Review: Restrap bike bags change rides

Restrap’s canister bag straddles the desire for ample storage on multi-day bikepacking trips and long, all-day road rides. It is structureless, hand-sewn in Yorkshire, UK, and holds about a litre and a half worth of kit. While you may abhor its use on road bikes, its utility is undeniable (as is its quality); it is a near perfect carry-all in just about any scenario.

In the last few months, Restrap is one of many in the cycling industry experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand for their product. We connected with Jon Hicken from the company in early Autumn to get more details about how Restrap is coping and what it and others are doing to ride cycling’s surge of interest.

The canister bag at work along the Swiss French border. The bag’s two mesh pockets were the ideal stash for in-ride snack; the orange lined interior took phones, wallet, jacket and more, attaching and detaching easily from road bars.

How did Restrap get started? Since the business started in 2010, Restrap has moved from a back bedroom, where our founder Nathan originally made pedal straps and we have since moved onto 3 different workshops over the years, doubling in size each time. The brand originally started off in the fixed gear cycling community in Leeds, making pedal straps out of reclaimed seatbelt - hence the name Re-Strap (recycled straps). Since then, we've moved into more of an outdoor market, making luggage and accessories for the cycle touring market. Over the past 5 years especially, there's been a huge growth within that specific sector of cycling (now named bikepacking), and we've been at the forefront with our products.

What was it like operating during the pandemic? Initially, it was a stressful time - nobody knew what the pandemic would mean and how it would affect the cycling industry and manufacturing in the UK. We knew initially how important it was for our customers and our staff to keep our doors open and make sure we are producing our products in a safe, and healthy environment. Since that initial phase of the pandemic, we've found things started to swing upwards, and cycling really has taken off in a big way. The idea of the 'staycation' is that little bit more enticing, and bikepacking is an ideal way to do it, and it's had a big effect on the industry.

The bike industry is seeing loads of demand at the minute - how are you managing demand spikes for Restrap bags? We've seen a huge amount of demand from quite early on in the year. Throughout April and May we started to see a big increase in demand, especially compared to spring the previous year, so we anticipated quite early on that the pandemic may end up causing somewhat of a boom in the bike industry. Over the course of the next few months we started to see a real increase in sales through our store, and also a huge amount of demand from our distributors. Since the start of the pandemic we've hired an additional 20 members of staff and we've been running at max capacity to cope. We're currently running to extended timescales at the moment, to cope with the high demand over summer, and we're in the process of bringing these down at the moment.

More road riders are looking at canister bags for longer rides - why are they choosing the canister bag?It's hard to say really! Canister Bags have really taken off across the industry when it comes to bike bags. I think the main draw behind a Canister Bag is just how easy it is. They effectively fit any bike, from Bromptons, mountain bikes, up to race bikes with a slammed stem. It's mainly the accessibility factor from that sense, but let's be honest - a Canister Bag just looks cool. It's a really neat way to carry all your kit within arms reach, and lets you free up your jersey pockets or carry extra things like snacks or even a camera.

In your opinion, how do bike bags change rides? It really changes what kind of ride you might go on. Even if you're out on a casual Sunday ride with your mates, you might want to mix it up by carrying a few extra snacks, or simply throwing everything you would normally carry in your jersey pockets in the bags. We've even seen people carrying a full aeropress and coffee kit and enjoying a great coffee outdoor coffee on the go, which is great! We know from personal experience that once you have the right equipment different types of cycling adventures suddenly becomes accessible. We love the idea that people are discovering this for themselves, and people who may not have had gravel riding or bike touring on their radar might think "That's pretty cool, I might give that a go!". It's almost contagious in that sense, even with one day or weekend adventures and we love being involved in this new movement. We hope it continues, and we aim to make the best products we can to enable people to have those adventures.

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Over a long weekend ride into France, we set out to push the canister bag to its limits, stuffing it full of food and ride essentials to catch stage 20 of the TdF. It is undeniably handsome — a bag that elicits a response from others, some who recognize its quality, others who admire its utility, and others still who think they have little place on a race machine with a slammed stem.

What is was clear while using the canister bag is how immediately transformative it is to the ride. As I’ve written about before, having a bike bag changes even simply efforts, infusing a sense of adventure into them by abandoning a traditional jersey and should one choose, being able to swap it out for a simple shirt and push further and adapt more comfortably to changing ride conditions. There is very little to find fault with this bag — the YKK zipper is taped to keep out moisture; the two outside mesh pockets are the perfect food caddie; the straps are durable and attach easily to multiple bar types; it is very lightweight and tidy at 116 grams with a carrying capacity of 1.5 litres. The bag moves laterally slightly when climbing - - otherwise it is perfect design, good for day and multi-day efforts.

