I'm considering buying them, they look awesome and I read every post about Viking bags and I came to these conclusions, summing up the reviews posted:

Customer Service:
excellent customer service, Bobby (the owner?) goes to great lenghts to make sure people are sorted out if they have problems, sending replacings/missing items , whatever is needed to make the customer happy.
He seems to show a lot of integrity granting forum discounts to people that already purchased from him.

The bags:
Made in Pakistan, not real leather (obviously given the price) but very good quality for what it concerns the structure, molded plastic/abs inside to prevent losing shape over time, good waterproof sealing and the viking leather seem to be very good looking (like real leather) and durable.

Mounting Hardware:
Comes for free with the bags, sturdy, might have bolts with different heads, might not have the right bolts, but overall not huge problems here.

Locking mechanism:
this is where I put a lot of attention as this is what draw me to these bags.
There are contrasting opinion and experiences when it comes down to the locking mechanisms. It looks like you need 4 keys, one to close each bag lid and one for each QD bracket if you chose the QD option.

There have been reports that some (lid) locks were faulty or otherwise easy to open. Then there has been mention of an old type of lock and a new type of lock.... the new type being the one mounted on the top of the lid .

I would like to know please, from people who purchased the bags recently, how you rate the lid locks, how safe they are, could you slid a hand underneath the locked lid to grab the content of your bag, can they be easily tampered with, would you feel safe leaving your expensive gloves and camera/ipad inside the bag or do you believe they only provide very minimal theft protection?

Of course I'm eager to hear from Bobby/VikingBags as well, it would only be fair that he would have a chance to defend/explain the product...

Thank you.

 

I purchased a set of Viking Saddle Bags for my 2009 Sportster and overall am happy with them with the following caveats:

1) The bags themselves are well made, the locks on the straps and the locks on the QDS will only slow someone down a bit. The strap locks are meaningless, all a "bad guy" would have to do is use a knife to cut the strap for access into the bag. I make it a practice to never put a high value item (computer, camera, etc.) into the bag while in plain sight of anyone else.

2) The illustrations are difficult to understand and the parts numbering is for all practical purposes nonexistant. Also, the directions appear to have been written by someone whose first language is not American English.

3) The only major problem that I had was a discrepancy in the spacing between the attachment points on the QDS brackets. The left side is perfect, the right side is about an eighth of an inch off.

4) Having said all that - you're right, Bobby is eager to help if you have a problem and they have a fair price for a generally excellent product.

"He Who Lives in Joy Does His Creator's Will"
Baal Shem Tov, Founder of Chassidic Judaism... ca 1750's