Bike Pittsburgh

Touring Racks

Hello all,

I have been thinking about adding front and rear touring racks to my bike. If you have any particularly good or bad experience with types/brands of racks the insight would be much appreciated.
(I am riding a 700c wheelset)

Thank you,

RE: Touring Racks

i have a topeak front bag that I love a lot! not a rack but maybe just as good?

RE: Touring Racks

MJC,

What kind of bike do you have? Knowing that will help my recommend some racks.

RE: Touring Racks

Eric,

I am riding a tall (60ish cm seat tube) 82' world sport.

RE: Touring Racks

Here are some options I like:

Inexpensiveish (around $30):

-Blackburn-been around for years, work well, not too much money, might have a hard time fitting some models to your tall frame, look for EX-1 or XR-1

Axiom-Lots of models, probaly have to have a shop order one, not too many shops stock this brand, but most can order it easliy. Very adjustale to most wheel and frame sizes.

Expensive ($50-$100):

Surly-heavy, steel, strong.

Jandd-I don't have a ton of direct experience with their racks, but I've found their bags to be almost indestructible.


Nitto-very pretty, hard to find, pricey. Try www.rivbike.com

Tubus-Strong, German engineered, expensive

RE: Touring Racks

this is the front bag i have

i use it to carry around 15 lbs of camera gear, its great because i use it as my camera bag off the bike (has the appropriate staps), it has a water cover, and also the waterproof map cover works quite nicely for touring.

RE: Touring Racks

I've had a bad experience with Axiom. I'm a daily commuter (Seven days, 150+ miles a week). I have 26" wheels and disk brakes.

The disk brake model is a real pain in the ass for panniers because it only partially goes over the disk brake, and in a fashion that when you try to put the pannier on, it gets stuck on the bracket that goes over the disk brake.

Besides that... I had to replace ALL the hardware (nuts and bolts) because within a month all of the hardware started to rust.

I haven't personally used them yet, but you should look into Old Man Mountain.

http://www.oldmanmountain.com/

They're apparently the shit in racks and my next rack will be from them. As far as panniers go... I would recommend Arkel.

http://www.arkel-od.com/

They're made in Canada and all of them have metal mounting hardware, which is a BIG plus if you plan on carrying anything more than paper. I've broken the mounting hardware on both of my cheaper panniers.

Luckily they have "lifetime" warranties, so I had them replaced free of charge, but it is still a pain to have your panniers break about six miles into a thirteen mile commute.

RE: Touring Racks

I believe Old Man Mountain Racks are just for 559mm (26") wheeled bikes--I inquired about them last year and that's the response I received from them.

They are, however, pretty sweet.

RE: Touring Racks

I've had a bad experience with Axiom. I'm a daily commuter (Seven days, 150+ miles a week). I have 26" wheels and disk brakes.

The disk brake model is a real pain in the ass for panniers because it only partially goes over the disk brake, and in a fashion that when you try to put the pannier on, it gets stuck on the bracket that goes over the disk brake.

i just did a tour with a friend and i had the older axiom rack that wasn't the disc brake model, and he had the newer one, with the disc brake arm. it was incredible how much sturdier mine was, esp considering it was the same rack. these things are supposed to be meant for significant weight, and i would be riding behind him and watch his rack sway back and forth.
the tour was in chile, and while in santiago, i frequently had to carry people on my rack, with no problems.

RE: Touring Racks

does anyone have experience with a rear rack on a disc brake bike, mine has 700c wheels. lemond poprad

RE: Touring Racks

Pratt...I am wondering this same thing. Buying a poprad disc from Dirt this week and wondering about a rear rack. I know it has eyelets down by the wheels, but it does not have braze ons up high. Can a rack be mounted to the cross bar with the little hole in it? I was thinking there has to be a rack designed for this install, or it would be easy enough to bend something up, drill a couple holes and do it the old dirtbag way.

RE: Touring Racks

I found this pic on the web, person used a universal type rack. I would protect the frame with something.

pic

RE: Touring Racks

I'm thinking it would be pretty easy to attach to the seatstays with something like this
http://aebike.com/page.cfm?action=details&PageID=30&SKU=RK1262

RE: Touring Racks

The Tubus Fly will fit a bike without seat stay braze-ons, though it isn't designed for full loaded touring. The rack is rated is to 40 pounds, though.

I've tried using p-clamps on loaded rear racks before, and the rack always seemed to shift a bit when climbing out of the saddle. Maybe the clamps weren't the right size, though.

RE: Touring Racks

I just went through this exercise trying to put a rack on my disc brake equiped cross bike.

My bike has the braze-on's really high like so:


I tried the one on my commuter, a blackburn XR-1, but it put the rack too close to my seat and my legs would hit it.


I then tried the topeak explorer disc rack. But it also hit my legs.


I then called my bike maker and they said the best rack was the Tubus Logo, didn't have time to get it before my trip, but if I tour again I will...


-Joe

RE: Touring Racks

The Tubus Logo is great, using the Tubus Stay Mounting Clamps (18mm) seen here:
http://www.thetouringstore.com/TUBUS/Fit%20Solutions/FIT%20SOLUTIONS%20PAGE.htm it works perfectly. Bags are held low and to the back..no heel strike. The stay mounting clamps (with rubber spacer to protect frame) are solid as far as I can tell. Need to really load it down but a test run worked well.

I had to put some rubber in between the rack and the seat stay at the bottom connector so it didn't rub. I think the Tubus Lower Rack Mounting System would alleviate this issue. Nice solid rack.

thanks for the suggestion Joe.

here's a picture of the final build: