exhaust contaminated pannier

[BCtiger]

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere, but I could not find it. The right side pannier on my 06 has a terrible acrid smell from the exhaust after a day's touring. I assume that the draft of air over me, pillion & the bike pulls back on itself & finds away in. It doesn't leak water, but clearly not airtight. I use zip lock bags for my gear, but they also become contaminated, so when you take your panniers up to a room it wreaks. Once back home I can leave it open in the garage to air out for a couple of weeks. It seems to a new problem this year, I did not notice it on last years trip. Does anyone else have this problem & if so, can you share your solution please ?
Thanks.

06 tiger with a smelly pannier in Victoria BC

[Sin_Tiger]

I wonder if the packing in your can is on it's last legs and leaking more heat through the side, assuming you haven't changed anything else since last year. Just a thought.

[BCtiger]

Thanks for the idea, something I did not consider. Nothing has changed since last year. I'm not sure how that affects the pannier unless the heat is causing the the hard shell to out gas on the inside. The pannier does not appear to be any warmer than in previous years after a long run. Maybe I should experiment with some some duct tape around the seal on a long run & see what happens.
Thanks again.

[Sin_Tiger]

Might be worth trying some foil on the outside near the can to see if that makes a difference. I used to hang one of those room deodorising gel things in my top box in Singapore to reduce the solar induced helmet pong, worked quite well. I did get some strange looks when I told people I was buying air freshener for the motorbike 

[BCtiger]

Found my problem with the leaky pannier. It's shape has been distorted a bit and lost the seal at the back side where the draft pulls the exhaust back. Also noticed a 2.5 cm crack by one of the latches. Not sure if that is a cause or a result, but no matter, I dropped the pannier off at a plastic welder shop today. Also, It is very difficult to find a rubber tube shaped gasket suitable to fit in the channel, so I might pull the current one out and put something on the bottom of the channel, to raise it a couple of mil after its put back in to get that seal back.

[Sin_Tiger]

The plastic welding specialist might be able to help you recover the shape a bit. I've used Seals Direct (http://www.sealsdirect.co.uk/) for some rubber extrusions recently, very helpful, I'm sure you have companies like this in the US that might be able to provide something at least close.

Glad you've found the source though.

[BCtiger]

Problem sorted, no more stinky pannier. After having the crack repaired by a plastic weld I carefully pulled the rubber gasket out, adhered by an adhesive tape. I inserted a closed cell foam rubber strip (weather stripping) with 2 sided adhesive and then put the original gasket back in. After a test run it seems to work fine, so far ! A 10 day road trip starting tomorrow will see if that is the case. The foam rubber compressed is maybe 1 mil, any more and it would make it too difficult to close the pannier.
Can't wait to get on the road ! Taking the ferry from Victoria BC across the strait to Washington, along the coast and down thru Oregon and we will see from there. And the weather forecast is promising, yes ! Perhaps a bit chilly in the mountains.

[Sin_Tiger]

Have fun and arrive smelling sweet  can't believe I just said that.

[motoOzarks]

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