Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Rack help.

First off, let me say that yes, I did search. Maybe I used the wrong nomenclature, or whatever, but I came up with jack squat.

Also, might not exactly pertain to this specific forum, but I think it works. After all, it is a single speed, and with the amount of traffic in this forum, I figured, "Why not?"

Recently I picked up a Trek Cruiser Classic for my wife. Step through frame. Cool looking, whatever.

Like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/designwallah/4000113258/

We want to put a rack on the back, but can't seem to find one that will fit. We bought a Bontrager one, that had the flat strips of metal to attach to the braze-ons. No way in hell would that fit. We returned that, then picked up a different one, that has some aluminum arms and a type of adjustable screw/nut/clamp thing that a lot of new rack designs are going with. still nothing. Any ideas? I have tried relentlessly to get these things to fit. To no avail. It's really rather aggravating. On another note, both LBS's I went to said "Oh, yeah, these will totally with her bike." I guess I shouldn't have taken their word. Any help will be greatly, GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

Parker

I cant imagine any design of rack that would fit that bike. If her bike is taller than the one in the picture you might be able to find/modify a rack to attatch to the seat binder(the clamp that holds the seat post in place) but on the one in the picture it appears the seat binder is lower than the max height of the rear wheel.


They are harder to get used to, and can be tricky to balance, but you might just have to go with a front rack.

i was hoping for racks in this thread. whatever.

try asking in the commuting section of forums.

it looks to me like you're going to have to do something custom, looks like most standard racks will have a clearance problem. should be fairly easy to fab something up.

i checkout out the rest of your photostream by the way, some great photos in there.

you could use this example as a guide.
http://vanscyoc.net/blog/uploads/Our_Bikes/Sears_Spaceliner_Girls_24/spaceliner2.jpg

source (not me) (http://vanscyoc.net/blog/archives/428-Early-60s-Sears-Spaceliner.html)

What I would do:

buy two p-clamps for the seatstays (bottom rack mount).

Grab an old seatpost collar http://www.jtfreestyle.com/media/picts/Bikes/2006%20JTFreestyle%2075%20RL%20seat%20clamp.jpg or seat clamp, slap it on the seatpost, will need to get inventive with the top mount.

Wouldn't be pretty, but could be hacked out for a couple bucks.

Alright guys, thanks for the help! The rack came with a bracket that looks like l_________l With a whole in each vertical portion and three in the center of the long horizontal part. I was able to straighten out the 90 degree bends and took some bolt cutters to it to shorten it, and I used the seatpost clamp, took the screw out, slid the bracket in the gap, viola, instant adapter. It is rather ugly, but very functional for the time being.

Oh, and the Flikr photostream I linked to wasn't mine. I am sorry I didn't think about saying that. I just googled the bike, and linked the first one I found that matched it.

Again, thanks for the quick replies and the help. BF.net is the *****!!

Parker

a front basket would probably be an easier solution.
Otherwise I'ld try what ianjk said.