Yeah thats me, 9 stone wringing wet & wearing full winter clothes Thought i would add to the mental image as i aint big and i aint strong but i had an even bigger & very skittish dog of about 55-60lbs on this bike thing and even he couldn't pull me off it, you could feel his extra strength but not enough to wobble the bike or risk me losing control.
Don't know anything about velcro straps,the one i have i bought about 5 years ago from PAH and the dog tie part is a double nylon cord, very tough and has a regular metal lead clip on the end. The springs are contained in the bar and