Restrap is not a massive company; when I connected with Jon for this content, he was humble, almost apologetic that the company couldn’t fill the product request sooner. They were simply flat out with demand and even their modestly sized bags were weeks from being shipped. For me, this is all the more reason to invest in their product - each is hand-sewn by what is still a family-run business. For its size you will want a larger bag if taking on longer, harder multi-day jogs but for most, for the everyday, this should be deemed a near essential.

Q36.5 redefines the meaning of gravel riding with their 4-day Dolomite camps

The company presents an extreme version of cycling kit. Their gravel camps are no different.

We are high in the Dolomites outside Bolzano - a spider’s web of alpine rock, mountain passes, rugged towns, single-track, steep pavement and the occasional gravel road (as they are more conventionally defined). Within hours of our arrival at a members-only gravel event, I wonder why I’m not on a trail bike - a curiosity I share with one or two others. I focus on sending descents and staying upright. As the warm-up ride progresses, we head deeper into the mountains. Roads worsen, turning from rock to loose rock to forested single-track. I am so far out of my depth and I know it. And I’m on a gravel bike. The only thing to do is to try and hang on.

This is gravel riding with Q36.5 in South Tyrol - a company so intentionally extreme it is written in their vision statement. In seven years since it was created, it has built a reputation for this exceptionalism, tailoring kit not for the masses, but only for the very serious enthusiast. Days one through four at this event — one of three they currently host every year — mirrors this ethos. The routes are hard and led by several ex professionals - roadies with an expanded playground courtesy of all-road bikes (or basically road frames spec’d with knobby tires) who love to show it off.

By Friday’s 58 kilometre loop to the Passo Oclini (with roots, rocks and plenty of hike-a-bike), my definition of “gravel” ride is obliterated. Save for several blissful stretches of tunnelled forest road (built to transport supplies into the mountains during the First World War), I unclip over and over as said ex-pros make terrain appear flat. We stare at one another perplexed — me at them confused, them at me equally so.

Bikes of the bunch: Grevil’s from Pinarello on offer to several riders at the weekend camp.

We are the only people on these roads without mountain bikes. Q36.5 camp chief and retired pro Mario Kummer shrugs off the suggestion that this is anything but normal. I think about this repeatedly staring down 21 percent drops over rock, not road, white-knuckling my gravel bars for reassurance. “This is just a matter of confidence and ability acquired over time,” he says to me over conversation later in the hotel matter of factly. “Perhaps,” I reply, but as I descend on foot, lamenting my 11 x 32 cassette once more, so dramatically under geared, I hardly find the thought reassuring.

Being under-geared however is the least of my problems, I tell myself, pushing my Cinelli uphill yet again on another stretch of playing catch-up. There is nothing democratic about Q36.5 - the kit and the camps - and I get the impression they like it that way.

An Adventure Collection suited to its environment There is no better place to develop kit for adventure rides than in the Dolomites. The region is rich with terrain, weather, language and culture - each ride is so different it tells its own story. To get through the four days of riding in weather and at altitude, participants got their hands on several pieces from Q36.5‘s 2020 adventure collection: a lightly insulated gilet, a pair of Gregarious cargo salopettes (bibs) and several other accessories. Tipping the scales at 115 grams, the gilet proves invaluable on strudel stops (of which there are several). It packs very small in the palm of our hand and stows away beautifully in jersey pockets (though it had two pockets of its own). Overtop the three-season long sleeve we wore most of the trip, it cuts wind and adds warmth to temperatures that dropped when over 2000m. I have already deemed it essential for cool weather; a piece I will use to layer in winter, too.

Similarly nothing is missed with the Gregarious cargo bibs. Two tightly woven mesh pockets store plenty of bananas (old joke), keys, phones and other items while keeping everything safely stowed. Every bit as comfortable as several other Q bibs we’ve worn: equally compressive, form fitting and featuring the company’s signature chamois (which is durable and wears incredibly well over time). Both the bibs and gilet feature in signature black with neon green accents - technical bits of kit developed purely by necessity. They make the riding no less hard, but mentally, they help. A little.

Hike-a-bike anyone? This last 500 meters of ascent was one of many sections that might have been better climbed on a trail bike.

