MTB Strap On and Dyedbro protection: Theirs & Ours
A new regular feature detailing a product we own and cherish, one we want or need and one we make.
In this second instalment of Theirs & Ours (check out Ben’s ‘Seven Years in Heaven‘ article about his Sombrio riding shoes), Misspent Summers founder James tells us why he likes his MTB Strap On so much and how he could do with some frame protection.
We own: MTB Strap On Inner Tube/Stuff Strap
First, let’s circumnavigate the name of this product. It’s just a bit of fun, even if I cringe a bit writing it or telling people how useful it is.
My Strap On is a simple thing: a strong Velcro strap, made in Cornwall. I love my Strap On.
This Strap On can be used to attach an inner tube and/or tools (or anything that can be strapped-on) somewhere on your bike. On my bike, it goes under the toptube where it joins the headtube and downtube. In that spot, I can wedge an inner tube nice and securely.
If you’ve ever ridden a mountain bike, you’ll know that however far technology has come in several decades, air tech hasn’t changed — it still goes in our tyres, and it still comes out. Usually when we’re furthest from home.
I like the MTB Strap On for a few simple reasons:
- It solves a problem
- It’s fairly priced, maybe even too cheap, in my opinion — I’d probably be willing to pay double
- It doesn’t break
I didn’t actually pay anything for it. My old mate Ash Mullane gifted it to me (or I forgot to give it back to him) after a brief camping trip to Verbier, Switzerland, last year.
I was using a summer-season-slickened rear tyre that was on the brink of a deflating moment. This could have come at any of the very-far-away points thousands of metres into Swiss valleys during our rides. I needed a tube strapped to my bike more than any other time. It’s pretty silly that, even with all the lightweight space-age materials and multi-million-pound development that goes into making a bike, we still need to strap the age-old inner tube to it for just in case.
Now, I ride with this thing on my bike most of the time (sometimes not when I’m doing shorter rides, or I’ve run out of inner tubes). Combined with a Syncros bottle cage that incorporates pump and tools, I don’t need to think about taking a bag, even on longer rides out into the mountains around my house in La Clusaz, France.
Costs: from £8.50
We want: Dyedbro frame protection kit
Enduro style specialist Iago Garay’s company, Dyedbro, wins my heart for the same reasons as above: it makes customisable frame protection kits that are fairly priced, reportedly durable (I haven’t tried one) and solve a problem for anyone with a bike that costs thousands and who’d prefer not to sandpaper it every time it rains.
Apart from muddy knees wearing down expensive paint jobs, shuttles, transportation and general clumsiness are other ways I manage to regularly damage my highly expensive bikes, even if I do take as much care of them as possible.
A frame protection kit should probably be a feature of all my bikes. There are loads of cool designs available, too.
Costs: €39.99 (mountain bike frame protection kit)
We make: Served — the Tea & Biscuits zine
We’ve made dozens of printed things since we started Misspent Summers. Our first was Cold Blue Thoughts, a free zine from a bloody cold riding/sheltering trip to Morocco. Recently we’ve of course made big yearbooks, stuff like Deathgrip Book, Anthology, and some stuff for other companies.
But you can’t beat a simple zine-thing. We made Served to go with the launch of Tea & Biscuits film. It’s a small zine on uncoated paper and stapled down the middle. It was so much fun to put together. We went on the internet and ripped off a load of comments board conversations (had some good laughs reading those — some people need to get out more. Not us — the commenters), reviews of other projects we’ve been involved in, biscuit ratings articles and plenty of other randomness. We also got the entire film audio transcribed by a robot; the result apparently proves we have nothing to fear, robots are not taking over anytime soon.
The zine is filled with banger photos by a range of snappers, quality illustrations by Jon Gregory (all of which relate to the film in some way), and top-notch design by Chris Jones.
It was fun to make, it’s even more fun to flick through.
Costs: £5
