Tying tether on old luggage rack I've got a bike with an ultra-old luggage rack which isn't of the kind which has a cheap spring-loaded "clasp" but rather an elastic tether which is permanently attached to the frame at the front and is held in place by its own tension on a metal hook at the back:



However, while working on the bike, I removed the rack and now don't know how to properly wrap the tether so that it stays tight: It used to have some sort of "sailor-esque" smart looping method which kept the hook at the end taut, but my landlubber self undid the knot and now doesn't know how to tie the tether properly, so now there's a huge amount of extra slack and the whole bit is loose. What sort of knot-fu do I need to make the tether taut on the rack?
No knot is required - you just need to take up the slack in the bungee / elastic.  Something like this:



That way you can unhook the bungee for strapping over a large thing but its still tense enough to hold itself down when empty.