At a glance Large, good value and high-quality, fully waterproof panniers with a useful built-in security feature.
Tested by
Oli Laverack, tester for The Bike List
Performance
You can fit so much into these bags you could easily use them for touring around the world, but we used them much closer to home, cycling from the toe to the tip of the Outer Hebrides for a 5-day trip. I also used the Aqua Back Plus rear panniers on a 10-day cycle touring trip through Holland and Germany to Oktoberfest, so they have seen a fair amount of action this year.
Before we set off, I fixed these panniers to the front and back racks of my Tout Terrain Silkroad bike, which was nice and simple thanks to the simple mounting system. There are two clips on the top bar of the pannier which you can easily unscrew by hand and move left or right to get them in the right place to click on to your rack. Then all you need is an allen key to unscrew the rotatable anchoring hook and move it around the elliptical runners to achieve the best fit for your particular rack. This is easy enough to do, but does mean you need to use a tool. However, once you have fitted the panniers to your rack at home, you don’t need to change them during the ride.
Once fitted, each pair of Aqua Pro Front bags holds 30 litres of kit, and weighs 1.8kg. The Aqua Back Plus pair holds 51 litres of kit and weighs 2.4kg. Inside, there is a sleeve pocket handy for sliding down various bits of paperwork, and a zipped mesh pocket useful for keys and other small bits of kit. The shiny, tough PVC-free Polyester Thermoplastic fabric feels very tough, and even though I have taken them off and on the bike countless times between various trains in Germany and ferries in the Outer Hebrides, they have coped admirably with everything we have thrown at them. The back of the bags is completely hard plastic shell, a bit like an exoskeleton which protect them brilliantly from all sorts of bashing, from being dropped on the floor to being trodden on while camping.
The panniers were nice and easy to unclip quickly when you needed to get them off the bike nice and quickly and jump on the militarily timed Deutsche Bahn etc. All you do is lift the pannier handle and the clips open up to release the bag from the rack. The bags also come with a padded shoulder strap which you can clip on to either the plastic loops sticking out from the hard plastic back on the Aqua Pro Front or the slim plastic D-loops stitched near the roll closure buckle of the Aqua Back Plus. Both plastic loops look flimsy compared to the otherwise bombproof nature of these panniers, and compared to the secure-feeling buckle clipped shoulder straps of the Ortlieb panniers.
There is a knack to putting the bags back on to the bike with any great speed, and once you master pulling the handle up at the same time as getting the anchoring hook at the right angle and hooking the clips on to the rack, there’s rarely a problem, depending on how knackered you are after a day in the saddle. This was the same with the Ortlieb bags, panniers are always going to be slightly more difficult to hook on than to take off again. However, on the Vaude panniers, there was one more step – once you have hooked the bag on in the right place you must push it in the right place to click the clips into place. Once you know where to push, you can click them into place easily, but it does take a while to get it right first time.
Similar to the Ortleib bags, Vaude also incorporate plenty of reflective detail so I felt safe on dark, stormy days. The reflective logos could have been even bigger without detracting from the sleek design. Rain was not a problem, not a drop managed to penetrate the shiny waterproof material and both types of closure worked well. The Aqua Back Plus had a roll top closure like the Ortlieb bags, but unlike these (which you either clip together at the top or clip to the shoulder strap and use the third buckle), the buckle clips into a plastic housing stuck to the side of each bag. Although this wasn’t exactly difficult to use, it certainly was much easier and quicker to roll and clip the buckle together at the top of the bag on the Ortlieb design rather than reach down to one side then the other and tighten each individually for the Vaude design.
The closure on the Aqua Pro Front bag is more like a hiking backpack design – it has a lid closure with expansion bellows. This is very easy to use and allows for a small amount of extra kit to be squashed inside, however if you overfill the bellows right to the top you will struggle to get the waterproof lid over the top, so avoid doing this.
Unlike the Ortlieb bags, the Vaude panniers come with anti-theft cable lock as standard, which is a useful addition for tourers who like to stop off in cafes or art galleries or for a bit of a general wander round with peace of mind. The only downside of this great feature is its position on the bag. The loop is exactly where the handle is, so when picking the bag up you often find yourself about to be cheese-wired by the anti-theft cable, which can be quite painful if you’ve loaded your pannier up with heavy food for the day. Moving the anti-theft loops left or right of the handle would be much better in my opinion.
The Aqua Back Plus panniers also have small outer pocket of roughly 3 litres in size, also fully waterproof. These are very handy for smaller, heavier or dirtier bits of kit that you might need to access in a hurry but didn’t want to put in the handlebar bag, like tools, puncture repair kit and emergency rain shell. They also have a roll closure system that worked well, was simple and easy to use, and instead of a buckle there is a strong, simple metal catch which you can undo easily. The reflective logo is on this pocket, but I also feel it would be useful to have one on the front and rear of it so passing cars can tell you are a bit wider than normal. When fully stuffed, these side pockets did catch on a few gates and access barriers, and having more space just encouraged me to pack more things that I perhaps didn’t need, so I think personally I would go for the £100 Aqua Back next time, a 48 litre pannier pair without the side pockets.
A useful accessory for Vaude panniers is the £7 Raincover which goes over bags up to 40 litres in size and has reflective detail on the side but strangely, not the back or front for vehicles approaching from ahead or behind.
The price of these is the same as the Ortleib panniers reviewed here, but the Vaude rear panniers are much larger and the front panniers are slightly larger, so you could say you are getting more for your money. On the whole though there is not much to choose between the two, they are both very high quality and performed excellently, so other than the size, it will come down to which style and closure systems you like best. One advantage of the Vaude over the Ortleib is that they have a built in security cable, but on the Ortleib you can purchase this attachment to retro fit is, plus a much wider range of useful extras that would be useful especially for longer touring trips.
Vaude says:
Aqua Pro Front
High Tech produced in Germany. A waterproof universal bag with top lid closure that can be attached to both front and rear bike racks. The symmetrical back plate also lets you mount it on either the left or right side. 30 l volume / pair.
Details:
- lock loop - lid closure with expansion bellows - inside pocket - reflective elements
- weight: 1800 g
- volume: 30,000 l
- measure: 33,00 x 34,00 x 16,00 cm
Technical data:
1000 D Polyester Thermoplastic Polyurethan coated, 420 D Polyamid Thermoplastic Polyurethan coated
Aqua Back Plus
Get out and explore that world around you! This waterproof "Made in Germany" rear pannier combo has roll closures that allow you to customize the sizes of the bags and seal them so that they're watertight. Thanks to the symmetrical construction, each bag can be mounted on either the left or right side. An extra inside pocket and outer welded pocket makes it easy to store things separately. 51 l volume / pair.
Details:
- lock loop - waterproof roll closure - removable shoulder strap - inside pocket - reflective elements
- weight: 2400 g
- volume: 51,000 l
- measure: 43,00 x 34,00 x 16,00 cm
Technical data:
1000 D Polyester Thermoplastic Polyurethane coated, 420 D Polyamide Thermoplastic Polyurethane coated
For more info visit www.vaude.com
