Touring - Mounting a Jandd Low Front Rack

I just purchased a Jandd Low Front Rack and installed in on my 2006 REI/Novara Randonee

The randonee has eyelets on the front fork and a pair of eylets/braze-ons on the bottom of the fork to rack both fenders and a front rack.

I have a few questions/issues:
1. The top of the rack is nowhere near parallel to the ground. Does it need to be? Did I mount my rack incorrectly? See picture 1 (http://pschmitt.com/front_rack/DSCN4378_modified2.JPG) for details
2. The upper part of the rack does not lie flush with the eyelets on the upper part of the fork. The fork bends inwards a little, so my rack has two contact points with the fork: one about an inch above the upper eyelet and the other about 2.5 inches below the upper eylet. Should I buy washers to make the upper part of my rack have only one contact point: at the upper eyelets? See picture 2 (http://pschmitt.com/front_rack/DSCN4379_modified.JPG) for details.
3. My bike came with two sets of braze-ons/eyelets on the bottom of the fork. REI advertised this so that I could mount a front rack /and/ fenders... Unless I'm going crazy, this would suggest that I need to mount my front rack to the front/top (further to the right in this picture) eyelet (i.e. NOT where it is now), but I dont see how this is possible. Again, see picture 1 (http://pschmitt.com/front_rack/DSCN4378_modified2.JPG) for details

Did I just purchase the wrong front rack for my bike or can these issues be fixed? Please help!

Thanks,
Pete

#1: Not a problem. If you search around for pics of loaded bikes (e.g., crazyguyonabike.com) you'll see this is pretty much normal.

#2: I don't know why this usually happens, but on most bikes I've seen, racks and eyelets aren't flush in the same plane. When finally mounted, they should be. Either bend the rack's mounting plate slightly, or use a standoff (a small metal cylinder, like a very thick washer) -- filed down to the appropriate angle, if necessary -- so that there is a solid connection. There should be no threads visible on the mounting bolt between the plate and the eyelet. If there are (or if the rack contacts the fork and takes strain off the mounting bolt), you have a weak link. This would allow the bolt to flex slightly, and eventually break.

It's tough to describe this, and maybe I misunderstand your point #2. But the mounting point (rack-bolt-fork) should be solidly mated, with no wiggle room.

#3: Not clear to me..... But on my bike, even though the fork has two eyelets at the dropout, I can only use one to mount the fenders AND rack. Not ideal, but the geometry just doesn't allow putting a fender strut or the rack on the other eyelet. This puts more stress on the mounting bolt, but so far so good. If this is what you have to do, keep an eye on it.

Of course, different racks have different angles and mountings. I have a Blackburn front rack (and a different bike) -- YMMV.

-- Mark

the dual eyelets are a throwback to oldschool racks, little seen in present day.

Bor Yueh standard front rack, still available, is a trad, top eyelet rack. most lowriders mount on the lower eyelets. BTW, I've got both a Jannd lowrider AND a Bor Yueh front rack on my heavy tourer, if you wanted a top shelf as well.

I've been looking at front racks lately too. You might be better off with something like the Tubus Tara:

http://www.touringcyclist.com/img/g/16759a.jpg.
In that picture, you can see it should be possible to mount the Tara rack in the top eyelet holes on the fork.

It seems some racks are designed to be mounted in the top holes, some can do both and some are definitely intended for the lower eyelets. Yours is definitely a bottom hole kind of rack.

Another option is the Old Man Mountain AC LowRider (http://www.oldmanmountain.com/Front_Rack.htm). The mid-fork mounting is highly adjustable so you can get it to mount parallel to the ground. Here's a pic from OMM's website:

http://www.oldmanmountain.com/images/ac_gallery_big.jpg