I hear you on the saddlebags, quite a few folks using the Dead Creek mounting systems and very pleased with their products.
I need to be able to take the swing arm bag off. It never crossed my mind until y'all brought that up, I'm glad you did.
Talked with a couple of the local guys about the 3M film and their response was they have several other brands much better for that application. I'll post the product once I get by there and grab some.

 

Took a bit to find a bad weather day where we couldn't ride and also where Dad and I had free time to build the mount. Here is a few pictures. We built a custom mount that actually has a hole cut out for the axle so it could be back far enough to eventually put passenger floorboards on.


Two bolts inside the bag takes the bag and metal plate off. The two couplings that are actually holding the belt guard in place don't look bad when riding without it once in a while.