I've never liked riding with a backpack when I'm on the motorcycle. It's small, inconvenient, uncomfortable and it makes for a sweaty back in the summer. Bags can get very expensive, but I didn't feel the need to go overboard, so I ended up ordering some pretty cheap bags.
They arrived yesterday, and I'm quite happy with them so far. The bags are pretty small, but it's as big as I could go without remounting the rear turn signals. Tim and I added a couple pieces of metal that hang down from the seat bracket. We drilled a hole in the bottom of these new struts and corresponding holes in the bags and ran bolts through to connect them the bag to the strut. This will keep them from flopping around in the wind and from getting caught up in the wheel. Since the bags were not high quality, I didn't feel too bad about drilling a hole in them.
This mini-project is just about done. I have to go get one more bolt to replace the rear bolt that holds the seat to the fender. With the straps going under the seat, the old bolt is too short.
I'm really looking forward to having some storage on the bike where I can keep things like wrenches, duct tape, and a baseball cap.