Shucks, Brillot, if I were a little closer,
I'd swing by and let you coach me through the installation of my latches...then I'd be ahead of the latch failure curve.
Many miles and many years ago, I had my left pannier come open when I was doing 80 or so on I-76 on my way to Denver from Fort Morgan. I didn't know it was open until I had driven across on Denver on I-76 and I-25. I was clear to the south side of town when I got off and rode about six blocks on surface streets to an appointment. There was a hard bump as I pulled into the parking lot and when I stopped the lid was open. I figured that was when it had come open. I was relieved that two bills in envelopes, my check book, and a paperback I was reading were still in the pannier.
On my way into Denver, a church member had passed me in his car about six miles out of Ft Morgan and I saw him the next day. He said, "Why was that thing on the side of your bike open when I passed you?" I said, "It was open then? Why didn't you let me know?" He said, "I figured you wanted it open." I had driven nearly 80 miles with the pannier open!
On my Epic Ride, I was 50-60 miles west of Des Moines on I-80 when a guy in a pickup pulled alongside and pointed down to the back of the bike. My left pannier was open. It had my clothes (in a pannier liner bag), plus five or six loose items (gloves I know and maybe sandals) in it. I pulled over and closed the lid only to have it pop open again. I got off at a McDonalds out in the middle of western Iowa and spent about 30 minutes figuring out that the latch mechanism was closed so it couldn't engage the hook on the lid. I finally managed to get that fixed and the latch has worked since. I'm still surprised that the aerodynamics of an open pannier don't seem to suck things out, even at high speeds.
About the wind deflectors: I think Honda must have spent some money and time in a wind tunnel when they were developing the deflectors. They do an incredible job of deflecting air and a lot of moisture away from your hands. They work something like slats on jet wings. Over the 130K miles I've had them, their per/mile cost has dropped to just a bit over 1/10 cent/mile. They've been well worth that.
