Strapping stuff on the bike and strapping the bike itself

As the "LT" is an abbreviation from "Light Truck" it is obvious that you occasionally end up hauling some extra stuff on your bike and then it would of course be nice if this is somehow planned in advance.

My first need for this came already during my first riding season back in 2005 when I was commuting to my that time office some 55 km away from home. Normally I had my work briefcase in the trunk where it fit perfectly. But quite often I got a message from my dear wife "why don't you bring some milk/yoghurt/cheese/whatever on your way home". Sometimes the shopping list was so long that I could not fit the stuff in the side bags. Especially when the side bags were already packed with bread since I happened to be working in a large bakery where fresh bread was regularly available...

Anyway, as a result of this the easiest way to arrange some more space for the odd milk and yoghurt cartons was to take my work case out from the trunk and tie it on the rear seat. 

So I made permanent straps that I can take out in seconds and fasten all kinds of things on the rear seat.

Here was my first strap. I simply cut long vertical openings in the front wall of the trunk to fit a long enough strap that goes through them. (Note: the trunk liner is of course removed before making the holes!)

Here the strap ends come out.

And here the strap ends are rolled in out of the way.

And here my work bag was tied on the rear seat. 

Soon I realized that I needed also tie points from other direction for some different kind of bags. Using the side case handles would have been the straight forward way to go but this would not work if you need to have access to the side cases as well.

For my USA trip back in 2006 I was going to have a RKA rack bag permanently tied down on the rear seat. I was saving the trunk rack for some ad hoc tie down needs.

So I simply took a proper length of strap and fastened it under the rear seat with screws. I made loops in both ends of the strap.

...like this. These loops are normally out of way and will not bother closing the side bags.

And my RKA bag stayed in place like this. In the bag I kept my larger camera, and large thermos bottles with ice and Kool-Aid. 

The straps that I used on this USA trip were long enough so that the ends would reach down inside the side case. This way stealing the case would need the straps to be cut at first. Luckily our that time trip took us to no such neighborhoods where even worrying about this was no issue.

Sometimes I need a different shape of bag on the rear seat:

This is a Chicane rack bag for LT.(Unfortunately no longer available other than used ones occasionally on certain forums.)

I sewed loops in the bottom of the Chicane bag and through them I can lock the bag on the rear seat when I'm riding solo. 

...like this. These straps with plastic locks are taken from old bicycle helmets.

Then how to strap the bike on trailers, ferries, trains etc...?

Back in 2006 when me and my travel buddy Jouko were preparing our bikes for their flights over the Atlantic (Frankfurt-Calgary and Toronto-Frankfurt) we found this set mady by German Wüdo. It was made specially for an LT. (Later we learned that when a bike is tied down on an air cargo pallet they only use their own air cargo rated straps and belts and they could care less about our own straps.)

Anyway, this is the Wüdo piece that goes between the front forks.

Here the piece is upside down. The cavity in the middle occupies the plastic covered center nut between the forks.

...like this. As I said the guys in the air cargo we not interested in using this and during the past 15 years I have needed this only once when I hauled the bike in wintertime half stripped on a trailer to have the brake lines changed.

These also came with the Wüdo set. As you can see from the scratches these have been used a lot. Every time on a ferry I use these for keeping the bike in place. 

Since the above described Wüdo sets are probably no longer available or if they are,they are quite pricey, I have developed a simple replacement for the side fixing point. Here is the recipe:

1. Take out the upper bolt that holds the pillion foot peg plate.

2. Take a 8 mm (stainless steel) ring bolt and approriate amount of 8 mm washers. (You can get these at least from a boat store in case your local hardware store does not carry these.)  

3.Replace the original allen bolt with this new ring bolt.

4. When you need to strap your bike down, place these hooks (fire safety hooks....? in English) on your ring bolt so now you have space for heavier straps.

5.You can leave your ring bolts in place permanently.

These parts were purchased from the boat department of a Swedish hardware chain "Biltema". In case some of you have this store within reach.