DanMan4142

I recently purchased a used Bianchi Cross Concept that I got for a fantastic deal. I am interested in taking light(1-2 night) tours with it but I am not certain what my best options are for racks. I do not have any bosses for mounting racks, and I want to be careful as I have carbon seatstays and forks. I have looked at the Old Man mountain racks that are designed to mount to bikes without brazed on bosses, attaching to the rear axle and the brake bosses. I am a pretty avid backpacker and all of my camping gear is very lightweight, so I could keep my overall load to less than 30 pounds without much of a problem. Is OMM my best option for a rear rack or is there a more affordable alternative that will still allow me to securely attach my gear. I have looked at the seatpost mounted racks but they tend to scare me and I wouldnt like all of that weight suspended with such a long moment arm on my seat.

THanks!

Bekologist

your best option for a rack to carry 30 pounds with your fancy carbon cross bike...is a Trek 520!

Cyclist0383

While I agree with Bekologist that you probably shouldn't use your carbon stayed bike for touring, I'll pass along a link to the wonderful Tubus racks that can mount with any braze-ons. I use one and love it.

https://www.thetouringstore.com/TUBUS...ONS%20PAGE.htm

DanMan4142

Thanks for the input.

Is it really that big of a problem to tour using a bike with carbon stays? I am pretty light anyway, around 150 lbs, so adding 30 lbs of gear puts me AND my gear at less weight than a lot of people without gear. I know that the Trek 520 or something of that nature would be ideal, but thats a lot of money for me to spend on occasional overnight cycling trips(3-4 a year at best). I guess one thing I was assuming is that since my bike is a cyclocross it is built to be at least somewhat stronger than a road bike, and combined with that and larger tires, it would work ok. Like I said, Im assuming and I dont really know, haha!

seeker333

I think you'll be fine if you keep the cargo weight down. Using racks which transfer load directly to axle (OMM, axiom, tubus) makes the CF stays less of an issue. I'd be equally concerned about the racing-oriented wheels on the BCC bike.

If you can spread the load out to both axles (2 racks), even better. Then again, for the same money you can buy a burley nomad trailer, which puts very little load onto the bike itself. Resell value of these trailers is high on ebay.

I think some people spend lots of money on a dedicated touring bike, when they could have gotten by doing something like what you intend.

crock48

Hey Danman 4142,

If the current bike you have is comfortable and one that you are most familiar with go with that one. There is no reason to be buying another bike for the amount of time you have planning on touring. An OMM rack would be fine and going with just a rear will be more that adequate, especially when you are planning on packing only 30 lbs. I have run into people touring on aluminum road bikes, titanium and heavy steel bikes all throughout Central Asia and Central America. The OMM rack distributes the weight very well to the rear axle. The only suggestion I would make is to consider using brackets from OMM to affix the rack arms to your stays instead of using the brake bosses as they suggest, this will not only distribute the weight better but with some brakes, the attachment can interfere with the brake set up.

Enjoy and good luck
Journey On
chris

DanMan4142

Thanks guys. I think for now I will look into getting a rack, but I also think I will email Bianchi and see if they have any input as to whether there should be any issues with the frame.