British distribution company, Cyclorise, launched their own brand of frame and saddle straps earlier this year. New luggage strap brand, Louri, delivers sturdy, long-lasting products at a price that won’t break the bank and crucially are readily available for sale in the UK.
The Louri frame strap is a strap designed to attach gear to your bike that you would otherwise have to put in your pack. Primarily it's designed for things like an inner tube, tyre levers and CO2 canisters, but you can stick anything you like on there. I’ve used mine predominantly for inner tube and tyre levers but I’ve also on occasion stuck snacks or a pump on there too.
The straps come in a load of different colours, I liked my vibrant orange one but then on this frame, any colour is going to look rad. The strap measures 62cm in length which is plenty long enough to fit around all the tube shapes I’ve used it on, be it down tube or top tube location. Packing all your puncture repair kit onto the strap means it is easily transferable between bikes, perfect for bike testing. Once you are au fait with the optimal location for the strap on your bike then it takes seconds to do the swap.
Fitting the kit to the strap is simple too, just watch the video’s on the Cyclorise site and fit items in the rubber bungees with the rubber side facing towards you. This rubber strip stops the kit from moving around in the strap. There are rubber contact pipes positioned to lie against your frame meaning the frame is protected. Then you just wrap the strap around the frame, through the bowed resin loop and back on itself and pull it tightly into position.
I’ve used mine in some really disgusting conditions and on all sorts of trails and can report that the strap doesn’t budge a millimetre so there is no nasty rubbing on the frame from either the strap itself or the grit that inevitably gets in underneath the fabric. I leave mine on my bike full time even during washing and over a couple of months testing and apart from the grime and a little colur fade as you’d expect it’s in great condition.
Now you might think that every man and his dog are producing a new brand of saddle straps, that are essentially the same item, but do some research and those options slim down quite a bit. Other options include Back County Research at £4 more, Granite Design sold via Amazon but that’s a total of £10.15 with shipping and it’ll take 2 weeks to get to you. The cheapest of the bunch from MTB Strapon are handmade and therefore the quality of finish is somewhat different, they are £7.50 for all black with colour options costing more.
Buying a Louiri frame strap from Cyclorise at £14.99 plus approximately £1 shipping, won’t break the bank. Yes, it’s not as cheap as some of the aforementioned but if you want a long lasting product from a British brand then I reckon you’ll be pleased with your purchase.
Checking out the Cyclorise website, I noticed that the Louri brand will be expanding in the near future to develop a packless and a cage-less hydration solution, now that is something I am interested to see as I currently can’t fit a water bottle on my medium Cotic Rocket! Also, take a look at the Saddle Strap if you want something shorter for skinny tubes or, as it says, attaching kit under the saddle.
