Because my last name happens to be "Brooks," I've been itching to get some
Brooks brand panniers.
The company is British while their
Suffolk and
Land's End panniers are made in Germany. English quality with German engineering, that's a double-whammy in higher costs right there!
I was going down this list of panniers when I noticed that the brand name of the ones offered on the Cruzbike.com
Accessories page,
Axiom, is listed on here.
https://www.cyclingabout.com/complete-list-of-panniers-for-bicycle-touring/
The
Axiom panniers which Cruzbike is selling are a set of two for less money than the price of one
Brooks pannier. And while the
Brooks panniers claim 22-23 liter capacity, the
Axiom have 24.7 liters. That extra space might be worth it. That, plus they have reflective strips which the
Brooks ones don't seem to have.
So I just order a pair of
Axiom panniers. After I've commuted to work enough times to justify the extra expense, I plan on still getting the
Brooks bags because this, here, four bags, is my dream set-up, if not on my Sofrider then maybe an S-40 someday, once I lose the weight, because currently I am way over the S40's rated weight capacity. I'm probably too heavy for the Sofrider as well, but I got it off of Craigslist for cheap so if I break it, it's no great loss.
By "dream set-up," I mean this picture but with foot pedals.