Commuting - Carrying panniers on a Cannondale synapse carbon frame

Hi all,

After 6 months of commuting 26 miles a day and losing 45 pounds I've rewarded myself with a nice carbon frame, however I am now expecting to have to revert to carrying my laptop in a backpack. So faster commute, but less comfort unfortunately.

But before I give up on panniers I was wondering if anyone knew of anyone who had successfully carried them on a carbon frame and if so, how they did it?

yours hopefully,

Neil

I don't use panniers since my clothes fit in a trunk bag, I but could do it on my carbon framed Giant if the need arose. Tubus makes a pretty slim rack called the "FLY" that has an adaptor (purchased separately) that allows the bottom legs to mount thru a longer than normal QR skewer. The top end has a single strut that can be bent and bolted under the mounting bolt for the rear brake in some cases (I think you can buy a longer version of the strut if necessary). Instead of bolting mine through the brake, however, I decided to just use a p-clip from the hardware store around the seat stay.

Here's a link to some information on it. (http://www.thetouringstore.com/TUBUS/Fly/FLY%20PAGE.htm)



The thing you'll want to be careful about is whether you will have enough foot clearance. A lot of the carbon frames have a pretty compact geometry.

You might be able to make it work with some adel clamps. There is a person in the road forums with a Cervelo R3 fully loaded touring style, you might want to pick his brain. These should only be a few dollars at most any hardware stores. Make sure you get the clamps with a good rubber surround because you don't want to gouge your CF frame.

http://www.eaa1111.com/pictures/AdelClampMS21919-DF16.jpg

I would rather use proper adel clamps than do this:

http://www.thetouringstore.com/TUBUS/Fit%20Solutions/Stay-Clamp.jpg

CF is very sensitive to scratches. Please be careful!

Hi all,

After 6 months of commuting 26 miles a day and losing 45 pounds I've rewarded myself with a nice carbon frame, however I am now expecting to have to revert to carrying my laptop in a backpack. So faster commute, but less comfort unfortunately.

But before I give up on panniers I was wondering if anyone knew of anyone who had successfully carried them on a carbon frame and if so, how they did it?

yours hopefully,

Neil

Other posters have mentioned using clamps. That's iffy. Carbon isn't really supposed to be subject to a lot of clamping force. That's why shops use torque wrenches.

Can I ask you why you purchased a frame that's so inappropriate for your use? The Synapse is a racing frame. No eyelets. No rack bosses. It's a single purpose machine, and you're not a single purpose rider.

Carry your laptop in your messenger bag. Save your money for a bike that's more what you need for the job. If you have no problem spending money(and I guess you don't), there are plenty of really nice steel road frames that will work. Think Waterford. Independent Fabrications, Bilenky, Gunnar, etc.

Or you could just cut back on what you carry.

I actually have a fly mounted on my current hybrid, I did not realise that it could be adapted in that way.

I'll just move my current rack across, job done :)

Many thanks,

Neil

Other posters have mentioned using clamps. That's iffy. Carbon isn't really supposed to be subject to a lot of clamping force. That's why shops use torque wrenches.

Can I ask you why you purchased a frame that's so inappropriate for your use? The Synapse is a racing frame. No eyelets. No rack bosses. It's a single purpose machine, and you're not a single purpose rider.

Carry your laptop in your messenger bag. Save your money for a bike that's more what you need for the job. If you have no problem spending money(and I guess you don't), there are plenty of really nice steel road frames that will work. Think Waterford. Independent Fabrications, Bilenky, Gunnar, etc.

I bought it because I wanted to start using my commute to train a little, but more than that I wanted a bike I could use for long distance sportive cycling. I have kept my Genesis Day 1 aluminium frame hybrid for days when I need to carry a heavy load and I intend only to carry light loads on the synapse frame. I bought the frame for a couple of hundred quid rather than full price, so I do have some problems spending money :)

Thanks for the advice though.

The Tubus Fly with the Quick Release attachments work well, I use it on one of my bikes and have no issues with the setup.

These are the mounts people are referring to:

http://thetouringstore.com/TUBUS/Fit%20Solutions/FIT%20SOLUTIONS%20PAGE.htm

The mounts that attach to the wheel quick-release, and then the coated p-clamps, or perhaps the tubus stay mounting clamps with a small rubber wrap underneath (just buy them one size larger). The stay supports don't carry much load so I wouldn't worry about damaging the frame with them.

Or you could just cut back on what you carry.

I'm not singling you out, but why do people feel the need to post responses like this? The guy likely knows cutting back is an option but maybe he doesn't want to, or can't. He's not asking for help on lightening his load.

I have an old Specialized Epic Pro carbon frame that I commute on occasionally. I got a seat post mounted rack (my seat post is aluminum, however) with side drops that are there specifically so that you can mount panniers on it. It seems to work pretty well though the option of having a rack attached through the skewer sounds pretty cool. One advantage to my rack though, is that it can be removed in just a few seconds.