Harley Passes On Cadillac Hard Bags

Although Harley-Davidson's line of motorcycle accessories was no near as vast as it is today, they still had a modest number of accessories available to riders in the 1940's.  One of the more popular items was leather saddlebags. As anyone with leather saddlebags will tell you, they are not 100% waterproof and as they age, they tend to sag and loose their good looks.  Two brothers sought to change this by designing a set of hard bags based on Cadillac parts.

Using the rear fenders off a Cadillac for the mold, a rear fender and two bag halves were created.  Notice how the rear fender attaches to the bags, eliminating the gap between the them.  You'll see this same technique applied to modern custom baggers.  The rear bumper of the Cadillac was also used to mold a rear bumper for the hard bags, wrapping perfectly around the back of the motorcycle.

 
For the "lids", the brothers used Cadillac glove box doors.  A great idea which allowed them to use the stock locking mechanism to secure the contents of the bags.

The bags were completed in 1949 and then the brothers were off to Harley-Davidson in hopes of selling the idea.  Harley was not interested, preferring to push their current line-up of 5 different styles of leather saddlebags.  So the brothers took their bags and went home.  Three years passed and Harley introduced their own hard bags for the K model.  This was followed by Big Twin hard bags in 1954.  Someone at the Motor Company must have taken notice.  Too bad the brothers didn't copyright the hard bags when they had the chance...