# Revelate Washboard or Surly Junk Straps?



## racefit (Aug 26, 2010)

Looking for opinions on both.


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## mdilthey (Dec 15, 2014)

They look like two different products. The Revelate straps are basically ski straps (hence the ski joke in the description) and a lot of people swear by these for hard objects. The only downside I know of from use is that sometimes, with cold fingers, it's annoying to get the strap up and over the buckle's "point" so you can tighten them down. I have to take off my mittens for a minute, most of the time.

The Surly Junk straps are like any other webbing strap, but with a metal buckle. A plastic buckle works fine too and is lighter, like the one on the Salsa Anything straps. I use these kinds of straps most often, but most of my tie-down stuff is soft. These excel holding things like tent bags and soft drybags. 

I think the real answer is "two of each."


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## Smithhammer (Jul 18, 2015)

I've been using rubber ski straps, available at most outdoor stores, for some time now. They work great.


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## Rob_E (Nov 22, 2010)

I have a couple of Junk Straps. They've come in handy a couple of times. Lashed my tent and insulation to my handlebars for a camping trip. The other day I strapped a large pizza to my rear rack using my Junk Straps. I don't think in either case the Washboard straps, which are more than half as short, would have been long enough. A couple of weeks ago I was away from home and realized that I had forgotten my belt. Surly Junk Strap to the rescue. There's no way a 20" strap would have done the job.

Revelate says that their straps are a good upgrade for the various "anything" cages. Maybe so, but the staps that came with my Salsa Anything Cage seem to do their job just fine. Not sure what the upgrade would be, although the elasticity might help fully secure a load that has no give. Still, I'm a sucker for carrying too many types of straps. Surly straps are pretty long, and they have no elasticity. You can't always take up all the slack, and sometimes with a smaller load, you have a long tail to secure so that it doesn't end up causing problems. So I could see the use of the Revelate straps, but I have never used them.


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## Co-opski (Oct 24, 2013)

The voile ski strap/ revelate straps are better for hard objects (fuel cans, Nalgene's, growlers, trail tools, etc..) than the webbing from Salsa/Surly. If you are strapping down soft pillowy objects (large pizzas, thermarest, tent, pillow) they work better.


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