, and twice for me.

Its not a lack of riding ability on our part. I welcome anyone that comes to Denver Colorado to join us on one of our rides…. if you dare!

Anyways just curious about this...

I haven't had any injury's with mine (yet), but I was wondering if any of your group as any other hard Luggage. I think they're all susceptible to the same thing. I think Larger cases are more prone unless they prop the bike up better after a fall.

 

[TheHelios]

I fell down at ~5 MPH with panniers but luckily I fell off to the side and not the bike on top of me. Are y'all simply just riding out with panniers or are y'all actually going out camping or something else that requires the space of a pannier? I've always been told that panniers are a big no-no if you want to go off-roading for one of many reasons: increase sliding distance, can trap your leg and drag you along the bike as it slides, can pin your leg on the ground, etc.

 

[Bushyar15]

Glad to hear you didn't get hurt in your fall...

These are mostly day rides... I'm not loaded down with gear, BUT we do go places where you'd want or need to be self-sufficient. I'm sure a "rescue/tow" vehicle could reach us but it would take forever and cost a fortune. So we carry probably more spares, tools, supplies than we/I've needed to, but always good to be prepared. Realistically I could condense all that gear into one Pannier, but that would look odd with only one mounted

I know the subject of boots is going to come up, but that can take up an entire thread...suffice it to say our boots are ADV boots, I wear the latest Alpinestar Toucans...

BTW, I wasn't implying or saying there is some massive design flaw with the panniers and they should be recalled. Just wondering if the design lent itself to more injuries that other panniers or was that just the nature of panniers...

I fell down at ~5 MPH with panniers but luckily I fell off to the side and not the bike on top of me. Are y'all simply just riding out with panniers or are y'all actually going out camping or something else that requires the space of a pannier? I've always been told that panniers are a big no-no if you want to go off-roading for one of many reasons: increase sliding distance, can trap your leg and drag you along the bike as it slides, can pin your leg on the ground, etc.

 

[AdvToorer]

Like this?

(Poached from advrider.com)

Hard panniers have always made me nervous, specially after seeing this photo. So why not go with something like a Giant Loop bag?

 

[TheHelios]

These are mostly day rides... I'm not loaded down with gear, BUT we do go places where you'd want or need to be self-sufficient. I'm sure a "rescue/tow" vehicle could reach us but it would take forever and cost a fortune. So we carry probably more spares, tools, supplies than we/I've needed to, but always good to be prepared. Realistically I could condense all that gear into one Pannier, but that would look odd with only one mounted

In our group, we all use top boxes and have enough stuff shared to where we cover all bases. And as AdvTrooper mentioned above, you may want to look into rugged softbags if extra space is a must.

 

[Bushyar15]

Think I'm going to throw up.. thats probably what it looked like when Carl went down...

Like this?

(Poached from advrider.com)

Hard panniers have always made me nervous, specially after seeing this photo. So why not go with something like a Giant Loop bag?

 

[itlives]

I really like hard cases to get where I'm going . Then, unload and go have fun.
However, if where you're going requires a lot of dirt/gravel, get some soft bags.
I think the best (and definitely not the least expensive) are Mosko.
But there are plenty out there that won't break the bank or your ankle.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Hard panniers have always made me nervous, specially after seeing this photo. So why not go with something like a Giant Loop bag?

While nobody has done a study or has hard data, the impression is that there may be less injuries with soft bags. If you think about the slightly rounded shapes and softer corners this seems to make sense.
Even so, I personally know a South African whose lower leg was broken in this type of fall. He was riding a KLR650 in Mexico at night and hit one of the big concrete lane separation things that looks like a half a basketball. The bike has the big Wolfman panniers and Peter said that the doctors were really thrown when looking at the x-rays because the leg was broken forward.

 

[Mark R.]

Yes, soft bags are better for exactly the reasons you talk about. They feature prominently in many ADV ride reports from people who are off road a lot in out of the way places around the world.

I have these for my ST: http://wolfmanluggage.com/products/expedition-dry-saddle-bags

 

[Bikedude987]

Another good reason (besides the immense weight) to NOT put a foot out to save a fall. It's a reflex for some, but a bad one.

Like this?

(Poached from advrider.com)

Hard panniers have always made me nervous, specially after seeing this photo. So why not go with something like a Giant Loop bag?

 

[Jackal]

Yip, this is the problem with panniers, I know it but still use Trax panniers.

I had a close call in Mozambique injuring my anckle with my Africatwin also with Trax panniers on a sand road but due to the security factor of lockable panniers I wil take the risk and try to keep my feet on the rest.

Most panniers sit to low to keep the weight down, think it was only on the Africatwin where the OM panniers were mounted high enough to save a ankle althouh it was shitty panniers.

