[Enfield Pro]

I am curious to know how many people consider hard bags, on a bike like the Himalayan, a necessity.

If you owned a new Royal Enfield Himalayan; how many of you would equip it with the hard bags? In this hypothetical conversation price is no issue. Purely from a personal preference perspective; if you did own a Himalayan would you put bags on it?

[Richard230]

Not me.  I would rather use soft leather-look saddle bags on my Bullet, with a small black wire frame attached to the chassis to keep them away from the rear wheel.

[Charro]

Depends on the price and quality of the hard bags. Nothing like being in the middle of the New Mexico desert with a broken or bent beyond repair hard bag. 

If a frame system was available I'd probably go with a good soft system like Wolfman.

Andy

[heloego]

Softies, but me being me I'd probably get the biggest I could get my hands on. 

[krusty]

On any bike designed for long distance travel I prefer a sturdy top case and soft throw overs. Soft bags are easily removed with clothing and personal detritus. Solid lockable top case for helmet/gloves etc... more security when parked up. I used hard panniers once and they suck in heavy traffic, they make filtering a chore. Maybe in countries where filtering is prohibited that's not an issue. On busy UK roads it is a factor.

[motomataya]

For strictly street use  I very much like the hard bags these bikes are shown with.   
Dual sport or "real" adventure riding, hard bags are to likely to hurt you in a spill. Breaking your legs and such. I prefer soft bags there.

[Morgan65]

I have a deposit down on the Himalayan and yes I will buy the RE hard bags just as soon as they are available. We get a lot of rain here in the NW so I need weather prof storage and I need to have bags I can secure my rear when I’m in a restaurant or getting rid of water.