The Manny Strap?

[David Banzer]

Picked up a cheapy Soma front rack from the LBS today and it came with a strap, dubbed "The Manny Strap" with instructions on how to use it.
Thought I'd pass this along to those who haven't seen it.
David
Chicago

[EGNolan]

AWESOME.

[Evan E.]

Excellent! I knew Manny was famous (and rightly so), but now he's immortal.

[dougP]

The man is a legend. 

dougP

[Eric Norris]

… and a strapping lad, from what I hear.

--Eric Norris
campyo...@me.com
www.campyonly.com
campyonlyguy.blogspot.com

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[cyclotourist]

First the Gino mount, now the Manny strap. We truly are touched by greatness here!

--

Cheers,
David

Member, Supreme Council of Cyberspace

"it isn't a contest. Just enjoy the ride." - Seth Vidal

[Bill Lindsay]

Yes, that fantastic.  If they made a product or accessory named after me, it would probably be "Bill Tape" which you install on your face before you say something rude or know-it-all-ish.  Word-leak-prevention-strips.  

[Eric Norris]

Touched?

https://youtu.be/KW-HxJ20Xho?t=7s

--Eric Norris
campyo...@me.com
www.campyonly.com
campyonlyguy.blogspot.com

[cyclotourist]

More like

[Bill Lindsay]

[dougP]

Sorry Bill, that product already exists.  It's called DougTape, and hurts twice as much if you sport facial hair.

dougP

[William deRosset]

Dear David,

That second round of security is not a bad idea on rough roads.

The "manny strap" would have saved a recent super-fast test-rider from a nasty crash and (I think, given the immediately subsequent violent vomiting) concussion when the aluminum nut-sert in the fork crown of his prototype carbon-fiber fork stripped out and allowed his front rack, fully loaded with panniers, to rotate into his front tire. The resulting structural damage to the fork probably contributed to the cracks that eventually formed around the low-rider (aluminum inserts) bosses in the CF matrix as well.

At least those low-rider inserts didn't strip out, but some on a (different manufacturer's) carbon-fiber fork did, and contributed to ugly mutterings from the (employee) folks riding those machines. A fair number of bikes ended up with inner tubes and the like holding luggage as aluminum inserts fatigued or stripped out from CF forks, "versatile" bolted-together racks rattled apart, one made-to-measure steel rack fatigued (pinched thinwall tubing, loaded in bending) and failed, and one manufacturer's (sponsored) panniers pretty much uniformly shed mounting brackets and broke zippers.

The real kicker was running into another, independent (sponsored) athlete out on a cross-country tour, with broken brackets and separated zippers--from the same maker! 

I am still surprised at how hard a simple three day trip was on so much high-end cycling equipment. Plenty of squeaky--and a few fully non-functional--disc brakes after the rainy descent on the last day. The aforementioned aluminum inserts in carbon-fiber forks had a completely unacceptable failure rate. Blackburn anything--racks and bags failed badly.

Things that just worked (and not just on my bike): centerpull and cantilever brakes with Kool-stop pads. Ortlieb panniers. Tubus racks. Bikepacking gear from Oveja Negra and Revelate (and I think Porcelain Rocket). Middle-of-the-road Shimano and SRAM drivetrains. Generator-powered lighting systems. Everybody's 8, 9, 10, and 11-speed chains. Front-loading geometry. Steel frames and forks. Traditional handlebar bags, both home-made and from Swift Industries (as long as you actually shut the damn closures!) Big Agnes tents and Kelty tarps kept everybody dry. 

My Kelpie (prototype) lowrider rack is getting revised to better support the front panniers and set them away from the fork a little more (the panniers vibrated against my fork paint in a couple of spots). A Manny Strap might have prevented some paint damage if I'd noticed, as Ortlieb includes a strap guide for that exact purpose.

I was irritated I didn't install Ergo levers with non-metallic levers, as aluminum levers are still cold on rainy, extended descents. 

Otherwise, my own frame, fork, clothing, luggage, and drivetrain all held together fine, and performed well--with three exceptions noted below. My cassette's lockring worked itself loose (It was torqued down pretty darn tight when I installed the cassette some months ago), I needed to oil the chain after a day of rain and mud, and the bike developed an infuriating non-drive-side bottom-dead-center creak when standing to climb, which persisted and was annoyingly identical to the non-drive creak that my 700C randonneur had, which had eluded diagnosis. 