 

[tomatocity]

Two years ago I slow crashed, right side, with the OEM side cases. Broke the side case but... I was very surprised that I did not put my foot/leg down or my hand/arm out for support. When I came to a stop my hands were on the handlebars and feet were on the footpegs.

After seeing that photo I can see how sand, rocks, and brush can pull the feet off the footpegs... not good. Can suck them under the side cases.

My guess is that the lower the side cases the less chance there is of the feet/legs getting under them but... that limits ground clearance for the side cases. The OEM side cases are high and tight with a lot of space for feet and legs. Be careful.

 

[trikepilot]

Why limit this thread topic to OEM panniers - is the question not any hard luggage behind your legs/feet.

It is beyond me why people do local rides with luggage. At Romney, a ton of riders came with plenty of gear strapped to the bike. They set up camp yet still rode the next few days with luggage on the bike. WTF... they are leaving a campsite at a secure dealer to ride all day to return to same said dealer. What exactly do they need to fill up all that luggage with?

Maybe it is beyond me... I just don't get the ADV fascination with luggage. Luggage seems the antithesis for adventure rides - at least day adventure rides. Doing something RTW or the TAT or the like... I can totally see it. But local out-and-back rides.... WTF?

 

[Bushyar15]

Why? Because its MY topic/thread. If you want to bitch about us dumbasses and why we have hard bags go start another thread….

Why limit this thread topic to OEM panniers - is the question not any hard luggage behind your legs/feet.

It is beyond me why people do local rides with luggage. At Romney, a ton of riders came with plenty of gear strapped to the bike. They set up camp yet still rode the next few days with luggage on the bike. WTF... they are leaving a campsite at a secure dealer to ride all day to return to same said dealer. What exactly do they need to fill up all that luggage with?

Maybe it is beyond me... I just don't get the ADV fascination with luggage. Luggage seems the antithesis for adventure rides - at least day adventure rides. Doing something RTW or the TAT or the like... I can totally see it. But local out-and-back rides.... WTF?

 

[Madhatter]

passionate topic, every one take a deep breath... i have had my black 12 for 3yrs, just got toura tech panniers, i like the way it looks... and i need the practise just having boxes on the bike....if iwas doing single track i think i would leave the bags at home or camp ... just doing roads might leave them on... and if your travels will not let you come back the way you started might want them with me just the same... we do not know how we will respond in a fall or crash, put your hands out, foot down, stay on controls till we have that expierence... i would like to think i would stay on controls, but i might put a foot down or hand out , done it before... a sharp edge would concentate forces over a rounded edge, so that might be the issue... in cental texas if you crash and dont have all your survival gear with you, you will probably have help before you stop sliding.. and should you really be in a remote area of central texas ( if any one knows where there is a remote area in central texas please let us know) there are no bears, mountain lions (few cougars should you wonder into the wrong bar)or avalanches to get you here (fire ants are fairly fierce) tripple A is a phone call away... now colorado i bet aint cetral texas, and i can imagine the need for some gear, but after that many ankles i think i would consider another way... just saying... hell with out boxes this big pig might try and bend a few of the less bendable body parts all by its self... try to stay on top.... peace to all the brothers of the tenere clan.... olive drab is the clan color for your kilt....

 

[low drag]

Think I'm going to throw up.. thats probably what it looked like when Carl went down...

I think this is as good a guess as any how his foot went down, sure looks like a similar situation except he slide off the sand and into a washed out section effectively doing the same thing.


Despite all this I'm still thinking of using my Jesse boxes for a big off road ride.

 

[trikepilot]

Why? Because its MY topic/thread. If you want to bitch about us dumbasses and why we have hard bags go start another thread….

Roger. Carry on...

 

[14kmtnman]

Well my ankle break was from the full weight of the bike coming down on it while still on the foot peg. My hands were on the bars too. My boxes did not have any part in my ankle injury. I run the Happy Trails Tahoe boxes. They have survived many falls on the KLR & one (so far) on the ST. I agree with a previous poster, keep your feet on the pegs. In the many thousands of off road miles on the KLR there was only 1 time that my leg hit the boxes. That was in less than 1000 miles on a brand new bike, off road, on a wicked trail where I should not have been with such little experience by myself. I was paddling thru a rock garden & my foot got caught on a rock & then wacked by the left bag. Not bad, but a good wake up call. If off road, I prefer just my soft tail bag. Now that we are out of the monsoon season the boxes will come off, that is once I get back on the bike in 2 more weeks.

I will be looking at better boots with much more ankle protection. I'm currently using the Sidi Canyons. Wearing this non movable inflatable boot, makes me think that maybe a very high end MX boot might be next on the purchase list.