Bicycle Mechanics - how do you get bags or w.e u call them on your bikes?

Hey bikers! well i got a question about my bike. it is a 21 speed MTB but the thing is i dont know how to add pannies and racks to my bike. any suggestion on which one to buy? also how do i know if the racks would be available for my bikes?


ps ill post a picture soon

You put them on with the hardware that comes with them....following the instructions on the package.

Enjoy

You need a rack. What kind of rack you'll need depends on what your bike looks like.

+1 Get a rack matched to the bags.

Yep, what everyone else said. Most panniers will fit most racks, and most racks will fit most bikes. But for a particular combo, you want to have your bike with you in the store if you can, to make sure the panniers you want fit a rack that will fit your bike.

That said, there's nothing magic about it or anything. If your bike has the screw-holes to put the rack on ("rack drop-outs"), that part is easy. And there's lots of ways that panniers attach to racks but generally they boil down to a couple of hooks at the top to fit a rail on the rack, and a hook or tab at the bottom.

I like the Topeak racks with the cool dovetailed run along the top--makes using a small rack-top bag way easier.

hey k thanks u all for telling me what to do :p

ill try my local bike shop and see :D

I may get flack for this but this is a forum, not an IM or texting screen. Please use full words and proper grammar so that we do not have to decipher what you mean. You might also want to proofread your post once it's done and edit - no such thing as a 26 speed bike!

If you have a full-suspension MTB: you may be out of luck. It's very very hard to attach a real rack to a full suspension. Your best bet in that case might be to get one of the racks that simply clamp onto the seat tube, you won't be able to put too much weight on that though, and you won't have much horizontal support for any pannier. You might be better off with a "trunk" bag that sits on top of such a rack rather than panniers. Old Man Mountain sells a rack made for full suspensions, you replace the rear skewer with a longer skewer (which comes with the rack), and the rack sits on the long skewer, but I had very bad luck with that OMM rack, the rear wheel would slide out of place on the dropouts and the tire would start rubbing on the frame.

If you have a hardtail: your bike may or may not have somewhere to attach a rack to the seat stays. If not, you can get "p-clamps" to attach the rack to the stays. I've been in LBS's that were unaware of this, and told me that no rack could be attached, but the p-clamps work just fine. They are available from many online sites, here's an example just to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about: http://www.touringcyclist.com/gear/model_16556.html

Oh yeah, one more thing, if you have disk brakes you should get a rack designed to straddle the brakes, a standard rack won't fit.

Pcs would sure help... pics of both the seat stays and the area around the rear dropouts.