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Review: The Bike Strap – functional simplicity to securely haul all beer formats (& other things)

Modeo bike strap, with beer bomber
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Modeo bike strap, with beer bomber

Sometimes it’s fun to nerd out on all the crazy technology in our modern bikes, but one of my favorite accessories from recent times is actually the simplest thing on my commuter; the water bottle holder. Last spring I got my hands on a Bike Strap, and I decided it had to be tested right away with a fresh bomber of craft brew. After a boot around town, I got home and found my bomber still tightly secured. At that point, I knew I’d be putting the Bike Strap to use quite often!

The Bike Strap is made by a company called Modeo (who also developed an interesting commute tracking app called Ryde) and it has proven to be a brilliant, functional design that carries a huge range of drink containers (among other things) easily and securely. There’s only one drawback to the design if you’re fussy about appearances…

Modeo bike strap, product shot

Explaining the Bike Strap’s construction is pretty simple- It’s a plastic tray with a big Velcro strap attached to it. What is nice to know is that it isn’t cheaply made – the plastic feels strong and hasn’t shown any wear yet for me or our other tester. The 3” wide Velcro strap is also in perfect condition after a year of use. The Bike Strap simply bolts on like any other bottle cage, but carries just about anything you can think of within a bit of reason.

Modeo bike strap, with steel water bottle

The Bike Strap can accommodate anything up to 5” in diameter, and weighing up to 5 lbs. I didn’t quite push those extremes but definitely tested out many beer bombers, tallboys, growlers, a steel water bottle, and a few other containers with nothing but success. Slick-sided bottles and cans don’t slide upwards in the strap like you might expect, and the strap never loosened up at all while I was riding. It’s got some pretty fierce Velcro.

Besides beer & other bottles, Cory over in Prague has been putting one to good use as well, hauling a different sort of stuff. His most non-standard hauling has been in delivering a burrito on occasion back to the office. Apparently combined with a good wrap job at Burrito Loco, the wide strap kept his lunch secure.

He also spends a lot of time riding and testing cyclocross kit for us. So one of the well known downsides of riding on tubulars outside of racing is that you can’t just patch them on the side of the trail if you get a flat (for the most part anyway.) But in order to get enough kilometers in testing different cross tires and wheels, Cory regular uses the Bike Strap to haul a spare tubular that he can swap in if he punctures far from home. He’s been happy with his spare being more securely mounted than strapped to a regular cage or modified bidon, and having it more out of the way than slug under the saddle with a toe strap. The key takeaway here seems to be that versatility is a nice feature of the strap.

Modeo bike strap, wrapped around frame

Perhaps the one downside to the Bike Strap’s design is that when you’re not using it, the strap has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is wrapped around your down/seat tube. This didn’t really bother us too much, but if you had a really nice looking commuter I could see this being an aesthetic issue.

Modeo’s Bike Strap isn’t cheap at $40 USD, but ours have proven super handy and very durable. There’s nothing I like more on a summer evening than pedaling out for a few drinks with friends, and the Bike Strap has allowed me to carry any odd bottle I find at the store with ease and the feeling of absolute security. Cheers!

Modeo.co

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9 Comments
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Peter J. Sirman
7 years ago

Did anyone try one of those bottles on a bumpy stretch at medium speed? All I envision is the top half of the aluminum bottle pictured in the article bouncing up and down and removing paint on the frame.

Schmese
Schmese
7 years ago

I have several of these things. One on my commuter and a couple on my fatbike fork. The velcro is super wide.

I’ve carried wine and whiskey bottles on crumbling SF streets without a problem. On the fatbike, I’ve carried small dry bags and stainless water bottles over all sorts of stuff with no problems. The mount keeps stuff up off the frame effectively without rattle.

jjj
jjj
7 years ago

It wont budge I imagine, Velcro doesn’t stretch by design. So unless the bottom part is really loose it wont hit the frame.

Looks like a perfect product..with one exception. Banshee dont use bottle bolts on the frame so I cant use it without another adapter :[

The wraparound part wouldn’t bother me, just extra frame protection.

dustytires
7 years ago

$40 is a great price for a limited production nichy product, the strap might not be special production, but it ain’t like they pulled the bicycle specific bolt pattern for the holder thingy out of an industrial catalog, and when are you press types going to realize that not everyone took a vow of poverty to work in the bike industry so passing judgement of somethings cost or worth should be left to the readers. I am ordering one of these !

jjj, install some bottle mounts in your frame. any decent shop has the riv nuts, and if you can’t get a standard drill into the frame structure buy one of them Harbor Freight ‘right angle’ in air power or electric. $40, the shop probably needs it!

Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden
7 years ago
Reply to  dustytires

I don’t know dusty… At this stage I am by no means an impoverished industry employee (those days were great, though!). I think I’d still likely come ahead in the time vs. $ game in the 20 minutes or so it would take to kludge together a similar product from some velcro straps and an existing cage… might be even uglier though.

I guess there we are, passing judgement! Ain’t life beautiful?

Juan Sevo
Juan Sevo
7 years ago
Reply to  dustytires

$40 would be a fair price for this plus the adapter for attachment without bottle cage mounts. But $40 for a piece of plastic $ velcro strap? That’s steep.

Now I say all of this because this is a really cool idea, but now that it’s out on Bikerumor the copycats will hit by Sea Otter. I do want to see the guy who came up with it kill it with this product. Streamline his production vs making one at a time on his kitchen table. Get it down to $25-$30 So he can sell enough to live off it.

Again, I say this because I’d love to see him succeed. Because sure he has other ideas as well. He just needs to be more efficient and he’ll kill it. It’s a brilliant idea.

Jonathan Gaull
7 years ago
Reply to  Juan Sevo

Holy shit man, thanks so much.

dustytires
7 years ago

Their web store claims the straps and base block mount are made in USA. I am not too misty eyed about all this, but know that the cost of living here is substantially more than where most of the bike stuff we buy comes from, so a simple strap and some hardware and a block of plastic for $40 seems OK. Made in China? not at all.

Steve Fisher
Steve Fisher
7 years ago

Hey Peter J. Sirman, to answer your question my big steel water bottle sits tightly enough in the strap/mount that the top part doesn’t move nearly enough to contact the frame. The width of the strap keeps the bottle super snug. Happy trails!

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