Review - Enduristan Monsoon Evo Panniers

34lt pannier review

I have recently purchased the 34lt Enduristan monsoon pannier bags. As I do a fair bit of adventure riding and often do either weekend trips or longer week or 2 trips I was looking for some decent pannier bags.

I had a couple of main criteria to meet when I was looking to upgrade my bags. The criteria I was looking at was over 30lt bags, waterproof, quick and easy to install, solid and sturdy manufactured bag. 

When I first started with adventure riding I initially just purchased some cheap 25lt bags off amazon. While these bags were ok they just weren't practical and not quite big enough for my needs.

I used these bags to travel through the Flinders Ranges with my brother and on day 1 I didn't strap the bags to the bike properly and they sagged low enough for the rear tyre to rub a hole through one corner of the bag. I had to overcome this by placing a plastic Tupperware container inside the bag so that my gear didn't fall out.

This seemed to work well but it was far from ideal. As these bags were only 25lt I was finding that they just weren't big enough and I had to take an oversize dry bag up on the tail of my bike. I found this wasn't ideal as there was just too much weight up high.

I ride a Yamaha Tenere xt660z which are already top heavy without adding additional weight up high.

So with that I set out to find some pannier bags that were rugged and could handle what was thrown at them in adventure rides which sometimes also includes the bike being dropped from time to time. I also wanted bags that were easy to take on and off. The old bags I had just took way too long to put on and was a downright pain if I needed to take them off for any reason so ease of use was a high priority for me. I also wanted a larger bag so that I could get more of the gear and weight down lower.

I searched for quite some time and narrowed it down to a few manufacturers. Those being the Enduristan monsoon evo, Kriega OS-32, Lone Rider Moto Bags and Mosko Moto Backcountry.

I found the Enduristan and Kriega were around the same price while the Lone Rider and Mosko Moto were a little more expensive so I decided to narrow it down further to just the Enduristan and Kriega bags. 

I decided to go with the Enduristan bags out of simplicity as they just clipped to the pannier racks without the need for any additional backing plate that the Kriega bags had.

The enduristan bags just ticked all of my requirements, ease of use, waterproof, rugged, good size and also looked good too. The additional size upgrade from the old 25lt to the 34lt enduristan bags allowed my to downsize my tail bag from 50lt to 30lt and got the extra weight down low and into the panniers.

The one issue I ran into was mostly my own fault as the clips on the Enduristan bags that lock it to the pannier racks are suited to an 18mm diameter pannier rack tubing. A very quick measurement of my racks, prior to purchase, was just not accurate enough. What looked close enough on the tape measure to 18mm actually turned out to be 20mm and when the Enduristan bags arrive I quickly found out that this 2mm made a huge difference which resulted in the bags not fitting to my racks. 

I went back and forth with selling the bags and going with the Kriega but the Enduristan bags just ticked all my boxes. With that I decided instead to track down some 18mm tubing and decided to adjust the racks to suit the bags. I had a few issues tracking down some 18mm tubing due to it not being a regularly used size. After many phone calls I managed to track some down and snapped it up. Then came the trouble of finding someone that could weld them in for me. I found a few companies that could do it but there was at least a 3 month wait which was a bit frustrating as I had a week long trip that was fast approaching. I eventually found someone local who was able to weld in the new tubing within a week.

This did the trick and the bags were able to be fitted. 

The engineering of the clip lock system on the enduristan bags meant it was a very quick install of the bags. The 2 mounting clips on the bottom of the bags are made from a fiber reinforced composite material. There is also a redundancy manufactured into these clips as they can be reversable should a breakage occur.

They just clips fit to the bottom rail of the pannier racks. While two straps at the top of the bags just strap to the bike or rear tail rack. The total install time for both bags was less than 5 min which was a huge improvement from my old bags. I also purchased 2 water bottle holders to install the the rear of the bags as I usually take 2 bottles on my trips. One for water and the other for some wine for when I reach camp on my trips. The inner lining of the bags are bright red so nothing gets lost in the bags and makes any items within the bags easily visible against the red background. They also come with a removable inner plastic lining that adds rigidity to the bags. These can also be removed when the bags aren't being used so the bags can pack down narrower for everyday travel. 

The difference in materials used for the Enduristan panniers and the cheap bags I had previously was considerably noticeable. The Enduristan bags are made to a much higher standard with a 3 layer, abrasion resistant fabric. Although the price difference between the cheap bags and the Enduristan bags was considerable, the quality is also considerably different and worth the extra price.

I thankfully haven't dropped the bike since installing the Enduristan bags so I can't speak of their durability but they are definitely sturdy and well built and also include a rigid plastic strip around the bottom of the bags which is at the initial point of impact should there be a crash. 

Overall I have been very happy with the bags. I have completed a few trips now with the panniers and have found them to perfectly suit my overall needs. They are plenty big enough for my requirements even with the additional gear in them that I used to carry in the tail bag plus they also had spare room for any drinks, food or miscellaneous items I purchased along the way.

At a touch over $1100 aud they weren't exactly a cheap purchase but I think it was money well spent for the bags and I can see them lasting quite some time. Overall I couldn't be happier with the bags.