Touring - Lightweight Rear Racks

Hey Gang,

I've done a search and came up dry, so I turn to you, my touring friends. I recently got a Bianchi Volpe (Which I love dearly already) as a light touring / brevet bike. I've got the Tubus Cargo racks on the C-dale, but am looking for a recommendation for a good lightweight rear rack for Volpe. I was looking at the tubus Fly, but here's the rub (literally). The Volpe has canti brakes, so the Fly with it's single mouting point isn't compatable. The Cargo rack is really a bit of overkill in terms of weight and size.

Who knows of a good light rack that I can use that uses the normal dual mounting points at top? I'm not sold on a seatpost rack, most are just as heavy as the Cargo, and since I have a suspension seat post I'm not too sure how well they will co-exist. (although the suspension post may go away, i've got it set so stiff that it doesn't do much if anything for me.)

If you can provide weights with the recommendations, I'd appreciate it, I'm sure not a weight weenie, but I'd like to keep the weight down a bit if possible.

Thanks in Advice,

Steve W.
Who had to take a dead mouse away from his cats last nite, earning him their distain.

Try the Tubus Vega. I have one on my cross bike. It's like a Fly, but has the dual attachment system of the Cargo. Wayne at The Touring Store (http://www.thetouringstore.com) has the best price and service on Tubus stuff.

http://home.comcast.net/~michaelnel/tubus_vega.jpg

AH HA! That is EXACTLY what I'm looking for. I was over at Wayne's site earlier, and didn't see that model, but it is spot on what I need. TheTouringStore.com rocks, Got all the racks and bags for the C-dale there.

Steve W.

Try the Tubus Vega.

Yes, great little rack! I've got one on my LHT as well and it's rock solid. :)

AH HA! That is EXACTLY what I'm looking for. I was over at Wayne's site earlier, and didn't see that model, but it is spot on what I need. TheTouringStore.com rocks, Got all the racks and bags for the C-dale there.

Steve W.

Yeah, he doesn't have a photo up (I don't think he has much time to maintain his website, but he sure has time to take terrific care of his customers!), but he does have the Vega racks. That's where I got mine.

I've been happy with the Topeak Explorer, which I bought on the road when my Fuji's stock rack fell apart on me. I chose it because it was the only one the LBS had in stock in the little town I was in when my rack broke - but it's proven at least as strong as the well-regarded Blackburn Expedition I have on my other bike, and I think it's nicer. Available with a mousetrap-style spring-loaded carrier, at 980 grams, or without at 590g. It's also compatible with Topeak's slide-on trunk bags, which I don't own but which look pretty nice to me.

Oh, and they're cheap. I think I paid $30 or $35 for mine, which was the more-expensive mousetrap version. One caveat: because these racks are built with hollow aluminum tubes, they *are* more likely to break after an accident than a similar steel rack would be, and you may have a harder time getting them repaired if you do extensive touring outside "civilization".

http://www.topeak.com/products/rack_004.html

Wayne is GREAT. He got me all hooked up with my rack for my racing road bike turned touring bike. He spent about an hour on the phone with me and I was so happy with my racks and bags.

I put the Tubus fly on my touring bike with catilevers. all you need is a brake brigde with a hole in it. I took it off when I realized that it is so narrow that I couild not clamp the strap clamps on my panniers closed because the hit the fenders. It is also very flexible.

I put the Tubus fly on my touring bike with catilevers. all you need is a brake brigde with a hole in it. I took it off when I realized that it is so narrow that I couild not clamp the strap clamps on my panniers closed because the hit the fenders. It is also very flexible.

The Vega seems quite rigid and strong.

Two of the Tubus racks are designed with a secondary, lower mounting bar for panniers. This is designed so that if you add on a trunk bag, the mounting of both trunk and panniers do not crowd each bag’s mounting, meaning that there is room to fit them better and to indepenently remove and affix one or the other with ease. It also has the side benefit of lowering the center of gravity on the panniers.

