Restrap’s newly launched hike-a-bike harness is definitely high up on the list of most niche gravel riding/bikepacking products we’ve ever seen. But it’s one of those bits if kit that if you need, then nothing else will come close. Do you often want to carry your gravel bike, but want to have your hands free? If so, this could be the product for you!

There’s plenty of ways of carrying your gravel bike, should you ever need to. You can elegantly hop off and swing your bike over your preferred shoulder à la Marianne Vos or Mathieu van der Poel. You can lift it off the ground using one hand on the toptube and one hand on the bars. You can put it across your shoulders like a wanna-be enduro rider (although we never understand why they do this with the chainring pointing towards the back of their necks…). 

Or you can spend some of your hard-earned savings on Restrap’s new hike-a-bike harness which launches today. Restrap describe the harness as “ideal for riders who love heading on rugged off-road trails where there might be long sections of hike-a-bike, where the bike may need to be carried up steep tracks or over unrideable terrain.”  So, we’re not just talking hopping up a curb or when climbing the stairs on the pedestrian bridge that you discover in the middle of your ride. This is for fans of full-on hike-a-bikes.

For anyone who does regularly head into the middle of nowhere and who may well be using trails in the loosest sense of the term, we can see this being a lifesaver. It’s light weight (235g), packs down small, is unobtrusive when not in use, looks simple enough to unpack and set up and it costs a very reasonable £49.99/€59.99/$79.99. Sure you could probably cobble together a DIY version from pieces of bailer twine, some gaffer tape and a 1980s nylon toe strap or two, but if you want to be the envy of all of your bikepacking buds, then head over to Restrap’s website now and check out the details.