Abstract:
This invention is a bag that opens down the center of its length and when filled, easily rolls up into a small package. The topside of the bag comprises two flaps that extend along the whole length of the bag and when these flaps are open, the entire inside of the bag is exposed. Once the items are packed, the flaps are pulled back over the items, and closure is obtained by zipper. At the bottom of the bag is a cylindrical accessory case. This cylindrical bag also provides an excellent cylindrical object to roll the bag around. On both sides of the bag are flaps that are designed such that when the bag is rolled, these flaps will cover the outside ends of the bag and protect the bag.

Description:
This application is a continuation-in-part of Application Ser. No. 60/446,788 filed Feb. 10, 2003. 

   FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   This invention relates to the field of luggage and more particularly to luggage that rolls up. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   One of the big hassles with most luggage is that it is too deep. Thus, an individual has to place one set of items he is packing on top of another. Sometimes the items must be packed three or four items deep. Therefore, to get an item, one would have to dig out two or three other items before one got the item he wanted. Then, if one wishes for a well-organized suitcase, one must put the other items back in place. However, this usually does not happen and the suitcase becomes disordered quickly. This is especially true for bags that are much deeper than they are wide. These are bags such as saddlebags for motorcycles or bicycles, or a backpack for campers and hikers. In this case, an individual may have to take out several items before he finds the one he wants then those items have to be replaced in order that is nearly impossible. Thus, saddlebags or packs become disorganized quickly. Therefore, one of the objectives of this invention is to create a piece of luggage that is much wider and longer than it is deep. Another objective of this invention is to create a piece of luggage that will be easy to keep organized throughout an entire trip. 
   Another objective of the invention is to create a piece of luggage that can be easily organized at the start. One wants a piece of luggage that items placed within that luggage, such as your socks, shirts, and underwear need only be stacked one or two items deep. This allows an individual to easily pack the suitcase since he can see almost every group of items placed within by just opening up the suitcase. Further, as pointed out above, this eliminates the problems when you are on a trip of having to dig through the suitcase to find an item. 
   Another objective of the invention is to create a piece of luggage that is easy to pack and easy to close. Further, the piece of luggage needs to be inexpensive and easy to manufacture. 
   The feature that makes this invention achieve the above objectives is that the luggage is a long bag that can be opened in its center along the entire length and then when closed can be rolled up into a small package. 
   The inventor has designed this invention to be used by motorcyclists, bicyclists, outdoorsman, and pedestrians. The bag due to its compactness would be ideal for soldiers. Thus, one of his objectives was to pack a large amount of material in a small, compact area. Further, the luggage has been designed so that it will easily fit upon a bicycle or motorcycle. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   This invention is a long bag that opens down the center of its length and when filled, easily rolls up into a small package. The topside of the bag comprises two flaps that extend along the whole length of the bag and when these flaps are open, the entire inside of the bag is exposed. Thus, the individual can lie out the items he wishes in the bag and can see all the items clearly. Once the items are packed, the flaps are pulled back over the items, and closure is obtained by zipper, Velcro, snaps, or other means known in the art. At the bottom of the bag is a semi-rigid, cylindrical accessory case. This accessory case allows an individual to place his toiletry items and segregate them from the rest of his clothing. This cylindrical, semi-rigid bag also provides an excellent cylindrical object to roll the bag around. On both sides of the bag are flaps that are designed such that when the bag is rolled, these flaps will cover the outside ends of the bag and protect the bag. These flaps also are used to hold the bag in a compact roll. Once the bag is rolled, belts attached to the back of the bag are tightened around the roll to hold it in place. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a top view the invention unrolled and opened. 
       FIG. 2  is a side view of the invention. 
       FIG. 3  is a top view the invention unrolled. 
       FIG. 4  is a top view the invention unrolled and with one side opened and with saw tooth flaps. 
       FIG. 5  is a view of the cylindrical bag. 
       FIG. 6  is a back view of the invention with saw tooth flaps. 
       FIG. 7  is an end view the invention rolled up. 
       FIG. 8  is a view of the spring pin and the pin with in the end of the cylindrical bag. 
       FIG. 9  is a view of the spring ball bearing snap and the pin with groove in the end of the cylindrical bag. 
       FIG. 10  is an end view of the invention rolled up with oval grommets. 
       FIG. 11  is a top view of the invention rolled up with the clip on bag attached. 
       FIG. 12  is a view of the ball bearing twist snap and the pin with a J groove in the end of the cylindrical bag. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     FIG. 1  shows the bag  10  unrolled and opened. In  FIG. 1 , one can see the interior  36  of bag  10  and closure flaps  14  and  16 . An individual packs his clothes in the interior  36  of bag  10 .  FIG. 2  shows the side view of the bag  10 . In the preferred embodiment, the interior  36  of bag  10  is forty-four inches long, twenty inches wide, and three inches high. One, however, can make this bag to different proportions to suit different needs. However, the bag will always be much longer and wider than its depth as shown in  FIG. 2 . This allows an individual to lay out his clothes within the bag  10  with differing areas for his underwear, socks, pants, and shirts. In the usual case, these areas will only be one item thick and thus, when an individual wishes to retrieve the items from the bag  10 , he can just take them out of the area without disturbing the other contents and thus, keeping the bag  10  well organized. 
     FIG. 1  shows strips  18  and  20  of hook and loop fabric known as Velcro running along the top of the interior  36  of the bag  10  and hook and loop strips  22  and  24  on the bottom of the interior  36  of the bag  10 . Strips  26  and  28  of hook and loop fabric also run along the top of closure flaps  14  and  16  and strips  30  and  32  of hook and loop fabric run along the bottom of closure flaps  14  and  16 . When the bag is closed, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the hook and loop fabric strips  26 ,  28 ,  30  and  32  running along the top and bottom of closure flaps  14  and  16  attached to the hook and loop fabric strips  18 ,  20 ,  22  and  24  that run along the top and bottom of the opening  36 , in bag  10 . This provides for a secure closing. 
   Also,  FIG. 1  shows a strip  38  of hook and loop fabric running along the outer edge of closure flap  14 .  FIG. 4  shows the bag  10  with closure flap  16  closed. Along the outer edge of closure flap  16 , there is another strip  40  of hook and loop fabric. When the bag is fully closed as in  FIG. 3 , strip  38  of hook and loop fabric on closure flap  14  attached to hook and loop fabric strip  40  on closure flap  16  thoroughly sealing the interior  36  of bag  10 . Zippers, snaps, and other means known in the art could be used to close flaps  14  and  16  of bag  10 . 
     FIG. 2  shows a clip on bag  90  being attached to the bag  10 .  FIG. 11  show the bag rolled up with the clip on bag  90  attached. Hookup bag  90  is attached via opening  92  shown in  FIGS. 1 and 6 . The bag can be attached or removed. When bag  10  is rolled hookup bag  90  remains on the outside of bag  10  and can still be opened as shown in  FIG. 11 . 
   At the bottom of bag  10  there is a cylindrical bag  42 . This cylindrical bag  42  is shown in  FIG. 5 . Cylindrical bag  42  is made out of a rigid or semi-rigid material such as leather. In the preferred embodiment, the cylindrical bag  42  is approximately the width of the bag  10  and approximately three inches in diameter. This cylindrical bag  42 , however, can be made in other dimensions and does not necessarily need to be cylindrical. The inventor has used a cylindrical bag  42  because this cylindrical bag  42  is used to start the rolling of the bag and cylindrical bags work better. However, the bag could actually be square and still achieve its purpose. In  FIG. 5 , cylindrical bag  42  has a closing member  44 . In the preferred embodiment, the closing members  44  are snaps. However, there are several methods to close this cylindrical bag  42  such as Velcro, straps and buckles, snaps, zippers, buttons, and other methods known in the art. 
