The traditional mounting of the bag to the bike with leather straps and a dowel is still hard to do better. Is light, strong, and relatively quick to get on and off if needed. In the last post I mentioned my pet peeve with the buckle design, and now that my saddle bag design is in motion it was time to move on to the straps. Many of the traditional strap designs that are still on the market today have the keeper integral with the buckle. This will hold fast, but not lay flat around the tight bends the system uses. The buckle stands proud rubbing against the bag and gear.
While this has worked for decades, and years for me, have had failures, and it made for some very long days. Looking through what had been done before, I decided to go with a keeper that is soft, integral to the strap and holds the tag end of the strap flat to the bag.
After completing one prototype yesterday I was still mulling over the design and made another set to put on my Acorn Hobo Bag.
I oiled them up, dried them overnight and mounted them up this morning.
There are no pokey sharp corners going after the cargo. The tag ends are nice and flat, out-of-the-way. The first impression is really good with these. The leather I had on hand is a little thin for straps, but I will keep an eye on them.
Now to make some time for “Testing”