I just reread most of this post, one thing I must strongly disagree with is hard bags. Reason being if you have to plant one of your feet to try and kick the bike up, if the hard bag catches your leg and it goes under it, you stand a good chance of breaking your leg, this is the main reason I have soft bags on my bike. I could never understand these metal hard bags with ninety degree edges and pointy corners, at least the Buell bags are plastic with curved corners.
The plus side of hard bags is if you fall over while riding you and the bike have more protection and the bike is easier to pick up.