     FIG. 6  is a back view of the bag  10 . In  FIG. 6 , one can see two belts  46  and  48  that are attached to the back of the bag  10 . These belts  46  and  48  have buckles  50  and openings for the buckles  52 . The belts are attached to the back of the bag near the top. When the bag  10  is rolled up, the ends of the belts  46  and  48  with the openings  52  are stuck through buckles  50  and pulled tight and buckled to hold the bag  10  in a tight roll as shown in  FIG. 11 . The rolled up bag  10  with the buckles  50  buckled is shown in  FIGS. 5 ,  7  and  11 . In addition,  FIGS. 6 and 11  shows that attached to the back of the bag  10  is a handle  54 . This handle  54  can be used to carry the bag when it is rolled up as in  FIG. 11 .  FIGS. 6 and 11  also shows two D rings  94  attach to bag  10  on opposite sides of the handle. To these D rings  94  one can be attached a carrying strap so that the bag can be carried over the shoulder. 
     FIG. 3  show that the bag  10  has outer flaps  56  and  58  on each of its sides. Along the edge of these outer flaps  56  and  58  are grommets  72 . Through these grommets  72  is run a rope  62 . When the bag  10  is rolled up, as shown in  FIG. 7 , the rope  62  is pulled tight through the grommets  72  and tied and thus closes the side of the bag. 
     FIG. 4  shows bag  10  with different outer flaps  68  and  70  and a different side closure means. In this embodiment, bag  10  also has two outer flaps  68  and  70 . These outer flaps  68  and  70  have a saw tooth like design. In addition, along the edge of the saw tooth, there are grommets  72 ′ and these grommets  72 ′ in the preferred embodiment have an oval shape opening. At each end of the cylindrical bag  42  is a pin  76  with opening  78  as shown in  FIG. 8 .  FIG. 10  shows the rolled up end view of bag  10  of the second embodiment. In this rolled up end view, one can see that the grommets  72 ′ of the saw toothed outer flaps  68  and  70  are placed over the pin  76  on the cylindrical bag  42  once the bag  10  is rolled up.  FIG. 6  shows that attached to the top, on each side of the bag  10  by a string  82  is a spring pin  80 . This spring pin  80  is placed through the opening  78  in pin  76 . When the spring pin  80  goes through opening  78 , it expands slightly, thus, securely holding the spring pin  80  in place and also holding the saw toothed grommets  72 ′ of the saw toothed outer flaps  68  and thus covering the end of the bag as shown in  FIG. 7 . 
     FIG. 9  shows another method or design for attaching the saw tooth outer flaps  68  in place when the bag is rolled up. The only difference in this embodiment the pin  76  on the cylindrical bag  42  has a groove  84  near its top.  FIG. 9  is a cut away view of a spring ball baring snap  86 . This spring ball baring snap  86  is circular in shape with an opening of sufficient size to fit over pin  76 . As shown in  FIG. 7  the grommets  72  of the saw toothed outer flaps  68  are placed over pin  76  and then the spring hall baring snap  86  is placed on pin  80 .  FIG. 9  shows ball bearings  88  within the spring ball bearing snap  86 . These ball bearings are spring loaded. Thus when the spring ball baring snap  86  is placed over pin  76  the ball bearings  88  are pressed apart and when they come to the groove  84  in pin  80  they snap back into place securely holding the saw tooth outer flaps  68  in place. 
     FIG. 12  shows another method or design for hold the outer flaps  68  in place when the bag is rolled up. The only difference in this embodiment and the previous embodiment is pin  76 ″ of cylindrical bag  42  has a J groove  95  extending from the top of pin  76 ″. This J groove  95  is slightly deeper in its indented end  96  than the rest of the groove. In  FIG. 9  also shows a cutaway view of the ball bearing twist snap  98 . The pin  76 ″ has the J groove  95  on each side. When the spring ball bearing twist snap  98  is placed over pin  76 ′, the ball bearings  100  aligns with the top of the J groove  95 . The spring ball bearing twist snap  98  is then pushed down through the J groove  95  and slightly twisted and then the ball bearings  100  snap into place in the indented end  96  of the J groove  95 . The ball bearings  100  are spring loaded so that when they snap into the indented end of the groove  96 , they will securely hold the flaps  68  in place.