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Something to Do (Part 13)

Posted by Dutchman Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Front Rack

Positioning of the front rack was painful. I wanted a low-rider type of rack so that I could get a lower center of balance on the front of the bicycle. There seems to be a pretty limited number of these type of racks available. On my previous touring bike, I used a Blackburn low-rider, but these don't appear to be make anymore. Other options were Tubus (high quality and expense) and Axiom. The problem with most of these rack designs is that they give you a very limited amount of adjustability. By this, I mean you have a hard time keeping the pannier holding bars horizontal, while still matching up with the dropout eyelet and mid-fork braze-on. It would appear that frame builders and rack designers haven't come to agreement on what the distance should be between these two attachment points. I ended up ordering Nashbar low-riders which are a clone of the old Blackburn rack, that come with "U" bolts for forks without mid fork braze-ons. As can be seen in the photo, I had to use the "U" bolts, as the plate of the rack was about 3/8 of an inch too high for the braze-on.
Installation difficulty is increased due to the fact that only one of the two dropout eyelets will work with the rack and the fender supports. The skewer/axle is in the way when using the front eyelet. Because the eyelet is shared, a longer 5mm bolt must be used, which weakens the connection to the eyelet. Under the stress of a heavy load, I worry that either the bolt, or more likely the eyelet will fail.

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I'm a middle aged divorced father living with my two sons. We like to canoe, bicycle, fish, camp, play baseball, and spend money when we want and where we want, without permission from anybody. HA!

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