ORDERING THE PCSB, shoulder strap confusion

[TRD]

Yay! And you know what to get her for her birthday. MORE TB STUFF. [emoji23]

I already have her large travel tray all set for her nightstand on the ship.

*Rubs hands together with glee*

[Cristina]

I’ve been trying to talk my mom out of carrying a heavy leather purse for years. Not sure what happened today but she opened my latest tb box and decided my new PCSB would work just fine. (And not a moment too soon because we were flying out for a vacation in a matter of hours).

I don’t love the new attachment points but MY MOM IS CARRYING A TB PURSE!!!! That alone is miracle enough for me to love this thing forever.


Did I mention MY MOM ABANDONED HER LEATHER PURSE AND IS CARRYING TB?!!!!

MY!!! MOM!!!

*faints*

Yay! And you know what to get her for her birthday. MORE TB STUFF. [emoji23]

[TRD]

I’ve been trying to talk my mom out of carrying a heavy leather purse for years. Not sure what happened today but she opened my latest tb box and decided my new PCSB would work just fine. (And not a moment too soon because we were flying out for a vacation in a matter of hours).

I don’t love the new attachment points but MY MOM IS CARRYING A TB PURSE!!!! That alone is miracle enough for me to love this thing forever.


Did I mention MY MOM ABANDONED HER LEATHER PURSE AND IS CARRYING TB?!!!!

MY!!! MOM!!!

*faints*

[turnleftbrighteyes]

Also just noting that I have two halcyon PCSBs that have been used heavily (a Steel Dynema one from circa 2013 was used for 2 years every day and a black halcyon just as much) and they still look brand new. I am not particularly gentle or careful, either.

[agland]

RE: the mini strap, I'm using this now on my briefcase. It's SO great. Thanks for sharing it all!

[G42]

Just to close the loop as it were, since I forgot to answer it in this thread...

My new PCSBs arrived with the newer version of the 1" strap that has the thicker smoother webbing and the increased length to accommodate wearing over coats. The smoother webbing should be even friendlier to bare skin, reduce snag on clothes, etc.

Also, looks like TB fixed the item listings... the 5/8" strap is $3 and the 1" strap is $6

HTH

ETA: and in case anyone is wondering, the old shorter version of the strap with the older webbing is no longer available at all

[moriond]

Related: I wish they'd make a slimmer version of the 'absolute' strap for use with a briefcase or smaller bag. The absolute strap is overkill for a briefcase, but it's hard to move from the stretchy strap to a normal one!

I’m pasting in a quoted part of an old post I wrote to @anna2222 that gives both a comparison picture of the OP/TECH Mini S.O.S. strap and the Absolute Strap, and also a link to buy it at Amazon. (You can ignore the information on the hack to use this strap, although it will work for other current bags like the Side Kick) There’s also further discussion in that post that I am leaving out about using the Co-Pilot for clothing and travel and picture of which Packing cubes fit):

https://forums.tombihn.com/general-b...tml#post142633

I'll quote one of my old posts which shows the OP/TECH Mini S.O.S. strap and the Absolute Strap:

@solo, I concur with the opinions that you should get the Absolute Shoulder Strap if your wife will be carrying a computer in that bag. (I'm just under 5'4" tall). If you think that the Absolute Strap is too bulky, I have also been using the OP/TECH Mini S.O.S. strap with the Pilot, but the Absolute Strap will work for a wide range of heavier bags. OP/TECH makes the Absolute Strap for Tom Bihn. The "mini" is their smaller strap version for cameras, with a straight strap which is narrower. Since it's a camera neck strap it isn't long enough to comfortably use for shoulder carry if the user is really tall, but should be just fine for your wife. (Tall people have been known to extend the mini strap ends by hooking an extra Double Carabiner Clip at each end.) A number of forum users use the Mini S.O.S. strap for smaller bags like the Co-Pilot and Pilot that can be used to carry loads heavy enough that you want the relief of this design (e.g. 10-15 pounds), but where you don't need the Absolute strap (which people use to tote around 50-60 pound loads).

If you want to see a comparison of the two straps, here's picture from my post (#52) on how to hack the Field Journal Notebook so you can attach a Mini S.O.S strap:



The mini strap is attached to the FJN with a section of the wider Absolute strap shown beside it. Sorry, I don't have a convenient similar picture handy of the straps connected to the Pilot.

The original poster asked about ways to adapt the FJN, which was also being used to carry a full art kit inside, so that an Absolute Strap could be used in place of the default FJN strap, and was advised by other forum users that the OP/TECH Mini S.O.S. strap would be a better match.

