Advice Needed
 

My son and I are beginning to plan a week long tour of the Natchez Trace next spring. He'll be riding my "old bike", a Specialized Sequoia with a rear rack and panniers. The "new bike" that I'll be riding is the problem, as it's a Giant OCR-C3, which is a carbon frame bike without lugs for attaching a rack. In looking at options for carrying my gear, I've come up with the following three possibilities:

1) Use a seat post rack that I sometimes use on my mountain bike and buy a 2nd set of panniers. It's rated for 35 lbs, so that should be plenty for a tour of this length. The concern I have over this option would be whether the carbon fiber seat post on the OCR could handle the strain of the loaded rack.

2) Buy a BOB trailer.

3) Buy a Burley Nomad trailer. I have a similar concern over using this trailer's hitch, as it mounts in the chainstay, and looks like it could cause some damage to the carbon.

At this point, I figure I'm going to end up spending some money, and in looking at the options I've identified, it seems that the BOB might be the safest investment, but thought some of you might have some experiences and insights that might help. What do you think?

My opinions on your three choices:

1) You could buy a aluminum seat post (or use your mtb post if it fits) for the tour. Do not clamp a rack to your carbon post.

2) Good choice, it will give you plenty of room and the BOB attaches to the rear axle.

3) Burley does make an alternative hitch that would attach to the skewer if you like the design of the Nomad better than the BOB (I do, I bought one). But do not use the standard Burley hitch on a carbon rear triangle.

Carbon fiber components are known for catastrophic failure if they are chipped, scratched or gouged. Clamping a seatpost rack, trailer hitch, etc., onto a carbon fiper seatpost is a good way to make this happen. People have been seriously injured and required surgery, colostomy bags and other fun stuff after their carbon fiber seatpost failed on them.

Seatpost racks are supported at one point, with the luggage on them bouncing up and down at the end of a lever. This is not an inherently durable design.

A trailer that mounts on a carbon fiber component (like a chainstay) is just as bad an idea as a rack that mounts on a carbon fiber component.

Another option is a great big saddlebag, like a Carradice or a Baggins Bag. Check out Wallingford Bicycles (www.wallbike.com) or Rivendell Bicycle Works (www.rivbike.com) for more about this concept.