My pannier locks work ok, but wont stay "cocked" when I open them. Is there an easy fix for this? Its an 88 RT

All eight of my panniers latches are a bitch to open, and then won't stay open.  I suppose the bias toward being closed is a good thing from the point of view of not having them open at speed.

I gave mine a good clean out and they seemed to work a lot better. Lots of spray lubricatnt like Inox or WD40. Work the catch then hose it out.
They seem to get a lot of compacted dirt in the mechanism which may be limiting the movement.
There's a cam which needs to move past a spring catch to keep it open. If its jammed full of dirt it can just snap shut again.

There's another spring which closes the latch and keeps pressure on it so it won't open by itself.

Point-Seven-five wrote:All eight of my panniers latches are a bitch to open, and then won't stay open.  I suppose the bias toward being closed is a good thing from the point of view of not having them open at speed.

I assume from your post that you ride with the panniers unlocked?

"Touch wood", I haven't had a BMW pannier come off in the 18 years that I have been using various versions of them but I never turn a wheel without the pannier locked to the frame and the lid locked. This approach was in response to advice given to me by a long term BMW owner when I bought my first one and maybe I have just been lucky.

Here on Oz there are many jokes about the two types of BMW panniers, those that have fallen off and those that are about to, however every time I have spoken to someone who has lost a pannier off a BMW they have admitted that they did not lock them on.

And I agree with the Kaptain, the locks do accumulate dirt and need flushing out from time to time.

Cheers

I learned the hard way to ride with the panniers locked. One of the lids popped open and ground the front corner off on the road before I could say " What's that noise?"

Yes, I ride with the top latch locked and I always lock the catch that holds the pannier to the z-frame. 

I just like the idea that the latch likes to be closed in case I forget to lock it in a senior moment.

I lock them both closed and to the frame when out of town. In town, riding to work for example I leave the RHS one unlocked so that I can put stuff in there.

I see KH's post about cleaning them out. I'll try that and maybe tweak the flat spring that holds them open a little.

Thanks for the photos Kaptain.

I'll give the locks a bit of a clean this weekend.

A little job I did last week was to replace the o-rings which hold the lock barrels into the latch. About 3 of the locks were coming out with the key so was at risk of losing these on the road.
Make sure you lube the recess and o-ring very well before inserting the barrel back into the latch.

Kaptain, if your lock barrels are working their way out when you turn the key maybe the retaining tang (the rear most one) is broken or missing. I don't believe the O rings hold the barrels in.

If you haven't seen this post by Duck on another forum then it's worth checking out. Look here.

Cheers

Hi Guys,,,,

Would anybody have one of the red lock things for sale ?