Yesterday I spent my kids inheritance on my combination Retirement/Birthday to Myself which is a motorcycle. Don't worry they can sell it after I'm dead to pay for the funeral and hopefully there will be a little left over for them. :w
Anyway it has lots of chrome including a rack at the back and since on occasion I might what to ride to the store and pick up some barley pops or if I took a trip it would be nice to have some elastic hold down straps. However I didn't want to take a chance and scratch the chrome. But the only ones I've seen have the metal just painted with a little rubber 'thingy' to cover the end so I made my own with common heavy duty rubber hold down straps.
I used common automotive vacuum hose then put plenty of liquid dish soap in very hot water then placed the hose and allowed the rubber to become pliable. I then put a light coat of the liquid dish soap on the metal 'hook'.
While I wouldn't say it was 'easy' it wasn't 'hard' however as the hose progressed to where I felt it should be to protect the chrome I found that I need to use more than just 'finger tools' so I applied some electrical tape to the jaws of a pair of pliers.
Here's how I modified the hold downs:
One with a rubber cushion and the stock metal:
Attachment 236410
The completed modification:
Attachment 236411
I left about a 1/4" 'extension' at the end to try to make sure that the metal end didn't 'bite' anything.
Thanks for looking! :tu