I've been for a couple of decent runs with the panniers on the back now and they're great.
Going to just leave them on all the time, as it takes a while to remove them and put them back again. A pillion still fits with them in place, so no reason to remove them unless it's going to be parked overnight somewhere.
What I really like about them is that I can get on and off the bike normally, ie: just swing leg over the back. When I was using my tail pack, my legs weren't long enough to do that. I had to do that awkward looking thing where you hold on to the back of your right knee and hoist up your leg high enough to kind of step over the seat - whilst trying not to pull the bike over, lose balance or fall backwards onto arse, lol. Blasted short legs!
Only bad thing about these panniers is the printing on the storm covers - if you want the drawstring toggles at the top, the bloody writing printed on the covers is upside-down! And there's a couple of little fake vent things on the sides, from which the fake vents came unstuck and fell off. Not taking them back for the sake of two square cm's of fake vent though.