Merciless ascents over loose rock I’m not sure what my expectations were about four days billed as a “gravel experience” were. With no routes or GPX files shared prior to the start of camp, I guess there weren’t any - just steep Dolomite climbs as per their reputation and a previous trip to the area for the Maratona. In the moment, when you’re struggling to put descents together, expectation is washed away, however, replaced by a desire to find your line, keep pedalling and to apply the capabilities of your machine and the rider to its given environment. Being constantly at the limit of perceived capability is an entirely new experience to most - myself included - and it was one I was forced to embrace just about every minute of riding around Kaltern with Q. Nothing made sense at the time, while hindsight, as usual, is making things only slightly more clear.

By joining the Veloce Club, anyone can join the Q36.5 events, try new kit and ride roads and routes you might not find independently. As mentioned and similar to the RCC, Q36.5 has plans to run several of these road and gravel camps every year, expanding them based on demand. Everything — from accommodations to meals to bike maintenance to massage — is looked after, operating like a pro camp for several days of riding in the mountains. A prepped bike awaits you in the morning, having been washed and greased the night before, for example, and all one must do is swing a leg over and embrace the chaos.

As it sits in one of Italy’s most productive regions for wine and agriculture, this is undeniably as spectacular a location for riding as you’ll find anywhere in the Alps. The devil is in the details however; a full suspension XC or trail bike might be the addition needed for some to make the riding more accessible. For others, it is perhaps just time and experience, as suggested. In any case, the camp is distinctly run by one of (if not the) best apparel maker in cycling that continues to up its game. Pushing experienced riders to re-examine definitions of what’s possible on a gravel bike is perhaps just another manifestation of a desire to explore the boundaries of a sport bent on convention. Whatever the case, I’m already plotting a return in 2021.

Special thanks to Q36.5 for having HNH at their autumn gravel experience and for Haus am Hang for hosting and serving outstanding food and wine throughout our stay.

Tour de France Stage 20: Lure to La Planche des Belles Filles

The 2020 Tour de France Stage 20: Lure to Planche des Belles Filles from 6km to go. Nervous bike changes featured prominently. The atmosphere was electric and ultimately decided the race. A stage we’ll never forget.

Meet the 1905 Standard: the legendary Swiss Military bike that just won’t die

Aesthetically speaking, you could mistake it for a modern-day hipster chariot. A steel lugged frame painted in a rich metallic black with single speed, fenders and rear coaster brake. All boxes checked. But on closer inspection, and certainly when riding it, one quickly realizes this build is so much more - a bike rich in history that is rekindling the imagination of former service men and others who simply want it to ride everyday.

Meet the 1905 Standard: the Swiss Army bike originally produced in the small town of Courfaivre (Jura) in 1904 and in only five factories afterwards until production stopped in 1989. Engineered for the Swiss military to be durable, ironically it was only ever produced as a single speed until a design update in 1993. A former member of the army tells us it got lots of use in the mountains, often times in snow and at night. One can only imagine the quads on those deemed fit enough to ride it.

Today, original parts and frames are scattered across Switzerland; when the army shuttered their bike division in 2003, most of what remained was sold off to collectors and others. Curious about their design, Leandro Spillmann bought his first Swiss military bike at age 16 - a model made in 1944 that he still uses around town. Now in his twenties, Spillmann is part of a regional network from Austria, Germany and Switzerland who vaunt about the 23kg builds, boasting about their steely ride and military appeal.

He now runs Schweizer-Militärvelo and sells refurbished originals, but not as a business. He explains from his office where we talked with him — a storage room filled with bike parts, books and tools outside Zurich — that its purpose is only to maintain the legacy of the 1905 design.

“People from all over had been storing the 300 spare parts needed to assemble one of these bikes,” explains Spillmann about the network he works with. “I sell maybe one or two bikes a month to people who really love the design, something I hope will help preserve it.”

One hundred and eleven years after it was first made, Spillmann says he sees renewed interest in the frames from United States, Japan, Italy and elsewhere. At one time, the Swiss held 700 or more bike industry trademarks and had a network of small bike builders Today, he says of those Swiss builders, only Aarios remains.

Through this informal network, he tries hard to stay as close as possible to the bike’s original design in what he sells. His office is a testament to the dedication behind the site, shelves filled with original wheels, rich brown leather tool and top tube bags and history books. In spite of their age, riding the original Ordonnanzfahrrad Modell 05 (as it is officially known) today is still pretty awesome. Like many heavy steel frames bikes, it quickly gathers momentum and hugs the road with precision. The head tube bares the iconic Swiss cross while the saddle’s tan leather is the perfect compliment to the meticulous design.

