I'm new to the site.  I'm looking to purchase and install saddlebags.  My bike is waiting for me and I'll only have a few days with it before taking it on a long trip so I wanted to get some suggestions to avoid unnecessary hassle.  I'm thinking about buying the brackets from seviersavage and am looking for suggestions on easy to install, affordable, highly functional saddle bags.  A few I've been looking at are cycle case, viking, saddlemen and zipoff.  I'd like to do some ammo cans or some old German military rucksacks, but feel I don't have the time to commit to those projects.

My viking bags just arrived after about a week's delay in shipping.  Then I realized that the turn signal lights have to be moved to install them.  It turns out that they sell a kit for moving the lights, but it costs a lot more if you don't order it when you order the bags.  

Also, people online complain that viking sends you a generic set of hardware to mount the bags, and they have a lot of problems getting them mounted, included adding spacers or going to a hardware store and buying different brackets

If you are short on time, I suggest either adding a sissy bar and a bag that attaches to that, or else just wearing a backpack.  Adding saddlebags is going to take some time and effort.

Small nylon European police bike style bags, no inner supports, they do not rub the wheel or muffler...





I did relocate the turn signals to the back of the license plate.

Old time versus modern... the orange and cream bike is running full sized Indian Chief (47-53) style bags from Wilie and Max, spaced out via 3" thick mahogany "fender struts" and 2" offset 1970s generic bag stand off pipes....



Wish I still had a picture of Max Morley's Savage, with HD touring bags (fiberglass) Tour Pac and full fairing... loooked like a scaled down KZ900/1000P. You can make anything work once the rear signal mess is figured out.

Here is a pic of the river road leather bags which are the biggest bags that will fit. This is from a trip to Yosemite 2 years ago. I changed them to Shoei hard cases last year. The Shoei weigh more but are more durable than the river road.