Touring - can I rack, road bike with our rear braze-on?

hello

I want to do a few overnights to get a feel for touring. I have trek 470 road bike. I am used to packing light. My wife has a schwinn world sport. Both have single eyelets at the front and rear drop outs. HOWEVER they do not have braze-on.

WHAT IF ANY RACKS COULD I USE?

thought # 1... can the arms that extend from a rack reach to the seat post adjustment and be attached there? link A (http://www.nashbar.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10053_10052_143673_-1)


thought #2... can the these be used on seat post stays?
link B (http://www.nashbar.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10053_10052_143675_-1)



thanks,
Casey

1: Yes, if the arms are long enough... and even if they aren't you can probably hack something together. Those arms aren't exactly hi-tech.
2: Yup. You can also use a hose clamp on the seat tube or on the stays. Only downside is if the brakes interfere with this.

It is usually easier to secure a front rack in this case than a rear one. The p-clamps/hose clamps you use at the mid-blade position don't really have to bear much load.

OTOH, I've had horrible experiences trying to cobble together rear racks this way, especially since the tendency is to load a rear rack more heavily than the front. It never winds up being quite as solid as it should be to carry full panniers. For just strapping a tent and/or bedroll to the top, it would be fine though.

Back in the seventies there were very few affordable touring bikes with braze on for racks. I estimate that ninety percent or moreof the bikes used to ride the Bikecentennial route did not have braze ons, or double eyelets on the front and rear dropouts.

I recently did exactly what you are proposing, clamping the rack stabilizers to the seat post. The fellow I did it for then proceeded to haul two 20 pound sacks of dog feed on the rack with no ill effect. Wasn't pretty but seemed very solid.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy112/Doug64_photos/blackburnrack2.jpg

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy112/Doug64_photos/BlackburnRack1.jpg

This is pictue of a 70's touring bike set up with a Jim Blackburn rack. It is a Gitane that has been in storage for 30 years! I've used the same rack on a relatively modern roadbike (2003) and they work great. If you can find one of these they do not interfere with the brakes. I've never been able to use the seat stay braze-on on any of our roadbikes with sidepull brakes.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy112/Doug64_photos/DSC_0048-1.jpg
This is the sister to the rack above that I modified to fit on my mtn bike. My wife's roadbike frame is so small, 50cm, we had to fabricate a clamp for her seatpost and use a rack with the double stays. It also worked well.

I have one rear rack that attaches the same as shown on Doug's Gitane above (and mine is currently on the back of our Gitane tandem), but I've also used P-clips with a rear rack and found the attachment to be just
as solid as when using brazed-on fittings. In any event, the weight is really being carried by the lower support where you say your bike has eyelets, so I'd expect there to be various options to get a
solid enough mounting at the front of the rack.

Thats exactly what I did to set up my Holdsworth. Here is a pic:
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7036/mistraltour3.jpg

WHAT IF ANY RACKS COULD I USE?


Maybe none?
http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public//bianchitour.jpg