Given that my Boulder Bicycle uses none of the same manufacturer's drivetrain components as my RH, it was pretty odd to have the same creak. Other than the pedals.. It turns out that my non-drive-side pedal (Shimano A600) is held on its axle (spindle? it depends on your frame of reference, I suppose) by a 15mm bolt, which had worked itself really loose over three days. This was a breakthrough--I tightened up both of these pedal attachment bolts, and Poof! No more weird non-drive-side creak on either machine.

That was worth three days off of work by itself. And I got to go for a ride too. 

Things I won't bother bringing on tour again: legwarmers, armwarmers (redundant with my long-sleeve shirt and regular pants), a civilian t-shirt, a second set of cycling shorts (the $90 leather-chamois ones went the distance better than Assos/Rapha have ever done for me), a cell phone. I'll probably add a bikepacking saddlebag for the tent, rather than just strapping it to the saddle with a toe strap, and I think I'd skip the lowriders and support rack entirely if I didn't need camping gear, in favor of either really compressing my gear needs into the handlebar bag (I can get close without a sleeping bag) or the h'bar bag + a bikepacking saddlebag. My sleeping bag, air mattress, and tent were about half the total volume I carried. 

The heaviest non-bike thing I had with me were the pair of panniers, at 1 1/2 lb each. I may experiment this winter with a more supportive full-frame rack (which will weigh a bit more) and lighter pannier designs to find a lighter total system for future tours. A Manny Strap (or its ultralight spectra-webbing equivalent) may be a significant feature of the design....

Cheers,

Will

William M. deRosset

Fort Collins, CO

[dougP]

Will:

First of all, my heart goes out to the rider who suffered a concussion because his front load broke down.  There is Exhibit 1 for the Manny strap.  Sometimes the situation warrants belts'n'suspenders.

It's interesting to note that chains did not cause problems, despite the common wisdom that more cogs = lower durability.  BUT all the various structural bits related to rack inserts into CF and bag attachment seemed problematic.  I got no clue on your cassette lockring though; maybe that should be a blue Permatex install rather than Anti-Sieze. 

Disc brakes, hmmmm, sound like either not quite there yet or only for those with sufficient experience & knowledge.  You guys really put all this gear to the test.  It's good to hear this stuff from people we can relate to as opposed to sponsored riders in race situations. 

BTW, I've been in touch with Colin (before the ride) regarding his front rack.  He was clear that it was a prototype, subject to revision after this test.  It looked so elegant in the photos I guessed it would take a few extra bits after the fact. 

dougP

[William deRosset]

Dear Doug,

I was pretty worried about the rider that went over the handlebars. He recovered fine, but that's a crash I never, ever want to see again, and his hands were a bruised mess afterward too. A flat-brim cap and no gloves didn't help mitigate the damage, either. He rode strongly, though, fast and smooth on the bike.

I'm also pretty puzzled about the cassette lockring working itself loose--it is a first for me, and I've used cassettes for fifteen years and over 100,000mi. 

The pedals, on the other hand, represent a pattern, and I'll keep an eye on that bolt in the future.

The disk brakes? Well, I didn't keep track of the brands, but two riders wore out their pads on day three, and another just had nothing -dragging feet- by the end. That's a third of the disk brakes on the ride. Among the others, chirping rotors were very common (stand 'n squeak), with probably another third of the bikes making some noise by the end. The other third were either rim brake riders (there were a few of us, and the Compass brakes worked very well for me), or the singlespeed mountainbike contingent. 

It was a fantastic late-summer ride, and it was a true adventure.

Best Regards,

Will

William M. deRosset

Fort Collins, CO

P.S. for those of you not on the BOB list, photos from the 3-day ride to Steamboat here: https://goo.gl/PwYcPZ --WMdeR.

[Ely Ruth Rodriguez]

Perfect timing actually and strange coincidence.
I just finished prototyping a new model for my bag line.
I'm calling it the Mannydonneur Handlebar Bag.

Here's an image of the final version.

On Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 1:18:42 PM UTC-7, David Banzer wrote:

[Bill Lindsay]

The Real Manny would never use that.  Live seafood (crabs, lobster, etc) could escape out of that side hatch.  

I'd run it proudly, though.  Most of my camp-food is already dead.  

[Garth]

That image brings to mind  .  . .. .  those plastic and wire grocery hand baskets would make great rack top baskets ! 

[John Phillips]

$9.95 (plus S&H) on Amazon in "Please Don't Run Over Me!" Yellow!   ;)



John