Have you read the manual?

 My shiny new BMW panniers were delivered today.

I carefully unwrapped them and ensured that the relevant fixings and locks were also present. The thing that wasn't in the box was a set of instructions ... Bugger!  

There are two stages to fitting the panniers to the bike; the panniers needed a bracket to be attached and this looked pretty straightforward; a couple of captive nuts were inserted into slots in the bracket and it was then fixed to the pannier using a pair of Torx head screws ... literally a five minute job.

The second stage was more complex. The pannier lock needed to be coded to the bike's ignition key and then fitted to the pannier.  There were a set of instructions for coding the key, but these were flagged with a bright orange label. It stated "Important! This product is not intended to be installed by a customer. Installation must be performed exclusively by a specialist workshop"

Well, that does tend to make one think. After all if I mess up the lock coding or the lock installation I will be left with a shiny new pannier that cannot be opened or attached to the bike. It is fair to say that I was somewhat unnerved, especially as there was no guidance at all about fitting the coded lock to the pannier.

I had already searched the internet and watched a couple of videos on coding the locks. It seemed fiddly, but relatively straightforward, but there was nothing about fitting the locks. Interestingly there were no lock fixings, just the lock and a lock sized aperture in the top of the pannier. I assumed that it must be a push fit?

After an extended period of worriting, I bit the bullet and laid out the lock components. It went relatively smoothly and it seemed that the Youtube videos were correct. The time came to insert the lock in to the pannier. I'd like to say that it went straight in, but I actually needed to re-check that I had inserted the locking plate's spring before I pushed it home ... Success! Clearly me and my dining room table qualifies as a specialist workshop. 

The second lock and pannier were a re-run of the process just completed, and I soon had two panniers ready to fit to the bike. 

The fitting would have to wait until tomorrow as this evening we were attending the Redditch College Burns Night Supper.* I am aware that Burns Night is celebrated on 25th January, but these college events are always held on a Thursday. 30%, Jules, Mummy Sheila and I had a super evening and the food was fantastic.

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* Redditch College catering course holds regular set menu dining evenings to give the students experience of cooking and serving meals to the general public.  The food is always attractively priced and of very good quality, and tonight was no exception.