Thread: Car safety belt instead of linen???

Originally Posted by littlesilverbladefromwale

I don't know if seat belts 'abroad' are like UK seat belts, ours are very very tightly woven fine silky material, if you swipe your hand down them very fast, the friction generates a lot of heat. .

they are the same here in the states. they are most frequently made from woven nylon or polyester, however in rare cases (mostly racing gear) they are woven from Spectra or Kevlar.

One of the reasons leather is compulsory for motorcycle race suits is the leather's ability to gradually slow the rider down as he slides along the tarmac. Synthetic materials offer less resistance as you slide along. As there needs to be some 'draw' on the strop, could the lubricity of synthetic material reduce it's effectiveness as a strop? Or maybe this is not a good analogy?

It might look silky but in the UK it is a man-made fibre - 100% polyester.

Regards,
Neil

Well the SRD non linen strops use nylon which looks to provide no friction or draw to me but many have testified that it works well.

If draw was the sole factor in stropping then why use linen first when leather will always provide more draw?


I had a go in the cab of my van last night (at stropping on a seatbelt, not having a go in general, there was no one there to have a go at) but the edges were heat sealed and melted plastic was raised fractionally higher than the flat surface across the belt which didn't make for a good result.


As for using leather in motorcycle equipment my understandning is that if you slide down the road at 80mph in plastic then quite soon the friction generated heat melts the plastic to your skin. Besides leather breathes and leather sweats despite what claims they make on their fancy labels.

I learnt that the hard way as a courier in London, cursing Gore-Tex and their overpriced claims in a scorching city summer.

Originally Posted by gingahippy

As for using leather in motorcycle equipment my understandning is that if you slide down the road at 80mph in plastic then quite soon the friction generated heat melts the plastic to your skin. Besides leather breathes and leather sweats despite what claims they make on their fancy labels.

I learnt that the hard way as a courier in London, cursing Gore-Tex and their overpriced claims in a scorching city summer.

I used to wear plain old jeans when riding my bike - until I got taken to hospital after a crash and they insisted on scrubbing my bare-bone knees with a scrubbing brush while I sat there - to get all the denim fibre out, they said. Leather for me after that episode!

Regards,
Neil

PS: there is a place that provides tube-woven seat belt material - saw it on the web, but can't remember where.

I actually have a spare seatbelt for my car in the loft right now. It would be REALLY cheap from a scrap yard. You would only need one and you could make several strops from it.

Old firehoses should work too.

That sounds better to me, Ray - its tubular (like most of the old linen strops) so no seam or raised edges, and made of canvas.

Regards,
Neil

In high school my buddies and I used to go to our local scrap yards and buy tons of old seat belts with the buckles included to make normal pant belts out of to sell to our friends. One seat belt is over 10 feet long and we used to get between 15-20 belts form about $5. The scrap yards sell by weight and the heavy part of the buy is in the buckle so if you were to just by the cloth parts you could make out like a bandit if you were to resell these as strops.

Well I just got 3 old seat belts from a scrapped Renault, the edges were woven and smooth, unlike the belts in my Sprinter, and when I gave the razor 30 passes at home it popped hairs off my arm until it was baby smooth in a few stroke.

It flew through the HHT too, with chest hairs though, I keep it too short on top for the HHT.

Now that particular razor doesn't usually perform that well after leather stropping.

I am excited to say the least, one step closer to a BBS.