Update: I found the bracket at the swap meet in Charlotte recently for $10. There were plenty to be had. I may have to cut it and widen it a bit as the inside measurement of my fender is 7 5/8" wide and the bracket is 6.5" wide. Since I don't have a garage or any place indoors to work on this conversion, I'm at the mercy of the weather and it's not been playing nice these past few weeks, and getting worse. Currently at 10:14pm, it's 34* outside. The phrase "this sucks" comes to mind.

Also, with this mod, I've been looking at larger bags and these River Road bags have been high on my list for a while now. I actually met someone a few weeks ago that had a set on his metric cruiser. He let me check them out extensively and they didn't look that bad. $115 for bags is a lot better than the 600-700-800 that some people are paying.