Hike-a-Bike Straps

Paper Roads' Hike-a-Bike straps was born out of New Zealand's hardest bikepacking ultra race, Tour Te Waipounamu, and one of the most challenging bikepacking routes out of Sydney, Australia; Race to the Rock Entree. 

• Field tested and developed on actual bikepacking hike-a-bike sections
• Packs down to the size of a spare tube and can be stored anywhere on the frame.
  
• Stuff sack made of ULTRA Stretch, a UHMWPE 4-way stretch fabric.
• Adjustable mounting points on the frame depending on the frame shape and how you want to balance the load.
• Plenty of adjustable extra strapping for extra tall riders at each 4 ends of the straps, or to accommodate backpacks.
• Cross-strap (makes a huge difference for support)
• Minimalist shoulder pads – the design allows a small amount of comfort for the task it's meant for.
• Fast hook on, hook off mounting points
• Made using 4 aluminium G-hooks rated at 114kgf tensile strength each (twice that of the G-hooks used for Prototype #1)

The Story: Serious field testing

It all started with multiple requests for carry straps from Tour Te Waipounamu starters. A few very simple and rudimentary straps were made on request, with removable shoulder pads. One feedback from the aftermath was that one of the aluminium G-hooks had snapped during a several hour long hike-a-bike ordeal. 

Amy at Paper Roads herself tested a pair of these Prototype #1 straps on Race to the Rock, where the firetrails were too steep to push with arm muscles that had already been burnt out, 3 days into the event. It was way easier to carry the bike uphills and switch up the riding muscles in the legs. However, when it came to crossing a gushing flooded ford, she opted NOT to cross with the bike on her back – and even then, resulted in a brush with disaster, almost swept downstream off her feet.

Further design exploration and field testing was carried out with Prototype #2, made using G-hooks with twice the tensile rating than the old ones. The second iteration was tested by Amy and Brent on a fast-paced night mission in Auckland's Waitakere hiking trails – a literal staircase up a mountain, an extreme test of endurance. The design was unsatisfactory when used under time pressure in semi-darkness, and the generous sized shoulder padding made it impossible to pack. Amy's poor installation resulted in a week of neck pain, so you'd be glad to know that sacrifices had been made to ensure the final product does not inflict injury. Here's the Instagram post of the overnighter.

The final Hike-a-Bike Straps solves all of the above problems, as well as the pack-down size issue apparent in existing carry straps from another brand.