There have to be some people here who have experience with this.

I am planning on some semi-long-ish trips this summer, and have plans to do a month or two on the road in the next couple of years. I'm planning out my packing and I'm struggling with how to carry the camera gear.

Two things I've ruled out are carrying gear in a tank bag, or wearing a backpack. The options as I see them:

1) Strap my camera bag to the back of the bike. Pros: No or little cost, easy to get off the bike to shoot, universal fit. Cons: Not super secure or safe, little or no weather protection.

2) Panniers or Top Case. Pros: Integrated into the bike, weather protection (assuming good bags), lowers the weight on the bike (panniers), lockable. Cons: Crash protection seems to be less if the bags are on the side. Hard to get to the gear/carry it when off the bike, takes up space for other gear (probably would have to build a padding system inside of it).

I'm thinking about trying a combo approach by mounting a Pelican case on the rear rack by drilling some sort of mount through the case, lining the top and bottom with foam, then finding a camera pack that would fit inside of it. That way it's easy to grab a bag to go off and shoot, the case could still be used for non-photo carrying things. Could also conceivably use the Pelican case to haul the photo gear on non-moto travels depending on how I build the mount.

One question that I still have out there is what the vibration from the bike will do to my gear? Internet opinions vary from it'll kill it, to I'll be fine. Also wondering if the Pelican case will break at the mounting points at some point if I drill through it?