While climbing even small hills requires grit, weight is not the bike’s most interesting characteristic. That is reserved for the brakes which were created specifically for alpine descents; front and rear “spoon brake” levers modulate friction on the tire itself, not the rim, while the pedal “coaster brake” stops the hub (added in 1940 for extra long descents so tires would not get too hot and explode, says Spillmann). The build is finished with a German Torpedo hub and all the parts are original.

Spillmann outside his office. Approximately 80,000 bikes were made in total and although the Swiss Army no longer employs bike troops, there are still plenty of bikes in service. More than 7,000 are still in use for getting around on large army bases and airports.

Check out http://www.xn--schweizer-militrvelo-pzb.ch/ to get in touch with Leandro and to find out more. Big thanks to him for the test ride and shop tour 👌.

Empire rising: Giro’s most iconic shoe design is handsomely updated for 2020

When it was first released in 2013, the Giro Empire confounded what many considered modern cycling shoes — something better suited to racing Eroica than at home in the pro peloton. To those that recognized the shoe’s simplicity however, it took only a podium finish at the 2012 Giro to create unexpected interest. The 2020 version remains a standard lace-up race shoe with a one-piece upper construction and all the stretch, suppleness and performance for which the Empire is well known. Combine that with the character it exudes when worn and you have what remains one of the best available road shoes, full stop.

Beta version: a one-off aero shoe designed for Taylor Phinney at the 2012 Giro d’ Italia, emulating the look of Nike’s Murcurial soccer cleats.

The Empire’s popularity is entirely accidental. After winning the prologue at the 2012 Giro, Taylor Phinney, then 21 and in the early stages of his career riding for Team BMC, crashed in a subsequent road stage and destroyed his Giro Factors. Soon after, he debuted what became known as the Empires - a flash silver and neon green lace-up that was famously photographed with his bloody ankle dripping all over the prototype. Demand for the shoe swelled, mostly online. It was an immediate standout, contravening most of what was then available for road.

Based on demand, Giro added the shoe to its lineup in 2013; Phinney would continue racing in the shoe throughout his career, prompting a conversation amongst pros and cyclists alike about comfort and style as essential elements to performance. The mountain version, the Empire VR90, gained popularity with gravel riders, too, with the design elements lending itself to mixed terrain.

One of the reasons Giro remains so proud of the Empire is that the shoe wasn’t conceived in a boardroom. It evolved organically and almost by accident. “There was a real purpose and need for the shoe and events just seemed to conspire to popularize it,” explains Giro Footwear Product Manager Peter Curran. On and off-road, the platform was a success, with riders across disciplines favouring the feel, comfort and simplicity of doing without buckles or straps. The shoe evolved into different platforms for different ride types; at Eurobike 2019, Giro revealed a 2020 version of the platform’s flagship with a slight update.

Road feel that’s difficult to match

The Empire has race wins aplenty to its name. From stages at the Giro and the Tour to race wins at Road, MTB, and CX National Championships, its list of podiums and design awards are equally long. It’s a timeless design; even with the update it hasn’t changed much in seven years. It is fresh but familiar, maintaining the fit, feel and function of the first lace-ups we got it 2015 (in black with neon details), only with a slightly more comfortable toe box and airier feel.

“This is hard to quantify,” adds Curran, “but we believe there’s a disruptive style and spirit with this shoe that some riders identify with. It’s a bit of an outlier and flies in the face of the latest tech.” After several long rides and all-out efforts in the mountains, we’d have to agree. In burnt orange (not the official colour name) the shoe turns heads, performs well and still boasts the outstanding customizable fit for which it’s known. Reflective detailing on the outside toe adds a little vis, too. Yes, it takes slightly longer to tighten versus rotating a BOA dial, but the result feels tailored to the individual rider, and the fit, near perfect.

Most of the shoe’s features — like lightweight construction and responsiveness — are carried forward from previous iterations. The Easton SLX carbon sole is a powerful link between pedal and rider, while the lace-up is a continuance and defining example of why it remains at the epicentre of Giro’s road collection. We could try to find things wrong with the design, feel and performance, but really, there aren’t any.

There are definitely stiffer shoes available, but this is not the Empire’s wheelhouse. It remains one of the few available road shoes to come standard with so many customizable options while still offering what is so clearly a differentiated road feel and purpose; a design icon that is still without equal.

Product image: https://www.jeff-engelhardt.com/product-design/giro-footwear