There are dozens of other general purpose straps out there, and most of them are slightly easier to use than this one. But this one is easy enough to use, and the goal isn't maximum ease of use, once a certain ease of use has been attained. Got it?
Three things set these strap apart:
1. They have a metal buckle, and in the twenty-first century, that's rare.
2. They're striped, and we think you will find, as we have, that the stripes are festive.
3. In the '70s thru '90s they were made in Ireland. After that, Greece. Now: Sweden, land of the Nobel Prize. No coincidence.
These are the straps we use and prefer for lashing stuff sacks to racks, tripods to bag flaps, panniers to racks, and even heavily loaded baskets that have already been zip-tied to racks, to handlebars (for extra support). We've used them to guy-out tents, as belts, to cinch up pants, and at least one other thing that doesn't come to mind right now.
If you carry things on a bike or on packs of any kind -- in fact, if you do anything that could be construed as even remotely outdoorsy, you need straps. You don't need quick-release/side release plastic ones; you need these. Extremely satisfying to cinch
0.75" (18 mm) wide
