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I got my '00 Savage on Aug. 15th, 2004.  Didn't do the MSF course and DMV until Oct.14th.   My birthday is Nov. 18th and Wendy got me the Leatherlyke Saddlebags I had strongly hinted at.  $430, but they are hard sided and lockable which is pretty much required if you wish to keep things in them in Los Angeles.  If you want to run bagless it takes seven seconds to remove a bag, thirteen seconds to remount:  VIDEO

Riding in the rain you do not want to cross diaganal railroad tracks too slowly -- they'll slide your front tire sideways and toss you to the ground.  You'll bend a footpeg and place a barely noticible scratch on your saddlebag.  Bag actually supported the back end of the bike!  Tough material.

Three and a half years later the bags look and work nearly like new.  The locks are a bit worn, they weren't the best to start and I've been meaning to replace them with locks that take the round type of key.  I have definitely got my money's worth out of them.

However, I recieved an IM:
Keith_T wrote on 05/21/08 at 09:02:27:
 I haven't had any issues with the shocks -- but after three and a half years there are rub spots on the shocks.
This is strictly cosmetic.  I cannot see how a little rubbing would affect the operation of the spring/shocks.

Well there you go -- maybe on the Valk the bags rub the middle of the shock.  On the Savage you can see that it rests on the bottom of the shock, not the middle, and thus will not be applying damaging lateral torque that might affect a Valk.