Ultrasuede Shoulder Strap Wrap for S25 One hand carry?

[phelan]

Hi all,

I just started using my Black Halcyon/UV S25 and love it a lot. However, I feel the top webbing loop carry handle using for carrying one hand-style / hanging onto a coat hook seems pretty bare. I know TB did not put in a padded carry handle since its not meant to be carried for long periods one-hand-style, but I will prefer to have some padding available here. Can anyone advise if the "Ultrasuede Shoulder Strap Wrap" will fit on the S25 carry handle, or if they have a "hack" available? One option I was mulling over was to put some paracord on top, if the shoulder strap wrap is not an option.

[moriond]

Hi all,

I just started using my Black Halcyon/UV S25 and love it a lot. However, I feel the top webbing loop carry handle using for carrying one hand-style / hanging onto a coat hook seems pretty bare. I know TB did not put in a padded carry handle since its not meant to be carried for long periods one-hand-style, but I will prefer to have some padding available here. Can anyone advise if the "Ultrasuede Shoulder Strap Wrap" will fit on the S25 carry handle, or if they have a "hack" available? One option I was mulling over was to put some paracord on top, if the shoulder strap wrap is not an option.

Hi @phelan,

The Utrasuede Shoulder Strap Wrap you're asking about is both too long, and way too stiff to be used around the webbing loop at the top of the Synapse 25. (It's designed for the use around the Cafe Bag shoulder straps). If you want something that you can wrap around the webbing loop, try the COSMOS neoprene padded handle wraps recommended by @celtical. I recently mentioned them in this post (#23) in a thread discussing ways to cope with scratchy handle materials in some recent Swifts. That post showed pictures of these handle wraps used with the Swift handles, the Synapse 19 webbing loop, and the webbing handles of the Field Journal Notebook, to give some example:

@jess, I don't think that the material is Cordura. My guess that it is pack cloth that was reinforced. (See @adalangdon's response in this thread). One solution that I posted up on Ravelry, but which doesn't seem to have gotten a lot of attention, is to use the neoprene handle wraps @celtical originally recommended that were mentioned recently in this post.

The COSMOS neoprene padded handle wraps are short enough at 5.3”/275 mm to work as padded grab handle wraps for the Cafe Bags, Synapses, Daylight Backpacks, etc. as well as for the webbing handles of the Daylight Briefcase. I’ll add that this will also work as a strap wrap for the Swift, although I’ve never had to use one for my Swift or Little Swift.


Here’s a picture of the COSMOS neoprene padded handle wrap around a Swift, with the unwrapped handle wrap shown to the right.


Demo photos showing that this wrap is soft and flexible enough to work with many other webbing handle loop uses -- such as for a Synapse or for a Field Journal Notebook. Again, an unwrapped handle wrap is shown in the upper right. It’s a little longer than the length of a Mini organizer pouch or clear organizer wallet. A size #4 Knitting Tool Pouch is slightly larger, but better approximates the unwrapped size.

On the Swift, it’s the fact that the padded portions of the handle are under the wrap that makes the wrapped section look straight -- not the fact that the handle wrap lacks softness and flexibility. The usual issue with finding a good handle wrap to use for these purposes is that they’re too long and/or too stiff to work well. So, while I can’t give you a “feel” of the wrap in these pictures, I can show instances where it is really flexible.

If you read the original post I linked, there are links to other colors of handle wraps, or you can search for them yourself. Black should work for most purposes.

HTH

moriond

Those padded neoprene handle wraps can also be used around the webbing loops at the top of Cafe Bags. If you want a post that gives the original citation to @celtical's recommendation, and which links to other colors of handle wraps (beside the basic black version I linked above), but without pictures, you can also read my post #7 in the Synapse 25 handle hack thread. You can also follow the links in adjacent posts in that thread, e.g., to find pictures of @Ilkyway's Synapse 25 and what I did to it thread, which contains many more pictures and links in later posts to different ways of adding Paracord Cobra wraps around the handle (and tying different cord pulls). @nealopp also had a picture of how the Cobra weave could be used around the handles of other travel bags.

To give you a few excerpted pictures of the Paracord solutions for the Synapse webbing handle, from @Ilkyway's thread, here's the weave her husband used for her Original Nordic Synapse 25:



and here are some pictures @chrisc983 posted in that thread for his wrapped webbing handle Synapse 25:




Again, if you read the other posts in the linked thread, you'll find different links to instructions/tutorials for the Cobra stitch.

HTH

moriond

[phelan]

Oh gosh, thanks for very thorough reply! I have a BrainBag, and I love the padded handle strap on it, hence I was slightly disappointed with the S25 handle.
I rather like the look of the cobra weave paracord handle strap, and will be ordering some paracord this weekend to try my own hand at doing so. The youtube video seems quite self-explanatory, and I am rather excited to try it out to give the S25 some character!

[Muni_Jedi]

Cobra weave is pretty straight forward to do. One piece of advice from experience is to not over tighten the original knot and try to tighten each subsequent knot to the same tension. You can pull them tight but be mindful of how tight or the weave will twist more easily and may create hot spots on your hand as you carry.

Good luck and have fun.

[phelan]

thanks for the advice Muni_Jedi!