My leather throw over slant bags wedge in between the shock and the turn signal. The yoke isn't under the seat, just goes over the rear fender. I just tie them down with small leather ties to the turn signals. Being the female that I am, I usually keep a fair amount of stuff in them. No brackets needed, no problems. They don't budge at all. When I wash the bike, I have to "unwedge" them from the bike to remove them. I do have a sheepskin thing under the yoke to protect my rear fender.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

Looks like the answer is brackets is ideal, but proper tying down of weighted down bags should keep them from blowing around too much.

Any fancy tie down tips appreciated!

 

i know this a old thread but i need to chime in. i have river road throw over slant bags and with the tiedowns that are on the bags i have no prob at all with them moving. i use a leather bib on the rear fender to hold them down cuz i ride solo more than not. i have a slammed 06 softail spinger and my bags are 12"W X 9 1/2H X 6"D . i have no need for brackets and would not even run bags if i needed them, i think they make it look to wide.

 

I've been using throwovers for years. I cut a leg off a wore out pair of pants and use it *under* the area the yoke sits on the fender. Make it just long enough to go down the sides of the fender, no longer, so that it doesn't get caught in any moving parts.

Put the bags on the fender and even them up. I then put two foot-long pieces of leather string (one on each side of the bike, good shoe laces will work fine, etc) through the little D-ring closest to each shock, then I tie the ends around one spring coil of the shock with a loose knot and keep doing that until most/all the slack of the ends of the string is used up so it too doesn't hang anywhere to get caught in any moving parts.

The shocks don't move so the string doesn't get torn/broken. The pant leg keeps the paint safe and the string keeps the *empty* bags from blowing around if they decide to want to (often times they won't even empty, so long as they're situated between the shock and the turn signal which will hold it down well enough).

The only thing that's ever happened is the belt guard on my bike got some permanent marking in a small area, but I couldn't care less about something like that as it's a relatively cheap part - even for someone on my severely limited income. I'm also no prude about having to keep my bike all shiny and out of the weather and scared of a raindrop touching it anywhere...and I hate chrome.

 

Yeah, my bags rubbed the shine off the paint in a few spots like the belt guard on my Dyna. Between the sissy bar and the tail lights the bags couldn't go anywhere.

 

I don't put bags on unless I need to. I have guards that are easy to get off or on, and the bags are throwover cheapies from leatherup. The bags came with no hooks or holes or anything to use to tie 'em down. I used industrial grade velcro on the guard and on the back of the bags...works great, they stay put.

 

Thats what I did with my WG.

Now I don't have to worry about it anymore. Touring bikes are awesome.

 

The brackets are cheap and only two bolts to get off and on. I don't run throw over bags anymore but in my sig you can see the brackets. I did use zip ties to hold the bags on trips. The leather was just to much trouble and came loose if you did not tie it wet.