Absolute Shoulder Strap question

[MtnMan]

In July of 2000, I went on a road trip (long before I heard of Tom Bihn, which wasn't until 2009) and I bought a cheap (well, it seemed not-so-cheap then) duffel travel bag from K-Mart. I've only used it twice over the years; once for my road trip in 2000 and once for a flight to San Francisco in 2003. The rest of the time it was stashed away and gathered dust.

I was just informed the other day that I would be going on a brief road trip (car pooling) on the 22nd-23rd of July. It's too close for me to order a new Aeronaut, and I don't have the $$$ for it right now anyway. I do plan to buy an Aeronaut down the road, though. It'll probably be at least 3 months.

The Athletech duffel is a little on the cheesy side, but at least it seems to be built semi-decently for an occasional road trip. It is not meant to be an airline carry-on; it is too large. I'm a believer in getting a maximum of use out of goods once they're bought, but there is one major defficiency with the Athletech bag. The shoulder strap is really cheapish. It's too short, too rigid and hard on the shoulder, and the shoulder pad isn't much, either. The Athletech shoulder strap attaches to the bag via large "warrior buckles" similar to the one on the front of my Tom Bihn Super Ego. (Though shaped and sized a little differently)

I was wondering if: (1: I decouple the Athletech shoulder strap from the bag at both ends, (2: if there were a way to attach a Tom Bihn Absolute Shoulder Strap to those female "warrior buckles" so I could use bag and carry it on my shoulder painlessly. Would this be possible? How could it be done?

Thanks in advance,

--WA

[falconea]

I was wondering if: (1: I decouple the Athletech shoulder strap from the bag at both ends, (2: if there were a way to attach a Tom Bihn Absolute Shoulder Strap to those female "warrior buckles" so I could use bag and carry it on my shoulder painlessly. Would this be possible? How could it be done?

Will the Absolute Strap fir through the clips attached to the current strap? If so I'd just cut off any existing strap and thread on the Absolute in the same way it's threaded on to the snaps.

Audrey

[MtnMan]

Maybe I was misunderstood. Allow me to clarify...



This is an photo of my old Athletech duffel. My tape-measure shows it to be about 24 inches long, empty. (YMMV) I purchased it as a road-trip travel bag in the summer of 2000 but it's been stashed away, gathering dust. The last time I remember using it was Aug. of '03.

Note there are two ways to carry the Athletech duffel. Both are lackluster. One is a vaguely Aeronaut-style twin carry handles, the other is a very poor shoulder strap.



Here's another photo of the duffel, again empty, this time with the shoulder strap removed. I'd like to find some way to continue using this duffel for minor tasks, such as hauling clothes and shoes around for work details and road trips, etc. In other words, I'd like to get some use out of this duffel even though I plan to buy an Aeronaut. (I don't think this Athletech bag would work as a carry-on, and it lacks several of the Aeronaut's features anyway.)




At both ends of the top of the duffel, what passes for the standard shoulder strap attaches to the bag via warrior buckles at each end of the strap. Here's a photo of me holding a decoupled male end of the shoulder strap.



I used my tape to estimate that the female end of the warrior buckle appeared to be a one-and-five-eighths-inches opening. The female part of these buckles is attached to the outside of the duffel via a sewn-shut thick webbing loop with no play from what I can see.



What I would like to do is remove the standard shoulder strap and find a way to attach a Tom Bihn Absolute Shoulder Strap to the female ends of those warrior buckles. Is there any way to patch the Tom Bihn hardware so it will mate with those ends?

That was my basic question, in a nutshell.

[backpack]

Use the Absolute Strap clipped to the side handles it seems to be your only solution.

Alternatively you could use Wrap Straps on those handles and use the bag as a sort of backpack.

My take on all this is, put together stuff you really don't need along with this bag on Craiglist and get yourself a new TB Bag.

I shudder when I see those handles, I remember how much they hurt my hands, cheap bags heavy with laundry, brrrrr.


Now, one of my Brain Bag can be re-purposed for laundry duty when I am "On The Road Again".

Laundromat laundry, , Brain Bag , hey, there is even a space for the quarters

[MtnMan]

Actually, my ultimate goal will be to have a Brain Bag, and Aeronaut AND still use this cheap duffel. Hey, I'm greedy!

[backpack]

Actually, my ultimate goal will be to have a Brain Bag, and Aeronaut AND still use this cheap duffel. Hey, I'm greedy!

Hey, I do the same!

Some cheap bags have be re-purposed for heavy duty grocery shopping.

When moving, others are useful to haul and coral stuff.


At those times, my TB bags are also put in excellent use, I look cute in my Small Cafe Bag while clipping my coupons and when moving, well, they cheer me up and protect the stuff that need protecting.

[falconea]

My suggeston remains the same - cut the strap off the male warrior clips, and feed through the strap of an Absolute Strap, with that extra little buckle which will hold it in place. Look at pictures D and G on the Absolute Strap page to see how to put it on.

No patch required - just detach the current snaps and put on the warrior clips from the old strap.

Audrey

[BPritchard]

Strapworks

This Site may be useful.

[MtnMan]

Thanks for the links!