After much deliberation and procrastination, I finally decided to pull my finger out and replace my five year old Yamaha panniers with 38L Holan Nomada Pro II boxes in my quest for a little more space. It would seem as though, perhaps a little oddly, that the Holan option is not an overly popular one in XT660 circles? In fact, I don’t recall seeing or hearing of anyone with them? So, to help anyone perhaps thinking of aluminium panniers, here are my initial impressions and a few photos…

The Nomada Pro II panniers are quite similar in design and operation to the Touratech Zega Pro; welded main body with a riveted bottom tray, double-function catches that act as hinges but also allow the lid to be removed completely. The main differences are their less curvy appearance, the way the lid seats/seals and the finish options; powder coated or bare aluminium, rather TT’s offering of bare or anodised aluminium.



Having owned, and been pretty happy with, TT Zegas (admittedly not the pro version) on the BMW I once had the misfortune to own, I did look again into the Zega option, this time the Pro, but just couldn’t bring myself to part with such an excessive pile of hard-earned cash for them. I’m also not a huge fan of the lid sealing system on the Zegas, which is/was (I found) nigh-on impossible to get a watertight seal after a knock. The two seal system on the Holan panniers (and some others) allows much more flexibility of movement and doesn’t rely on a millimetre perfect fit. Incidentally, I also considered the G+G Premium boxes, but the catches, hinges and locks looked a bit feeble and the slightly agricultural all riveted construction put me off, although they are anodised and only cost �330 (without rack). ARD cases came into close consideration too, but I do like hinged lids. The ARD case bottom also has a rather sharp edge/lip round the opening to catch things on, and along with racks they were getting more costly than the Holans.



The whole Holan system (rack, mounting kit and locks) came in at �612 including delivery, which took 10 days (the bare aluminium version I think is �40 less). This is massively cheaper than the �900 (if you include the locks) that TT are asking for the Zega Pro 38L system for the XTZ in bare aluminium, and the eye-watering �1060 for the anodised cases. I went for the powder coated version to avoid aluminium oxide residues inside and salt pitting on the outside, and because the matt grey colour they offer is a perfect match for the grey plastics on the T�n�r�!

As to the construction, the Nomada cases themselves are very well put together indeed, belying their cost – tidy welding (perhaps not quite as perfect as TT), clean riveting, high quality catches/tie downs and a thick, blemish free powder coat. The rack appears strong, well braced and neatly welded, but again not quite up to TT standards (but it is �100 cheaper!) The mounting kit is strong and includes bracing for the inside and outside of the case. The locks are a bit pony, but no more so than any other pannier lock I’ve seen including those from Touratech (in fact I’m sure they’re exactly the same as these and the SW-Motech items). There is hole for a padlock should you desire to bolster security further.



Fitting the rack was very straight forward. (Just as well, as there aren’t any instructions!) All the bolt holes lined up and on completion everything was level, straight and symmetrical. The only small problem I found was that the bungee points on the top of the pillion footrest mounts touched the rack’s tubing, so I did have to bend them outwards a couple of mm, but I can’t honestly say this is a fault of the Holan rack because the bike has been down on both sides with the Yamaha panniers fitted (which mount here and take all the strain), so the footrest hangers may not have been perfectly straight and true?



Again, with the pannier mounting kit, there were no instructions! After a bit of head-scratching and a half hour game of chess, slowly moving pieces around into countless positions on the work bench, it eventually all fell into place. A simple template would have been really useful, if not a set of instructions, perhaps even in Polish! However, I did find a really good video on You Tube made by a chap in California who runs through fitting them on his F650GS Dakar. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it all worked out and the cases are rock solid on their mountings and I am more than happy with them.



I am also chuffed I got my calculations as to the width of the Holan setup correct. I wanted a pannier set that was the same as, or narrower than the bars, and it is. Each case is 245mm wide and the overall width on the bike is 940mm, which is 20mm narrower than my standard bars with Barkbusters (the Barkbusters being the widest part). They are slimmer on the bike than the equivalent 38L Zega Pros, mainly because the Holan rack is 430mm wide and the TT rack is 450mm wide.

It is of course early days yet, but overall I’d say the Holan set up is a pretty damn good one, especially when you factor in the cost. They’re not the cheapest (see Heavy Duties of Romania), but then again they aren’t anywhere near the most expensive (see Metal Mule of Cloud Cuckooland), but they are a good quality product that I feel is priced about spot on for what you get. We’ll just wait and see how they fare after a few more miles and a few more falls…



I should also give a big thumbs up for SDoc100 Gel Total Cleaner - never has getting a shiny bike been easier!

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