Taking your mountain bike on the trail is fun. Trying to ride your bike over rough terrain that’s just impossible to ride on, not so much. No matter how experienced you are, there are times you’ll have to go on foot and drag your bike across a crossing. The Restrap Hike A Bike Harness wants to make those moments just a little easier.
Designed to let you carry your bike like a backpack, the harness frees up your hands while you make your way across sections of the trail inaccessible by bike. Need to hike up a steep climb before resuming your ride? This will definitely help. How about when crossing a narrow cliff? Well, having your bike on your back and your hands grabbing onto rocks definitely sound safer than having to walk the bike across.
The Restrap Hike A Bike Harness comes with a strap system that connects to the top tube of your bicycle, as well as a pair of loop straps that can be mounted to your down tube and chain tube, respectively. Once installed on the frame, you simply take the backpack straps on the harness and hook them to the two loops on the lower end. From there, it’s ready – simply slip the straps over your shoulders and carry the bike securely on your back.
Since it uses a rather simple strap system for the harness, the setup should work with any type of bike frame, regardless of tube size and overall geometry. Granted, you’ll have to do some experimenting to see where to mount the loops to ensure the bike is perfectly balanced on your back, but it’s definitely well worth any trouble, especially since it gives you free use of your hands, which can prove essential when dealing with tougher backcountry trails.
The Restrap Hike A Bike Harness is, obviously, designed with trail riders in mind, as it provides a genuinely useful tool for folks who like adventuring in unfamiliar trails, where they’re bound to encounter paths and crossings that just might prove inaccessible with a mountain bike. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s limited to those folks. For instance, city riders can probably find it of use for those times they want to go on foot without leaving their commuter bike (like when walking it up to your apartment, for instance), although it probably won’t be easy moving around in a crowded city with a two-wheeled vehicle strapped across your back.
Construction is textured nylon for the shells, coated nylon for the lining, and, we’re guessing, nylon for the webbings, too, so the whole thing should be pretty water-repellent, ensuring it won’t be dripping for hours even after riding through a drizzle. From its design, we imagine you can use this to carry other awkward items on your back, so long a they have tube-like structures you can use to attach the harness and loops (e.g. you can attach it to the legs of a table to carry it like backpack).
The Restrap Hike A Bike Harness is available now, priced at $79.99.