i think i got it all worked out, i talked to my buddys dad who works with this type of shit regularly at his shop and this is what he had to say about my situation: "if you replace your airbags, the srs main unit needs to be reset, or replaced. it can be reset, but the guy you bought the bags from sent you a new unit (not needing to be reset) probably just so you can bolt it in and hook it up to keep the whole process more simple." so needless to say i got to the old unit, which didnt end up being that difficult to deal with, unbolted the fucker, bolted the new on in and plugged the harness in, end of story. after doing this i reconnected the battery, pushed my seat back as far as it would go, put on a full face helmet, and cautiously turned the key. no catastrophic deployment of airbags, and no srs light, so i'm hoping eveything woked out ok....