While motorcycle sales and the number of dealers have decreased in recent years, Bend-based Giant Loop has been able to increase its product line and expand distribution of its motorcycle saddlebags.

Harold Olaf Cecil said he and his partner, David Wachs, had unfortunate timing: The two motorcycle enthusiasts started the company in 2008, in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Between 2008 and 2010, nationwide sales of dual motorcycles, those legal on the street and off road, decreased 46.8 percent, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, a trade association. And the number of dealerships declined by about 17 percent between 2008 and 2011, the council’s data show.

But in the past two-plus years, Giant Loop has about doubled the number of saddlebag and related products it sells, and motorcycle riders can buy them in more than 100 U.S. outlets, about a fourfold increase from mid-2010, according to its website. Giant Loop gear is also distributed in 15 countries, Cecil said.

“We’ve grown dramatically,” he said. “As we’ve grown, we’ve had to stock more inventory so we’re not back-ordered when people want our product.”

In June 2010, Cecil said the company moved from a 500-square-foot location in downtown Bend to a 1,350-square-foot warehouse off OB Riley Road where the business is managed, inventory is stocked and product design and development take place.

“Everything except manufacturing happens here, and that’s because nobody around here has the capability to make our products,” he said.

The company, which now has four full-time employees, including Cecil and Wachs, is getting ready to expand its product line.

Giant Loop’s rack-free soft luggage is lighter and less intrusive than other hard-shell gear-carrying devices and avoids hindering the bike’s performance. The company’s saddlebags and tank bags can be used separately or together.

The Bend company’s products are made in California and Arizona, but Cecil said Giant Loop is looking to use a company, which he would not name, outside Portland to manufacture new waterproof products.

In addition to waterproof products, Cecil expects to offer two new saddlebags late next month: a more traditional-style saddlebag/pannier, called the Kodiak, and a larger bag that can carry more gear, the Fort Rock Bag.

Cecil explained the biggest bag Giant Loop currently sells sits in the passenger seat, which isn’t suitable for couples who want to ride together or the community of “round-the-world” riders who sometimes spend years on the road and need more gear.

“We have a minimalist approach to motorcycling,” he said. “But not everybody is able to or willing to pack in the way our current product line is designed.”

Wachs, who is in charge of product design and development, said Giant Loop’s customers are driving the new designs.

“We get a lot of feedback from customers, and those are people all over the world,” Wachs said.

As a result of the U.S. economy, Cecil said exportation of Giant Loop’s merchandise has been critical to the growth and success of the business.

In November, he attended the International Motorcycle Exhibition in Milan, Italy, and he will leave for a motorcycle show in Sweden later this month.

While a third of the company’s business is overseas, he said the U.S. is still Giant Loop’s largest market, with seven dealers located in Bend.

To increase Giant Loop’s business and help drive tourism to Central Oregon, the company worked with Visit Bend to persuade KTM North America, the U.S. branch of the Austrian-based motorcycle company, to bring its West Coast Adventure Rally to Bend in September.

Cecil said bringing the rally to Bend will be an affordable way for Giant Loop to reach its core market.

“Events are a key component for grass-roots marketing,” he said. “An event gives us the opportunity to be face to face with our customers and potential customers, get feedback and get the brand out there.”