Travel bikers rightly obsess over wet weights because on the road a bike will pile more weight on anyway. A well braced rear rack might add 4-5kg and when using soft baggage eliminates the chances of pipe melts. But these old school ‘racktangles’ are always too far back, probably to allow room for pillion riders’ legs. How often you you take a pillion on the trail?

Rackless designs mount directly on the bike, just like old-school throwovers derived from horse saddlebags. These days they can attach via a harness lashed to the pillion pegs and the tail rack. Where present, the melt/fire issue can be managed with heat guards on the pipe but depending on the bike, they can still be prone to swinging into the chain.
The only way to ensure this doesn’t happen is to mount them high, effectively on the side of the seat like the Kriega below left. But this negates the ethos of as low and forward as possible or ‘ALAFAP if you’re in a hurry. They may save rack weight but are still higher and farther back than ideal. OK for minimal loads but still bad for CoG and bike control.

But just about every bike has a solid structure designed to take way more weight than a loaded pannier and which is in just the right spot. Have you guessed what it is yet? Correct:

I first tried resting a bag on a footrest on my top-heavy Africa Twin trip a few years ago. I loaded a small Lomo bag with tools; probably the heaviest item in my gear. The bike was still a tank because a kilo of tools makes little difference on a 230-kilo machine. But the positioning worked well.

For my CF Moto ride to Morocco I went one better and fitted the old Kriega OS18 (‘US20’) from the AT’s LHS tank-side down on the 450 MT’s LHS pillion peg. Old OS18s have a tab on the bottom for a zip-tie – the new OSs don’t. To spread the load when perched on the peg a lunchbox neatly filled the bag’s base, then I refitted the waterproof liner (below).

3P I’ll call them for now: Pillion Peg Panniers. You really couldn’t get any lower or more forward, but the bag sits securely, is still easy to access and doesn’t get in the way. It would be handy if the velcro’d-in white liner had carry handles to take stuff into a hotel easily, but Kriega must have thought of that years ago and expect you to use another carrier bag or remove the whole bag every night – a buckling faff.

I’d have done the same set-up on the other side but tbh, a shoulder strap Ortlieb tail pack attached to the back of the seat with a couple of ROK Straps is just so easy to whip off in seconds when popping in for a coffee with valuables not in my day pack.

Depends on the bike but I think a 20-litre sized bag is optimal for this application, sitting centrally on the peg and not sticking out or up too much.
You can get a Rhinowalk 20-L roll top (left) for 35 quid (it’s a lot more flimsy than a Kriega) and I used chunky TPU reusable RovaFlex Soft Ties. Like a London rat, I’m never more then 3 metres from a Rovaflex when on the road.

Assuming mounting soft bags on footrests with reusable zip ties is seen as a bodge, your rackless baggage makers ought to consider a redesigned harness that hooks to a pillion peg, has enough attachments to additionally strap to sub-frame rails, and is then counter tensioned in the usual way off the tail rack. Then make the bag q/d off that harness so there’s no faffing to fit/remove; just clip off and jog on. You’re welcome ;-).

Feedback 6000km later
This pillion-peg mounted set up worked much better than expected. Despite the scoffing from naysayers, there was never a moment in five weeks when I had to adjust the loose bag or when it got in the way getting on the bike or paddling through soft sand. It would be nice if it just clipped on like the Bumot rack set up on the 1250GS I rode with, but the whole thing could not have been lighter, more secure, better positioned or cheaper.