For the money, and the quality - can't be beat. Life of the biker guarantee?
Nobody ever looks or cares about whether they are real leather or not. Mine stay dirty from riding in the rain. I over-stuff them all the time, and the corrugated plastic box-liner has yet to let me down. They are tough!
Easy to clean if you want, but the best part is the price, and the fact that you do NOT have to care for them as you would expensive leather bags.
Buy something you can use, not something you just want to look at.
Get the EasyBrackets, so you can take them on and off. Makes maintenance a lot easier - even just checking the rear tire pressure. Also no need for additional mounting brackets that would not look right with the bags removed. The EasyBrackets may cost you more than the Willie and Max bags, but do it. You won't regret it. I leave my bags off quite a bit, and the bike looks stock with no mounting brackets. But if I travel, or need to tote anything (rainsuit?), they are so easy to lock back on. In seconds!
The bags are so inexpensive that if I ever did tear one up I could easily buy another pair. Try that with $400 leather bags. Leather bags generally are just loose sacks - no internal support for shape or structure.
Get as big as you can find, and avoid the slants as items inside migrate to the bottom (gravity?).
I have the Standard Touring bags, which are as deep as I saw available in a straight-bottom bag. I purchased some rubber-backed concave washers at Home-Depot, about the size of a quarter, and used them on the mounting bolts inside the bags to seal out any water from the holes I drilled to mount them. I tried to reinforce them with plexiglass, but the glass cracked when drilling, so I aborted that plan, and have never looked back. They don't need it.
The velcro closures would never work for me. When I stuff one, I often have to release the buckle end from the strap, fasten the quick-release into the anchor, then I can "cinch" it with the buckle on the strap, like a belt. Works great. The "locks" are a joke, though, because even though you may not be able to pop the quick-release, nothing keeps you from undoing the buckle and belt. That is a non-issue. When is the last time you heard of somebody going through somebody else's saddlebags? Most people are going to leave you bike and bags alone.
I would take mine a bit larger, but if Willie and Max don't make it, I won't be buying it.
