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Owners of Giant Loop, Harold Olaf Cecil, left, and Dave Wachs, display the company’s Great Basin Saddlebag and Fandango Tank Bag. The co-owners, who launched the company last year, have sent products to nearly 20 countries. Cecil stands with a Ducati Streetfigher bike from Bend Euro Moto and Wachs with a KTM 990 Adventure bike from Cascade Motor Sports.
Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Saddled up for adventure
When 2 adventure-riding enthusiasts couldn’t find a good solution for hauling their gear, they created one and turned it into a business
By Kimberly Bowker / The Bulletin
Published: October 06. 2009 4:00AM PSTSpeeding through deserts, mountains, valleys and rough terrain got a little easier for adventure motorcyclists last year.
Giant Loop, co-owned by Bend residents Dave Wachs, 52, and Harold Olaf Cecil, 42, started selling its off-road motorcycle saddlebags in August 2008. The company received its first order on its Web site less than two hours after the site launched.
The business offers three products: the Great Basin Saddlebag for $399, the Coyote Saddlebag for $299 and the Fandango Tank Bag for $149. Products come in black, yellow and orange.
“Our kit allows you the freedom to take off,” Wachs said. The saddlebags enable riders to embark on multiday trips and longer rides than they may normally take. The bags are designed primarily for off-road use but can fit most dirt bikes and road motorcycles that have passenger footrest mounts.
Both owners have ridden motorcycles since they were children.
“If you asked me a year and a half ago what I would be doing, I never would have said that the fact that I have been riding motorcycles since I was 6 years old would turn into a business opportunity,” Cecil said.
Cecil, owner of the public relations company Ad HOC, and Wachs, owner of the design and fine arts company Wachs Studio, first met in the mid-1990s. They took a trip together to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert in 2000. Wachs used an early prototype of Giant Loop’s saddlebag and Cecil used other bags strapped together with bungee cords.
“I couldn’t ride it to its capacity,” Cecil said about the effect the assembled luggage system had on his bike. “My gear was crippling my machine.”
It was a surprise to learn that riders wanted and needed a better solution for transporting gear on their bikes, Cecil said. Riders would either use homemade concoctions to haul gear or use manufactured racks and boxes that hindered the performance of the machine and could be dangerous in a crash.
Wachs previously worked as product developer for The North Face and in marketing with Nike and Metolius Mountain Products. At The North Face, he helped produce the Steep Tech line of ski wear.
“Our concept back then was to build a really tough product, something that didn’t exist and something that looked really cool, too,” Wachs said. He transferred those principles to Giant Loop, creating a single motorcycle bag that had three storage compartments.
The finished product was made of durable and waterproof materials, was safer in a crash, was lighter — which increased top speeds and fuel efficiency — and aesthetically fit the looks of the bikes.
Cecil likened the start of the business to a perfect storm. Wachs had a type of product that didn’t previously exist and Cecil said he created the business systems and spearheaded marketing.
“Without Dave, I wouldn’t have a product to sell and without me, he doesn’t have a business,” Cecil said.
The company’s marketing is focused on advertising through technology. Giant Loop has a Web site complete with videos, the blog “Go Light. Go Fast,” a Facebook profile and Twitter account.
“Our entire marketing program revolves around costing little to nothing other than the time and energy it takes to do it,” Cecil said.
The company started from a small amount of savings and uses cash flow to sustain itself. Now, more than a year later, products have been shipped to nearly 20 countries, are available through dealers across the country and through international distributors in Australia and the United Kingdom.
“It became a machine — reaching a worldwide audience,” Cecil said about the online business.
The bags also are popular abroad because adventure riding has an international community made up of like-minded bike enthusiasts, according to the co-owners.
Wachs started posting reports and photos from his trips on online biking forums in the late 1990s. He established a credible reputation in the biking community that helped with the business’s reputation.
“Motorcycling is very, very relationship-based,” Cecil said. “You have to be credible or people won’t listen to you. You have to be a rider and speak the language or people see right through it.”
Giant Loop saddlebags are produced in the Los Angeles area. While manufacturing them domestically is more expensive than overseas, it provides certain advantages, the co-owners said. Shipping time is decreased and it supports the domestic economy.
They also didn’t want to be the cheap option, but offer a high-quality and durable product, Cecil said.
Giant Loop saddlebags help riders expand their horizons of possibilities and enable them to continue doing what they love, the co-owners said.
“There’s nothing else like it,” Cecil said about adventure riding. “Mountain biking, skiing, these things are close. ...”
Finishing Cecil’s thought, Wachs said, “But there’s nothing like it. It is the closest thing to flying.”
The following questions were answered by Wachs and Cecil via e-mail:
Q: What elements make the saddlebags different from other types of motorcycle luggage systems?
A: Ours is a “rack-free” system that works with almost any motorcycle — sport, sport touring, adventure touring, dual sport, supermoto and dirt bikes — to allow gear to be safely carried without compromising the performance of the machine. Safer, lighter and less intrusive are key differences.
Q: What types of items can riders take with them in the bags?
A: Our philosophy is that if it does not fit in our bags, then you probably don’t need it. All trips require at least a fuel stop, and extra food and supplies can be picked up along the way. But we always carry all the basic tools to repair flat tires and make trail-side repairs. For camping, we pack typical backpacking-style gear. Necessities include sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent, stove, easy-to-pack food, a water-filtration system and layers of clothes for conditions that can vary widely from hot sun, to rain and to cold nights. Our bags also provide the capacity to carry many items that are not necessarily essential, such as cameras, binoculars, cell phone and more.
Q: How do you advertise and promote sales?
A: Our marketing revolves around building relationships. We use every available low-cost, high-return method to achieve this. We sponsor influential riders, fundraisers and causes, participate in regional rallies and events, provide product samples for review and most importantly, we tap the power of exponentially multiplying our positive word-of-mouth via the Internet. As we grow, we also plan to begin adding other traditional advertising and promotions to our mix.
Q: Why did you decide to open the business in Bend? Do Central Oregon demographics support the company?
A: We live here, ride here and Bend is still the gateway to adventure. Our local market is small but crucially important. Central Oregon is one of the influential national hubs for outdoor recreation. Despite the drawbacks — including a lack of local production capabilities and higher shipping and travel costs — customers from around the world remind us every day that our easy access to world-class riding opportunities of all kinds is special. If we lived in another city or region, I’m not sure this business would exist at all.
Kimberly Bowker can be reached at 541-617-7815 or kbowker@bendbulletin.com.
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