Like the title implies, I have a Carradice Barley, and I'd like to get some Voile straps for the D-rings on the flap. My LBS tops out at 15 inches, and that's not enough for any kind of bundle. So I'm wondering if there's such a thing as "too long" when it comes to straps? If it matters, the bag is pretty much always on the bike, but the straps won't be. The Barley hath not a long flap.

In the past, I'd just have gotten the longest ones they make, but I'm older and more discerning now. Long dangly ends hanging down the bike are not a win.

Anybody done this? What did you use, and how'd it work?

--Shannon

I cut my Voile straps when too long.

I am not sure if the straps are easily cut with a scissors or if a utility knife on a kitchen cutting board is better. You will have to figure that out yourself.

I use toe clip straps on my Carradice Nelson Long Flap or on my Pendle. When too short, I used two clipped to each other. Since those bags had leather patches to hold the straps, I liked the aesthetics of the leather toe clip straps.



Pendle above, Nelson Longflap below. Unfortunately I only have the one photo below of my using the straps, so not a very good photo.

For my uses, fork cages and strapping a drybag to my rear rack, I went with 20in and even got a pair of 24in for larger volume bulky stuff. I've found it fairly easy to neatly tuck excess under the strap and this stays in place and never flaps around - but this doesn't bother me and I am loathe to cut a perfectly good strap that I have sometimes found super handy for other uses in life.

I guess if it really bothers you to have excess, and you'll use these just for your Carradice, then cut away - although there are darker colours that even with some tucking under, wouldn't stand out so much.
I know there are tan and olive green type colours/earthtones available that would fit well with the tones of your Carradice, and a certain amount of tucking in for me wouldnt be an issue, but that's up to you.

I even bought a really short pair, and have used that length to keep a small fuel bottle securely in a third bottle cage under the frame, using some foam to fatten up the fuel bottle and to eliminate any rattles. Super secure on all kinds of bikepacking surfaces. Black colour, so very discreet.

Overall, a great strap system, so versatile and once in a blue moon in non biking world, something comes up and I wonder how I will transport or contain something securely, and I'm so glad I have a few of these straps as they solve the problem.

Oh, and the daisy chaining thing, putting two straps together for a longer wraparound, works very well too.

Edit: Just realized you are asking about long straps for attaching stuff to bag, not short ones for attaching bag to bike. In that case, use these instead:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000H60296

Or expand your horizons beyond LBS, the Volles are available up to at least 32".

What i originally wrote: You can get very short Volle straps- the ones with the plastic buckles come in 9" and 12". I had my Carradice bag attached with the 12" ones for a couple years, for easy on/off. i got fed up with them and switched back to the leather ones, which really are just about as fast to undo as the Volles. Maybe you will like them better than i did, worth a try.

I would consider MSN's suggestion, or go to a leatherworker and get custom straps the length you want.

I guess I was looking for a "don't get 'em this long, that's dumb" length, but maybe that's not a thing.

--Shannon

I'm the guy who wrote that the tucking excess under works well, but I guess I should have asked directly, how long do you think you need for your use?
Its a bit unclear to me, kinda why I pushed the view that tucking the excess under is ok.
Want to show a photo of your bag on a bike, so its more clear of where you'd be using the straps?

Sure:


The strapping point would be the d-rings on the flap, so nothing too huge, but maybe bulky. Heavy things go in the basket up front. (Not shown above)

And I'm not anti-tuck... more like anti-spending-money-on-length-I'll-never-use.

--Shannon

Gotcha, clear now.
The pair of 20 inch ones that I had were a bit short for some bulky things, so daisy chained them a few times to get around a fatter dry bag. I ended up giving them to someone, so got another set of 20in but kind of guesstimated that 24in ones could be handy , so took advantage of a sale at a ski shop when I got those and some real short ones.
I get the anti-spending-money-on-length-I'll-never-use thing, makes sense. I guess you'll have to put some bulky things you think you might stick on your Carradice and use a cloth measuring tape or just some strap to guesstimate a logical length that will be useful--kind of hard for us to comment on that. I recall doing that with some regular old black nylon straps I have, and measuring sort of what would go around X or Y thing.
One thing though, with soft things like drybags or whatever, voile straps really will compress stuff, so there have been times I think my 20in ones are too short, but then when just being able to get the end of the strap through the tab thing, I can actually cinch the said thing down a lot, and all of a sudden, I have a ample strap length.

sometimes too though, you can position the tab thing closer to your Carradice, and then tuck stuff under where its not sticking out like a sore thumb.

the main thing with voile or other similar material straps, is how impressive and reliable Ive found them to be, easily cinching them down securely, and not loosening or undoing when I've been pretty much been riding on mountain bike trails.

Is that Harris Tweed? Looks nice. You are going to want to keep that clean.

If you decide to go with a short length, my only suggestion is to have at least an extra six inches so you have enough length to grip onto when you pull it tight. You can always cut it shorter, not longer.

I went with the Pendle and the Nelson Long Flap saddle bags in part because I thought that the leather patch would work better for me than the D rings. The D rings will let things flop around a bit more.

Just an FYI, I wanted my bags to have a better shape when part empty instead of hanging down like a one third full sack. I first tried some cardboard to see if it would work well as a stiffener, worked great. I replaced the cardboard with Coroplast so that it would work well if it got wet. Just a single piece bent into a U shape, not attached to the bag, just shoved into it, photo below.



Thus, my bags have a shape like below, even when empty. I do not like the bag hitting my legs as I pedal, so I used a stem with appropriate shim to push the bag further back. Photo below is on a different bike than my previous post.