Rich-
I like the way you kindly said, "to clarify" before repeating yourself, when what you should have said was, "read my post, you damn fool!"
Which is my way of saying, if the damn fool (me) had read the post, I would have known that your pillion pad should keep your fender safe from throw-over bags. Mind your fender struts, though. Oh, I see you are. See, I read your post!
Let's see, I know I put it here somewhere... yes, here it is:
The long bare strip on my lower strut is worn from being rubbed by the back of my bag. The bag's piped edges stick out slightly proud of the back, and have rubbed a little harder on the point you can see that almost lines up with the fender towards the right side of the pic, and on the corner of the tool box cover, which you can just see at the left of the pic. All that light gray coloring is bare metal. YMMV...