Thread: Cycle Cynch

After my recent debacle with a service manager stating I blew a fork seal because I tied down my bike too tightly I decided it was probably high time for me to replace my MIA canyon dancer.

I was never one of the folks that had an issue with the Canyon Dancer by the way. I always took a few minutes to adjust the bands to their resting position and then tightening it and my grips were always ok.

However, in my search for a replacement, I found a different design that appealed to me a little more called the Cycle Cynch.

The cynch is two sets of somewhat flexible yet stiff webbed nylon cuffs that slide over your entire handgrip on each side, and have a soft nylon strap attached to the center of each cuff, the strap portion bearing a sewn in D-ring.
Between these two cuffs there is an adjustable tie-down that lets you slip the cuff over the end of the grips and then tighten it to prevent the cuffs from sliding out and off.
While the design sounds close to what most have seen the Canyon Dancer to be, it is different in that the cuff attachment is independent, the cuffs distance apart and inward pressure is regulated by the independent tie down between them, not the opposing tie down pressure as on the CD.

Also, once attached to the mounting location, the force on the D-rings pulls the semi-flexible cuffs against the full face of the grip. It doesen't take a lot of force to keep it there because well, grips are rubber, and you essentially end up pulling down on them with almost the exact load you put on them as a rider.
For many, the claimed fault of the CD design was that the load would bounce around and wriggle their pseudo-cuff design inward as the tie-downs loosened and tightened in transport, eventually bunching the grips inward or downward. The Cycle Cynch has none of that, it just offers a secure mounting facility for your tie downs to attach to your bike, sans drama.


They offered two models, one called the cycle cynch 2 that offered integrated "mil-spec" tie downs, and another with just D-rings attached to the two cuffs for use with your own tie downs. Since I am a firm believer in Ancra's motorcycle tie downs and own a few pairs, I opted for the standard cycle cynch model. Prior to this (and after the loss of my Canyon Dancer) I was using Ancra soft hooks wrapped around fork tubes or grips.


Verdict:
good stuff! I finally used this yesterday to tote the 1000rr home from the dealership. About 1.5 hours over rush hour highway, construction, dirt and bumpy roads, and stop n go traffic and this thing held the bike very well. It kept the bike on an even keel and well attached to my truck.

When installing it (and the bike now having insurance .), I deliberately 'snugged' the front end down, leaving the straps loose enough they sag a little if you push the bike from side to side but enough they were taut enough to keep the cynch well engaged to their mounting surfaces. I then attached my other two Ancra's to the passenger peg mounts just tight enough so they didn't flap around and so the bike wouldn't float under any unplanned sudden stops. Weirdly, even in this state of tautness the bike would still move the truck if you tried shaking it. This typically only occurs with taut tiedowns for me, but I guess due to the locking action of the cynch acting like one giant tiedown over the bars it promoted this activity, cool.

If you've read this long and watched their website you're probably thinking about that nice neckwarmer thing the CD offers to go over the tank and wondering if the cycle cynch offers the same for their tiedown strap. As of yet, it is not stock and I do not see anything available on their website. However, the lack of stress on this part and location of the tiedown and leading edges of the strap leaves it in a way that on my 1000rr anyways, it wasn't touching anything other than the lower back of the upper triple.
Since we're on the topic though, the one gripe I guess I would have is this center strap needs a means of strap management attached to it. Sure I guess you could just cut it to length and be done with it, but hey it's long for a reason so I want to leave it like that. I don't want the loose portion just flapping around whipping my bikes finish in the open truckbed. I ended up threading back through the actual tie down dog on the center strap, and sticking the rest of the strap into the triple area out of the wind. In the future this will probably be augmented by some velcro straps.

After watching my brand new bike popping around in the rearview for an hour and a half but ultimately staying exactly where I put it - I wouldn't hesitate to use one of these in a trailer. I didn't notice any stretching or stressing on the cynch causing things to loosen up either. I think the web nylon contact piece that goes on the grips is a large enough section you would need to put a few hundred pounds pressure than handlebars are meant to handle before you'd see them deform. Thats just a guess though

I got mine from the great folks at www.newenough.com for $37.99 before shipping. It's more pricey than the Canyon Dancer at ~10$ more, but in my opinion well worth it.

I will give an honorable mention to the Canyon Dancer II, a redesigned unit with 'cups' on the ends rather than straps. However from other threads on here, and general principal, I avoided going that route because hard plastics on the ends of my bars might hold my bike…but eventually it will either wear stuff out (like barends) or the plastic guides or cups will fatigue. With my luck, the latter would happen at 3am in the middle of nowhere, so I opted against that choice.

Dude, please send me a list of everything you sell and a price

I am often shopping in the wee hours of the am and want nothing more than to get to work and read shipping notifications, so I never think "hey let me pm art" unless I am on here and see you answering stuff , then I get reminded...but on the plus side, I am glad you like the CC