No more occy strap distasters!

Workshop Glow Worm received a phone call last week:

"I was riding along and my derailleur broke. Can I bring my bike in?"

"Sure. Your derailleur hanger may have been broken, perhaps not actually the derailleur. Anyway, come on in"

The bicycle and owner arrived promptly and explained that it was an occy strap disaster. The man uses an octopus strap to hold down the kids' schoolbags to his bike as they walk, ride or scoot to school. Upon arrival at school the bags come off and the occy straps are refastened. Or left to hang their dangling, working their way into the spokes then into the chain, jamming it abruptly and causing the derailleur to snap in half and the frame mount for the derailleur to bend. And of course breaking some spokes in the process. A new derailleur, gear service, frame mount straightening, spoke replacement and wheel true later and he was on the road again.

The first thing is to congratulate the man on not using a car to get the kids to school, something that many Australians struggle with, both conceptually and in practice. It's sad to see kids being piled into cars illegally parked next to the schools (placing all the kids in danger) to be driven 2km when they could have been walking, running, playing and riding their way home instead. Taking this into account, the occy strap disaster is downgraded to a general pain in the arse, an expensive mishap that is completely avoidable with the use of bicycle specific luggage straps. These are connected to the pannier rack, one end of each side, so that the straps running over the rack can be stretched to hold something underneath. They don't fray and overstretch as easily as cheap occy straps nor do they have super sharp and flimsy metal ends that bend open and fly off into your eye. 

We're selling a universal luggage strap by BBB for $7 that fits basically every rack. The trade off is that it does have a metal hook to achieve compatibility with almost every rack but it is a strong and not so sharp hook. We also have a $5 luggage strap that is sold as a spare part for those that come with our eZee electric bicycles. This one requires the rack to have a place to mount luggage straps, as most Dutch bicycles do and most Australian bicycles do not. Finally, Omafiets, our friends next door with the used bicycles from Holland have lovely Dutch luggage straps, both universal and compatible with Dutch style racks in many colours for $13 (pictured).

Don't drive your kids to school, don't do it to them, they deserve better. And throw out your occy straps.