Jon Muellner and David McCulloch rode about 800 miles and 70,000 feet of up and down (rough numbers), getting off the beaten path. They say the bags worked really well, and so did the bikes - early 1990's steel mountain bikes, with early 1990's Shimano Deore components - rock solid stuff that didn't let them down - they had no mechanicals even considering the very rough roads they where on. Strangely enough, David even went to boarding school in India with my mother in law!
Here's some of their pictures, check out their full write up over here:
http://mountainbike.org/northern-india-cycle-tour/
