I commute every day, and I also want to take camping gear on my bike. I would like front and back racks for as much capacity as possible, despite shocks in the front, and discs front and back.

Does anyone have suggestions/pics/links? The ideal system would have a removable trunk bag, and be able to carry bags front and back. A trailer might be a good answer for camping (depending on the route), but I think I would still like racks for every day commuting.

thank you for any insight.

http://www.oldmanmountain.com/Pages/RackPages/RearRacks.html

Old Man Mountain makes some fairly solid racks which fit a lot of different bikes, including disk brakes and suspension. I've personally squished a couple of Axiom racks and have found them to just be junk, but they're cheaper and you might have better luck if you don't want to shell for the OMM racks. There are probably other good options out there too though.

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Yup - Old Man Mountain Racks (http://www.oldmanmountain.com/) are great with disc brakes & suspension. Very versatile so you'll be able to move them to any bikes you may own in the future. If you look at my Baja tour pics (http://www.flickr.com/photos/vikapproved/sets/72157603997077952/) you'll see an OMM cold springs front rack on my LHT and an OMM Red Rocks rear rack. I've used that front rack to tour on the Schwinn shown in the pics in this post.

You can tell I like OMM racks because I own four of them.

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Wow, that's pretty interesting, Vik. It looks just a little scary in terms of forward/backward stability -- how is it working for you? Is that basically just a clamp on the seatstay?

Wow, that's pretty interesting, Vik. It looks just a little scary in terms of forward/backward stability -- how is it working for you? Is that basically just a clamp on the seatstay?

It is rock solid...not quite as bomber as my Tubus Cargo [what is???], but no problems whatsoever and the Cargo won't fit on any bike I have so OMM has a lot going for their racks.

Thanks for the tips. The Sherpas look like the answer. It's tough to shell out more for 2 racks than most Wal-mart shoppers spend for their bike. Still, they will get used every day, and be worth it to me. thanks again.

Thanks for the tips. The Sherpas look like the answer. It's tough to shell out more for 2 racks than most Wal-mart shoppers spend for their bike. Still, they will get used every day, and be worth it to me. thanks again.

Quality costs...also you have to remember WM probably "makes" and sells more Next bikes in a day than Sherpa sells racks in a couple of years. Also FWIW I strongly suspect that the Sherpas will still be doing daily duty long after that Next bike has been consigned to the recycle bin.

Aaron:)

Thanks for the tips. The Sherpas look like the answer. It's tough to shell out more for 2 racks than most Wal-mart shoppers spend for their bike. Still, they will get used every day, and be worth it to me. thanks again.

Yeah they are worth the money and you'll be supporting a great company. For a second I thought about selling one of my OMM racks I don't have on a bike at the moment, but then I realized that was crazy talk! It will only be a matter of time before I have a bike that needs a front rack or a friend does and then I know my OMM rack will fit the bill.

Yeah they are worth the money and you'll be supporting a great company. For a second I thought about selling one of my OMM racks I don't have on a bike at the moment, but then I realized that was crazy talk! It will only be a matter of time before I have a bike that needs a front rack or a friend does and then I know my OMM rack will fit the bill.

And if you *don't* find a bike for your front rack, let me know :D i'm certainly in the market for a little extra storage before my Otesha tour.