No doubt some of thought it would be cool to tour with motorcycle bags. Well I've had a chance to test this and decided it's a bad idea. I will tell you in general what to look out for and give you specifics on one brand. The Saddlemen bags are made out of vinyl. I got mine with the luggage straps cut off and decided to remove the vinyl and discovered I could rip it with my fingers. The bags have a weight limit of 5 pounds each. That is not a misprint it was on the tag inside but not in the information available on the web. The rack side is hard plastic sewed to vinyl top and bottom this will be very difficult to repair. I once tried to repair a leather shoe and broke the needle embedding it in my thumb. Because the top closes on three side I had to offset the mounting bolts .25 inch and place it 3 inches below the top. This causes the top of the bags to hang out 1 inch. You don't want a bag that closes this way. On regular bags the zipper is the first thing to fail. If I built my own which I might do using the old ones as a pattern I would use a flap and velcro. These bags are $330 new and the mounting hardware weighs several pounds. Some mounting options are extra. I generally use the $90 Trek brand and they last several years. Leather bags may be tough enough for cycling. They will be more expensive than the vinyl ones I do like the shape of the ones shown and would like to try the rear ones with a diagonal cut that whould clear the heals.
https://flic.kr/p/FemMAw