Note that of the Tom Bihn strap options I think the Absolute Strap would be your best choice, and it could also be used with much larger bags. You could try the Absolute Strap, and if you find it too bulky, fall back on the OP/TECH Mini. If you get a Side Effect, and there's any chance that you might carry this along on an airplane flight, then I strongly recommend that you get a pair of Double Carabiner clips as described in this post (#105 in The new Side Effect thread), which shows how you can turn this into an airline seat pocket bag, among other uses. You can order them from the drop down Parts Menu or see them on the Knitting Tool Pouch page. (I use the size #2 Knitting Tool pouch to store various ethernet and Thunderbolt adapters for my 13" MacBook Air).

HTH

moriond

[sturbridge]

You can get a thinner version of the ABS on Amazon.

Search for "optech mini sos strap". I use this one with my pilot. The regular one is just too big for me.

[Shortie]

You can get a thinner version of the ABS on Amazon. I have one that I use with my SK occasionally.

[agland]

Related: I wish they'd make a slimmer version of the 'absolute' strap for use with a briefcase or smaller bag. The absolute strap is overkill for a briefcase, but it's hard to move from the stretchy strap to a normal one!

[aedifica]

If the entire cube is still made of Halcyon inside, I would not recommend using this as an EDC. The material is not durable. Mine is developing frays and tiny holes just with using it while on vacatio. If the new ones are made with ballistic nylon, on the inside, similar to side affect, that will be much better.

@1bgNWB, in context of the recent discussion of holes behind a shop bag label that are intended as a guide so the bag gets lined up right during assembly, I wonder if that's what you're seeing. Are those the kind of small holes your bag has, or does your PCSB have some other kind of small hole?

[pammy]

How much do you plan to put in the PCSB/how heavy do you think it will be? If it just has some light stuff in it, I think the 1" strap would be fine. If you're going to be loading it up heavily, then I'd suggest the Simple strap or even an OpTech Mini SOS Strap, which is like a younger/smaller sibling of the TB Absolute Strap.

+1 on this. I used to use a PCSB as purse. Inside would be a Side Effect, phone, water bottle, and in the outside pocket would be my ipad mini to give the bag more structure. It would get sort of heavy toting stuff around so I would use my Op Tech mini SOS strap. It's excellent and it makes the load much more comfortable. I only use the 1" strap when it's a small bag such as a TC, SE, or SK and is not very heavy.

[moriond]

I'm guessing that the new shoulder straps have the thicker, satiny material that is used in the handle at the top of the redesigned Luminary models, Cafe Bags, and Side Kicks. I'm not entirely certain about this, since I thought these were also being used with the Travel Cubelets (only with 5/8" width), but a recent order of a Travel Cubelet in Mars Red/Cloud Aether came with the older style webbing strap that they used when the Travel Cubelets were first released.

I got to see a prototype of the 210d Ballistic PCSB (in Island) with the offset attachment points for hooking in the strap (similar to the design of the Daylight Briefcase). My main comment was that they should add O-rings! (which they apparently decided to do). I also suggested that people would like to see pockets as in the case of the Side Effect or Side Kick, but that isn't happening. There was no strap, but I use the 1" Shoulder Strap with this accessory. (This is the Shoulder Strap that came with the original design of the Side Kick:

Not the redesigned Side Kick strap, which now looks like this, and which not longer ends in an attachment for the Snaphook end of the strap:

If you want to read more about the redesign of the Side Kick strap, check the pictures, links, and posts in the Is There an Alternative Side Kick Strap That is Longer? thread)

The offset attachment points for the strap make this more stable to carry when there are heavier contents -- it's less likely to flip upside down, for example. If you do want to hook this to the front of a Pilot, it's possible to hook keystraps to the holes in the strap attachment points around the right and left sides of the Pilot handle -- less elegant looking than the double carabiner solution hooking to the ends of the bag, but doable. BTW, I think that the price of the 1" Shoulder Strap is pretty standardly now $6.

The main advantage of the 210d Ballistic is that it is easier to carry heavy items (camera inserts, Side Kicks, Tablets, etc.) in the PCSB with that material, because it will flex less -- you don't need to add a Medium Double Organizer Pouch to the front diagonal pocket to stiffen it.

I agree with @Lani that I haven't noticed any fraying etc. issues that @1bgNWB has reported. However, I also prefer to use the 400d Halcyon versions. (See the pictures @Moosezilla posted of the versions in Original Nordic, Steel and Black Halcyon (excerpting one) -- they were also made in 400d New Nordic and New Black Halcyon):



HTH

moriond

[Lami]

I use my halcyon PSCB often --- from vacation to around town locally -- I have not had any fraying or issues. I'm not particularly gentle with it.

[gathiel]

I’m not sure where I read it, but I believe I read something about the pcsb using a new strap. With the smooth material and maybe longer length, like the new side kick strap. (Which I really like.) Perhaps the drop down option on the pcsb page reflects this new strap while the individual product page hasn’t been added?