jignall

Just got my Tubus Cargo rack and Ortlieb Packer Plus panniers and I'm thoroughly impressed with both. The Ortlieb panniers are so sweet and they are bigger and have more pockets than I thought.

The Tubus Cargo rack is like a tank and now I can see how my stock 520 rack was relatively unstable. I feel like the bike would break before the rack!

I had a question on attaching the panniers to the rack though. The top hooks are obviously easy to attach but the bottom hook doesn't seem to be holding the bag that tight. I've tried to reposition it several times. This is my first time with panniers and maybe I'm expecting them to fit snugger than the actually do. I feel like there will be some bounce to them/they jiggle a bit. Also, any suggestions of where to position the top hooks to get the snuggest fit with the cross bars on the top of the rack?

Leaving for Italy next friday. Will be my first tour. Can hardly wait.

Thanks in advance.

Jeff

NeezyDeezy

Yeah the bottom hook isn't supposed to be snug, it's just to keep them more stabilized laterally.

Have a great tour! Take pictures and write a journal and throw 'em up on crazyguy.

valygrl

Ask Wayne at thetouringstore.com, he knows all about this stuff, he sells a ton of it, and he is full of information.

cyccommute 

What Neezy said! The hook isn't that tight but the movement isn't much either. As long as they don't swing loose you'll be fine. I positioned hooks so that they over lap the upright about 1/2" to 3/4" of an inch.

Bekologist

position the top hooks so one is flush BACK on a cross strut, and one is flush forward. that 'wedges' the bags solid on the rack and limits their fore and aft motion.

then, position the bottom hooks on the forward stay of the tubus and so there's a slight amount of tension to them when the bag is attached to the rack is my suggestion.

get at the bottom hook from the other side of the rack while it is attached, lift the bag backward slightly while pushing the bottom hook forward against the stay. this gets the bags wedged tight on the rack.

hope that helps.

avatarworf

Where are you going in Italy? We are there now, so if you're passing through Le Marche let us know!

I can take a picture of how we've got our Ortliebs fitted on tomorrow. We had some problems at first with them bumping off but now that we repositioned them they never come off the racks. Too hard to describe in words though.

jignall

the top hook info makes sense. thanks. not sure i'm following the bottom hook suggestion. however, i should probably note that i've positioned the bag as far back as possible to avoid heel strike. so using the forward stay may be tough.

jignall

I'm leaving next Friday and will be riding from Milan to Florence and back. Two week trip. That would be great if you could post pics. Thanks and enjoy your trip!

Jeff

FlowerBlossom

If I understand Bekologist's set-up, I do the bottom hook opposite. My bottom hook is against a back strut of my non-Tubus (aka, Blackburn) rack. I do this because the panniers kept slipping forward, and I had my first ever heal strike. Hooking the back strut prevents them from sliding forward.

Bekologist

regardless of what strut you hook to, to get a tight fit, lift the back of the pannier up slightly with the hook loose in the slider and puuuush the hook against the strut before tightening it.

this gets the bag wedged on the rack real well.

I set up a lot of these for customers at the bike shop. Ortlieb- #1 commuter pannier in Seattle.

avatarworf

Wonderful stuff. I will post pics a bit later, after the morning coffee! Are you going south out of Milan to Pavia? The Naviglio Pavese canal path is pretty good. We had to ride the roads for the last few km into Milan but after that you have a really nice paved bike path the whole way. Make sure you stop at the Certosa di Pavia -- it was being renovated when we stopped in June but impressive even despite all the scafolding. Every Italian we`ve met seems to ask if we saw it so it is obviously one of the "big" attractions...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certosa_di_Pavia

avatarworf

Ah, make sure you pack mosquito repellent! The area south of Milan is full of rice growing fields and heaps of mosquitos. We nearly got eaten alive in the campground in Pavia.

avatarworf

Here's how our panniers attach. The hook faces towards the back of the bike.

LindaB

Jeff - Have a wonderful trip! We also leave Friday (for Spain, though) with our new Bike Packer Plus panniers attached to "Old Man Mountain" racks. We had rattling at first, and I didn't think I'd ever get these things tight to the rack. Just keep moving that bottom hook around until it works... our hooks point toward the front of the bike now, and the panniers are very solidly attached. No need to do anything special when attaching them once we got the hook position right. But I second the advice to contact Wayne at the touringstore.com if you can't get it to work. We bought from him, and he seems very knowledgeable.

Linda

slickrock22

Since this thread is near it end can I ask and ancillary question. I just added a Tubus Cargo rear rack (from Wayne) on my '07 Trek 520 and the Rear V-Brakes are rubbing slightly on the rack arms that attach the rack to the mounts near the seat clamp (I know it's a bit lower, but not to be confused with the mounts near the axle). It doesn't make them non-functioning, but it definitely rubs.

Any suggestions on how to remedy?

Thanks

Ryan

valygrl

Take the rack stay mounts completely off the rack and flip them around, so the stays are on the inside. mount the stays on the inside of the seat stays as well. And/Or bend them.

slickrock22

Thanks I will give it a shot.

slickrock22

No dice, they rub more in the position.

Thanks for trying.