Our first impressions
The new Defender Evo Panniers from Bumot are really something to behold! As you know we both spend most of our time on our motorbikes and indeed touring around the world in our other life as tour guides for Magellan Motorcycle Tours.
We have both for some time used the standard BMW (rebadged Touratech panniers) which have served us well, although they do have some shortcomings, but needless to say they have been sturdy and watertight.
Looking at the Defender Evo’s though, these are something else! The quality of the panniers and toolbox are really really good and when we say really really good, we definitely mean it. They are thicker than the BMW panniers and the welds and workmanship are really refined.
What we thought
Bumot have built on their reputation of making robust quality items and the new design are surely the best in the adventure luggage market.
They fit directly onto the standard manufacturers racking system (in our case a BMW 1250 GSA and a BMW F850 GSA) with ease. They fit snug with no movement at all and are podercoated inside and out, making them really fit in with the asthetics of our bikes too!
The lids are great, with the friction hinges meaning that you always have somewhere to put your coffee when stopping for breaks or even for using as a makeshift table on your bike. A true advantage over the flimsy BMW lids that get caught in the wind and will slice your pinkies off if you’re not careful! They have integrated tie loops on all corners making it super simple to strap more stuff to your bike when touring (if you need to).
Each pannier is cavernous, with the top box allowing for a flip face helmet to be placed securely inside and the 2 side panniers allow you fit a colossal amount of stuff into, and that’s not to mention the pannier bags! These are extremely well made and fit snug, meaning that anything you pack can be done outside of the pannier and then the bags just lowered inside to secure stow them.
They even have tailored bags for the lids too, which is certainly a must to hold paperwork and things you need to grab quickly and to keep those items at hand.
Attaching them to your bike is simple, make sure you have aligned the brackets on the panniers with the rack on the bike, push them on and secure the locking mechanism and lock. That’s it! done! One trick we found was to open the pannier lids when fitted and this allows more space to fit your hands through the rear rack to lock them to make them secure. Oh and if you by them together, all of the locks are keyed alike, so you only have one key that fits every single lock… makes life so much easier!
Conclusion
Not only are they functional and secure but they look great too and for us, they provide the confidence that everything is secure and safe when riding.
The weight difference between the BMW panniers and the Defender Evo’s isn’t noticeable at all when riding.
They are also ‘Made for the brave’! Not sure we fit this statement but they are without doubt the best hard panniers on the market in our opinion and we love them!