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These Austere Manufacturing Cam Straps Have Buckles Fit For NASA!

Austere Manufacturing Cam Utility strap black
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When it comes to riding bikes and bringing stuff along for the ride, it’s kinda my jam. I typically use both baskets and bags to bring stuff along for the ride. But sometimes, I need a strap instead of a bag to say, pick up or deliver a box to the post office that is too big for my assortment of bags. So, when I was asked to review the Austere Manufacturing Cam Straps, it seemed like a no-brainer. An olive-colored strap choice, with beautifully constructed CNC machined cam buckles that come in a plethora of color combinations… duh, send them over!

Austere Manufacturing is a small Pacific Northwest company that was founded by Uriel Eisen in 2020 with the only purpose being to produce high-performance buckles. A bag and backpack maker for years, Uriel was tired of bad plastic hardware that always either performed poorly or just didn’t last long.

While designing spacesuits for NASA (yeah, you read that right) Uriel said he noticed the large number of buckles that are needed in space exploration. This inspired him to go back to his old design sketches for the many years of softgoods design and get to work.

They launched with their CNC’d aluminum cam buckles for assorted straps. The aluminum cam buckles are CNC machined from solid billet aluminum. Their construction is simple, utilitarian, lightweight, and elegant. On top of being aesthetically pleasing, they are strong and work flawlessly.

Austere Manufacturing Cam Utility strap assorted
The 3/4″ width and 1″ strap width in black, Ranger green, and coyote. The cam buckle colors shown are: (bottom to top) orange/orange, black/black, Ranger green/coyote, and Ranger green/orange.

A few months ago, when Uriel first reached out to me via my Instagram account to see if I was interested in finding out how good his straps were. I was a little hesitant, I mean sure, they looked amazing, but how do you review a strap and buckle? But my interest was piqued, so I agreed to give them a review.

As a side note: Cory also planned to give a few a test, for some more mountain bike-focused use cases over in Europe, as well! Read on for his thoughts & impressions, too.

The straps themselves come in 1″ and 3/4″ widths that are made of nylon webbing. The nylon webbing offers great abrasion resistance and strength. You can get the straps in 18″, 36″, and 48″ lengths. The colors available for the straps are Black, Coyote, and Ranger Green.

Austere Manufacturing Cam Utility strap assortment side

Sure, the cam buckles are really nice looking. But, underneath the good looks are real specs that not only show excellent attention to detail but that quality materials and real thought were put into their construction.

Austere Manufacturing Cam Utility strap double stiching side view
Side view of the double bartack… pretty impeccable.
Austere Manufacturing Cam Utility strap double bar stitch
A stainless steel spring and titanium pin show real attention to detail. Not to mention the beefy double bartack on the strap.

The pin that the stainless steel spring wraps around is actually titanium, for the ultimate in lightweight, strength, and corrosion resistance. This makes the weight of the cam buckle only 8.2 grams. Lightweight and strong, the cam buckle itself measures out at .98″ wide x 1.14″ long (24.9mmx29mm). Using aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium means that, unlike plastic, these buckles won’t slip, break or get brittle in the cold.

How Did They Perform?

Austere Manufacturing Billet aluminum buckle

My family is down to one car, so I take my bicycle to most places around town. Sometimes I need to pick up or send a parcel to the post office and oftentimes the boxes are too big for my bag. In the past, I would just use the basket (Wald 137) with a few bungee cords to get by.

Austere Manufacturing carrying a load
Sometimes, the parcels are too big to fit in the basket. I used the Cam Strap in these cases for flawless cargo-carry execution.

But often, the box(s) won’t fit in either the bag or basket and bungees aren’t stable in these instances. The Cam Straps were more than sufficient and worked perfectly in these cases.

Austere Manufacturing going camping

My wife and I go camping and work remotely in our Outback quite often. I use a small propane tank for all of my propane needs out on the trail and camping, but we also use it for the day trips to work remotely because we bring the stove to have a hot lunch right out of the back of our Subbie. It’s a nice kit.

Austere Manufacturing locking down the tank

Anywho, I like to transport the propane tank, for such excursions, up in my storage basket on the roof. I would normally use a solid rubber bungee cord, but it’s not ideal.

Austere Manufacturing propane tank 2

I found that using the Cam Straps instead, I could actually adjust how tight I can get it against the side walls of the basket, allowing it to be more stout and secure for transport. I felt better about it, as well.

Austere Manufacturing thumb and buckle

The actual cams are very easy to use while not feeling cheap. The cam only rocks enough to get the strap through and over the past month has not developed any slop or feelings of it getting loose through continued use.

