newbie - anyone have soft bags on a Gen 6 VFR

I am in the same boat.
I went to e-bay and bought a set of soft bags.
They work great but i have some issues with them.

1)they marked my baby. My fault didn't put down enough protection.
2)they take time to put on fussing with varous straps and what not to synch it all down(i put extra's on, i'm a novice and felt more straps are better.) This ment for an overnight trip i would have to take my luggage of the bike and into the hotel, then re instal and fuss witht he bags.
3) the bags seemed to sag, they never looked cool. made my ass look fat. The sagging bags just covered up so much of the bike.
4)stress.....this may go away in time but throught the trip i kept looking back at the bags, and evey pit stop i inspected them. never was an issue but piece of mind from a solid bag would be nice.
5)not lockable. on a road trip every time you stop and leave your bike your leaving all your stuff out in the open, even with a travel lock a sharp knife is all it takes...or they simply take the bag.(never locked mine figured i would hope they would leave the bags and just take the expensive stuff but leave my trip intact) Again never an issue but every moment spent away from your bike you worried...

On the plus side.
1)cheap
2)Big, my bags are huge and expandable...lived out of them for 2 weeks..no laundry stops. Heck even had room for booze at the border.

I'm happy with bags, but the givi bags will be on my x-mass list(though i probbably won't get them for a few years.)

Oh also my bags came witha foam pad that covers the bags from the pies..was wooried about it but never an issue, our pipes get hot but not that hot.

But the price is simply to much..

 

I had my dad fabricate some aluminum plates to keep the bags off my bike. I'll try to post some photos of the plates. Here is the bike with the bags. I paid like $80 for the tourmaster bags at the Mid-Ohio races. They don't lock, but come off and on easy with zippers.

 

DO the soft bags create any issues for 2 up riding? Don't want my GF to be uncomfortable. I have a 1990VFR750F, seems similar.

 

I have Cortech Sport soft bags. They work great, the exhaust doesn't bother them, they have a pad behind them so it doesn't scuff the plastic, and when I went down Friday it saved the entire back of the bike.

Pictures...
Gary951S Gallery - VFRworld Photo Gallery

 

i couldn't afford the hard bags and racks at once. So i bought the racks and used some used soft bags.The soft bags will velcro right to the racks. And the wife had plenty of foot room. it actually worked really good.