smed

Anyone find a rear-rack that works on this bike?
It comes with braze-ons on the rear triangle from the factory.
I took it to a reputable bike shop and looked at their selection of about 4-5 Topeak & Planet Bike models and the guy at the store told me I had no choice but to go with one of those seatpost mounted rear-racks. I dont like them and I have to think the braze-ons are there because *some* rack will fit it...trying to figure that part out.
All suggestions appreciated.

FolderBeholder

Did you contact Downtube? He (Yan) has some racks he told me when I inquired about them.

downtube

You can use the 4 braze-ons for the rack or just two and the bottom shock bolts. I've had customers use either depending on the rack they purchase. I think most universal racks ( they come with an extra set of arms to accommodate the distance ) should work.

Thanks,
Yan

fietsbob

All panniers are made assuming you have a regular rear rack , rather than just look, try fitting a few on at your LBS...

if they are like the one here they should help fit it.

Bike Friday uses the space under the rack, over the small wheel, for another bag that fits there..






....

wesgreen

Best rack I know is by Pletscher. They make a version for 20'' wheels. Stronger and more adjustable, but not heavier than most. Worth every penny to me.

Doc_Wui

The downtube 8FS has its rear braze-ons about 2" higher than its sister model, the Nova. I was able to cut the struts and have enough material left to drill new holes on an inexpensive $15 rack to fit the Nova. I had to use extra brackets to fit a second unit on my 8FS.

Looking at citizen racks, those probably could have adapted to fit either bike, but at $60 each, my budget was stretched too thin for my n+1 and n+2 bikes.

If I had to do one for an 8FS right now, this $17 ebay rack might suffice for me. I doubt it would work as designed. Front rods definitely have to be shortened, as would the shortest strut. The main strut might attach to the braze-ons. If not, it gets cut too. Fun with my Sawzall. I own one. Gotta use it sometimes.

smed

Thanks for the suggestions.
and Yes, Dr Yan did suggest, as he did above in this post, finding a Universal type rack that had an extra set of arms to use for securing the front-end of the rack.

I guess my problem is with the geometry, I've fitted racks on "regular" bikes enough times to know how they work but the geometry on the 8FS is such that the arms extending out from the front of the "Universal" type racks would have to be configured to point straight downwards in order to utilize the top set of braze-ons on the rear fork. This seems very like it would be very odd looking and I'm not sure how well that would keep the rack in a constant position such that the top of the rack is parallel with the ground. I guess it's something I'm going to have to futz with a bit and as suggested, possibly need to cut the arms so they fit as desired. I'm not a mechanic but I think I should be able to figure something out. I guess I was hoping there was a more obvious-fitting rack design for this bike but I guess not. Having the braze-ons is a plus though so at least I have something, it's a start.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, thanks to Dr Yan for making a fantastic bike, if you dont already have one, they rock.

Doc_Wui

You mean like this. I was pretty happy that these front arms were able to rotate like that.

smed

Yes! Like that...exactly. Thank you....the picture is very helpful. I "imagined" it looking like that but seeing it makes me feel a lot better. Ok well now I know what I have to do....and how to do it.
Thanks a bunch for all the feedback.

jur

The mounting arms form a parallelogram. You will need to be careful the whole works doesn't rotate backwards, dumping the load. It could go as far as making those short arms sit horizontally. The mounting bolts and arm ends will come under some stress due to rotation. Check this problem out by loosening all mounting bolts to see how far this can rotate.

smed

hey - thanks for the tip!
I'm still not sure which direction I'm going to go. I did find a seatpost mounted rack solution that has panniers but I can't stand the way it looks. I'm all about functionality usually but the seatpost mounted solutions just look goofy to me, might as well just carry a backpack.
anyway - thanks again.