Insert Cory’s Notes:

Family biking #vanlife, 4 bikes x 4 Austere Cam Straps

For a slightly different perspective, I’ve been using the 3/4″ Austere Cam Straps mostly while moving mountain bikes around. Sure, I’ve also been strapping things down on a townie front rack like Ron, for securing odd packages inside the box of my cargo bike, and occasionally attaching stuff over a bikepacking bag. I even cantilevered a gravel bike off the rear rack of a commuter ebike, and rode it 4 hours on & off-road, with only the Austere straps & a fork mount holding it in place. It wasn’t pretty but it worked.

But my most common use is lashing the family mountain bikes inside of our low-budget Ford Transit adventure van.

Cory's Austere Cam Straps secure mountain bikes

A quick loop around a fork leg to the wheel well. Around the back of the seattube down to the floor. The straps are crazy strong & secure, keeping our whole family of mountain bikes from moving around, no matter what gravel or dirt roads we bounce down.

They make loading & unloading easier than ever, which translates to more time out on the trail.

OK, back to Ron now…

Details in Use

Austere Manufacturing Cam Utility strap grabby teeth

The burly teeth offer total engagement when biting down on the nylon strap. No matter how hard I pulled, I just couldn’t get it to slide. The way it is designed is that the more tension on the strap, the tighter the cam grabs the strap.

Just this morning, I had to help my wife take some stuff back to her office. There were 4 of the same-sized boxes that needed to go in the car. Instead of making four separate trips, I grabbed a Cam Strap and cinched them together, and blammo, I only had to make one trip…allowing me to work smarter, not harder.

In Conclusion

4 Austere Cam Straps in Cory's hand

The Austere Manufacturing Cam Straps are a fantastic, solid, and well-made product. They are super strong without being oversized, over-engineered, or overly complex. It’s a simple design that just works and works very well. The cams themselves are easy to press but feel firm and unyielding, which left me feeling confident in the buckle’s ability to hold strong.

You can tell that a lot of thought and care went into the product throughout the process, from initial design to manufacturing. They are obviously super easy on the eyes, as well.

Although developed specifically for bikepacking, they aren’t just for cycling, these Cam Straps are good for everywhere you would need an adjustable strap with an incredibly strong, and light cam buckle that looks to be made for a lifetime of extreme usage.

Pricing and Options

Retail Pricing:

  • 3/4″ Cam Straps: $24.92 ($22.50 for just the buckle)
  • 1″ Cam Straps: $25.24 ($22.82 for just the buckle)
Austere Manufacturing all the colors
photo c. Austere Manufacturing

They have different Collections of colors for the buckles:

  • 3/4″ Everyday Collection comes with black straps only, but the buckle colors are: Black, Slate Blue, Stealth Grey, Deep Blue, Coyote, Ranger Green/Orange, Orange, Sandstone/Robin’s Egg
  • 1″ Everyday Collection comes with black straps only, but the buckle colors are: Black, Slate Blue, Stealth Grey, Deep Blue, Coyote
  • 3/4″ Tactical Collection comes with Coyote or Ranger Green straps, and the buckle colors are: Ranger Green, Coyote, Stealth Grey, Coyote, Sandstone, Ranger Green/Coyote, Coyote/Ranger Green, and Ranger Green/Orange
  • 3/4″ Pastel Color Collection comes with black straps only, and the buckle colors are: Powder blue, Purple, Powder blue/Purple, Powder Blue/Bright Green, Bright Green/Powder Blue, Bright Green/Purple, Purple/Powder Blue, Purple Bright Green,
Austere Manufacturing Pastel colors
photo c. Austere Manufacturing

For more info and to order your own Cam Strap, see the link below.

AustereManufacturing.com

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7 Comments
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CSBike
CSBike
1 year ago

great to see these are suitable for propane & propane accessories

Bike Rider
Bike Rider
1 year ago
Reply to  CSBike

You must buy
You must buy
You must buy

…propane.

unravelled
unravelled
1 year ago

Direct from Austere

“*Austere Manufacturing buckles are tough, but they’re not meant for anything safety-critical. DO NOT use these buckles or straps or any other Austere Manufacturing product in any application where a failure, or malfunction could cause damage, injury, or death. Our products are NOT certified, and we cannot provide any guarantee of their suitability for any particular purpose. You assume all risk for your use of these products.”

Tyler
Tyler
1 year ago
Reply to  unravelled

probably not the best way to secure a propane tank to a vehicle that travels on the highway

Fergus
Fergus
1 year ago

Made for Nasa, isn’t something that’s designed for less than 1 G suitability less adequate than something designed for more than 1 G .

Noah
Noah
1 year ago

Or just buy NRS straps in almost any length you want and save many $$$

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