The Vega seems quite rigid and strong.

I think the twin attachments to the seat stays keeps the rack from twisting. The fly having only the center attachment can twist. It is very light though.

That's what's cool about the Vega for my needs. The Cargo is the big boy... strong and heavy. I don't need that kind of strength (but I had one on my loaded tourer Atlantis and it was terrific). The Fly is too lightweight (strength-wise) for my needs. The Vega borrows from both and ends up being exactly what I need.

Besides, it has the same name as my headlight. :D

Two of the Tubus racks are designed with a secondary, lower mounting bar for panniers. This is designed so that if you add on a trunk bag, the mounting of both trunk and panniers do not crowd each bag’s mounting, meaning that there is room to fit them better and to indepenently remove and affix one or the other with ease. It also has the side benefit of lowering the center of gravity on the panniers.

That's the Tubus Logo. Neat design, but again more than I need for my commuter / all rounder. Another benefit of the Logo is increased heel clearance for bikes with shorter chainstays. I got around that with my Vega by using some brackets Wayne sells that offset the rack up and back about an inch.

- ran across this problem just recently... my solution:

Nashbar rack / pack (http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=&subcategory=&brand=&sku=14181&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=)

http://www.nashbar.com/nashbar_photos/medium/NA-SRPC.5.gif

http://www.nashbar.com/nashbar_photos/medium/NA-SRPC.gif

Unlike the Vega illustrated in their site with bent struts for better fit due to the rack's tapered design, my rack came with standard straight struts which forced me to mount them on the eyelets at a slight angle. I spoke to Wayne (from the touring store) this morning and he told me that the Vegas are supplied with straight struts only and bent struts are optional and he's currently out of them. Anyway he suggested that I carefully mount the struts in a bench vise and carefully tweek the tubings into shape which I will most likely do. All I need is a slight single bend in each, actually....and not the fancy 'S' bend shown above. :)
Here's a photo of how the mounting looks like now with straight struts.

That looks like it fits okay. Why would you want to bend them?

That looks like it fits okay. Why would you want to bend them?
Well, the strut and frame eyelets are 'forced' to mount squarely/flush, thereby creating noticable tension. A slightly bent strut would relieve this tension by seating itself flush on the eyelet. I'd hate to see an eyelet snap off the seatstay because of this. I'm sure I can create a graceful bend in each strut to remedy this..... :)

That looks like it fits okay. Why would you want to bend them?

They're aluminum (although the rack itself is tubular chromoly), and Tubus stresses that they should be installed in such a way that there is no strain or bending force on them.

Here's mine with straight (and too long) struts:

http://home.comcast.net/~michaelnel/bracket.jpg

I didn't want to cut the struts in case I ever want to put it on some other bike that needs longer struts. It'd look better with them shortened, but it doesn't harm anything to have them a bit long. Mine just happen to go to the eyelets without any strain, so I don't need to bend them.

Tubus stresses that they should be installed in such a way that there is no strain or bending force.....
Mine just happen to go to the eyelets without any strain, so I don't need to bend them.

Exactly. Since my frame is smaller in size, the eyelets are mounted lower on the seatstays, thus mounted further apart. Therefore I must use bent struts.

They're aluminum (although the rack itself is tubular chromoly)

You're right and they were solid aluminum rods which were very easy to bend into shape using a bench vise. Since they were so easy to shape, I decided to give them a very slight 'S' bend after all.....bends are hardly noticable, but took the stress off the braze-ons. I cut the excess lengths off of them also... ...Now I'm happy.:)

Yep, I chatted with Wayne last nite as I ordered them, he went over all the various options, gave me a couple of suggestions as to how to get the Vega how to fit right. This is my second purchase from him, all I can say is that he want to make sure you get exactly what you need. Nice, compared especially to some places where it's 'Tell me what you want, let me take the order, and get to the next customer' I recommend him 100 percent.

Steve W.
Who is dressing as Santa and riding in the Christmas Parade this weekend.