Such things as good cable ties?

Yeah, there's a world of difference.

Buy from a retailer that lists the cable tie's strength. Hellerman Tyton are decent. Screwfix's own are reasonable.

Always found B&Q to be good, I can't remember what length (240?) But long enough to go round a fork leg, thin enough to go through a cable tie hole, small neat head, strong.

How do you get a bad one?

I've never had a bad batch. I assumed they all came from the same big cable tie factory.

Hellerman Tyton. Can order bags from CPC.

There are some cheap shit ones out there, they either snap or unzip, so I'm interested in the answers here.

Hellerman Tyton. I normally buy bags from CPC. Edit : Double post useless website

Crikey, I hadn’t realised, mind you I buy mine from Harrods.
I jest of course I’ve stolen all mine from work.

You work in Harrods though.

I’ve got some pretty good reusable ones. No idea where they came from but it saves me throwing bits of plastic away.

I bought some from Amazon. Absolute crap. Literally the worst thing I have bought in years. They’re big and all they have to do is hold on my rear mudguard - five on each side. I went through so many (and thankfully didn’t lose/break the mudguard) and bought some ScrewFix ones. None of them have broken.

First time I’ve left a product review on Amazon. Wish they had a lower rating the one star…

@sharkattack same! Surely one factory is enough 🧐

I’ve usually bought mine from Screwfix.

Weird that folks would bother making crap ones.

You could apply that to any product

I’ve got some pretty good reusable ones. No idea where they came from but it saves me throwing bits of plastic away.

Free cable ties can be had from any set of railings by the side of the road.People use them to put up advertising that then falls to bits in the weather leaving the ties.

Snip them off giving yourself an unlimited supply.

You can get some excellent ones that have been used around telegraph/light poles. Those are usually 1/2" wide and really long.

Hopefully some helpful pointers here:

For general use, including mtb and household, you want nylon cable ties. They do come in all sorts of widths and lengths. I'd suggest you will mainly use 3.6mm width, although 2.5 and 4.8 mm are very useful too. Regarding length... there is no downsize to length (lol) other than cost and waste.

So, maybe buy a pack of 3.6 x 250mm black cable ties. If you want to cover more options, then add some 2.5 x 160mm and some 4.8 x 300mm.

Cheap and nasty cable ties will snap easily. Decent ones will be very hard to snap. So buy good ones, snug them up tight and cut the ends of flush so you don't leave sharp edges (a sharp knife is best, or side-cutters and a fine file to finish off).   Lovely stuff 🙂

Screwfix's ones are pretty good, never had a bad batch. Use them on rock crushers and other nasty wobbly things and never found a broken one.

T&B, Panduit are better, but more money.

Those with metal tags tend to be better but are harder to remove from lamp posts etc.  (Purely as a civic duty of course!) Very thin blades or screwdrivers are the tool to push the tag back, ideally from behind but the front will work. Amazing that people buy these things!

Metal ones are the business for securing an errant exhaust.

I recently discovered you can get metal ones. Have used them to hold an ebike motor torque arm after plastic ones snapped.

https://www.toolstation.com/ball-lock-304-stainless-steel-cable-ties/p44556

They are like mussels...if they don't close tightly when you poke them in the right place they are bad...

I recently discovered you can get metal ones. Have used them to hold an ebike motor torque arm after plastic ones snapped

Metal cable ties are more common now cables should have metal support to stop them dropping and blocking exit/access in the event of fire.
If you think a plastic tie is nasty when left with a sharp edge…