Me and the wife both have XT660Rs and currently use Giant loop Great Basin pannier/tail bag things together with a couple of dry bags, rucksacks, tool tubes and other bits and bobs. This is great for lightweight and shorter trips, although we (just) managed on a 6 week trip to Southern Africa earlier this year, but had no space whatsoever for any extras or stuff picked up en-route.

We went for the Giant Loop set up as a lightweight option, which it is and it really is very good - even better if it was waterproof, and to make riding gravel roads a bit easier, especially for my wife who isn't confident off the tarmac. Anyway and despite all that, after a lot of thought and several trips where we thought we might hit the trails but didnt we have decided we might as well bite the bullet and go for some hard luggage. We are probably shipping the bikes to the USA next year for a 6-7 week tour from New York to LA, via Canada and the Rocky Mountains, and I think we could do with the extra space, ease of packing, security and convenience of hard luggage.

My bike is easy - I have 2nd hand Metal Mule exhaust and bash plate fitted to mine AND an old pair of MM panniers in the garage, so all I need is a MM pannier frame, but I am not paying out the �1300+++ to MM to kit out the wife's bike.

So questions.....

What hard luggage has anyone fitted to the 660Rs and how have they found it in terms of weight and how it effects the ride, especially how noticeable the extra weight is? Pics of the width would be good too

Anyone got pics of a fully set up MM bike, again width and how it effected the bike?

Ta.

Austin