What kind of traveling do you do? How important is luggage? Are you a part of the bungee cord and duffel bag crowd? Minimalist soft luggage crowd? Or the hard cases all the time brood? Maybe you are like me and think they all have their own merits and strong suits but none are perfect for every adventure rider or type of adventure riding. For me hard luggage makes sense for a lot of the riding I do: waterproof, lockable/secure and easily removed/installed.

Having hard cases is like having a trunk, I enjoy being able to go grocery shopping and run errands without worrying about how I am going to secure things to the bike. Another important aspect to me is being able to leave my motorcycle unattended on trips and not have to worry about my belongings. The Zega Mundo panniers are the “streamlined” version of the Zega Pros or the modern version of the Zega Classics. Marketed as the no frills “economical” luggage solution from Touratech.

They are less expensive than the Zega Pros but they certainly aren’t inexpensive by any stretch of imagination. With that in mind they are an extremely well built and sturdy product. Can you put a price on the security of your luggage or the simplicity of being able to toss things in and take off? The price to performance ratio makes sense especially if you consider that you can take these boxes with you to your next bike.

Regardless of how you justify the price these panniers are the result of unimaginable amounts of research and development along with field-testing. Think about how many times Touratech panniers have been around the world and on how many different bikes. The pedigree of experience shows in just how tuff and simple the Zega Mundos are. Made from 1.5mm aluminum and stainless steel rivets the Mundos are lightweight but sturdy enough to put up with my abuse.

The Mundos use the same well thought out latch system as the Zega Pros. Well actually the Mundos are almost identical to the Pros except for the plastic corner pieces and the anodized finishes. If it’s not broken why fix it right? On longer trips these panniers were great. I have the 31/38 liter combo on my KTM 690 and I was grateful for their convenience and ease of use on long days and when setting up and taking down camp.

Dust and waterproof beyond a reasonable doubt and with the optional integral locks installed you would have an easier time stealing the whole bike instead of an individual case or it’s contents. Another great feature is being able to open the cases from either end or remove the lid all together. The low profile anchor loops on the lids are incredibly useful and worked perfectly for securing my Rotopax containers. You can conveniently have something secured to the lid and still open the case to access the contents inside.

The only negative aspect of these cases that I encountered was the mounting system: specifically removing and installing the panniers on the bike. The problem is that you have to access the interior of the cases to attach or detach them from the pannier rack. This forces you to at least partially unpack when removing them and not pack them fully before installing. Not a “no sale” for sure but a bit of an inconvenience to get used to coming from the BMW panniers manufactured by Touratech that allowed on/off action without opening the lids.

Even with the mounting system being slightly hard to use it is very secure. Long stretches in the dirt and road vibrations after several thousand miles did not loosen the connection between the cases and racks.The 18mm tube rack is very sturdy and acts like a set of rear crash bars when the cases aren’t present. The racks can also be used as a frame for soft luggage as I like to do on extended off road trips.

A plethora of accessories are available including bottle holders and liner bags as well. The Zega Mundo panniers certainly are a “simple, rugged and reliable luggage system”. Very attractive and tough, I think they pay for themselves in convenience and reliability. MSRP: $1099.00 (includes pannier rack and hardware) Touratech-USA.com

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