What do you guys think....
 

... of this fork mounting kit. Basically I've been trying to sort myself out with a touring bike, but I very much don't have the money to buy some beautiful new set up like a LHT or a Thorn Sherpa. The problem I keep encountering though is that it's rather hard to find anything with brazons on the front forks to fit a front rack.... but then I discovered these things (sure you've probably all seen them before, but I'm rather/extremely/embarrassingly new to this so I hadn't and they are either a god send or a big disappointment) . If you haven't seen them before, they allow you to attach a front rack to a bike without any brazons on the front fork. I would love to know your thoughts on them, and whether you think they would be any good (stand up to a tour in India) or whether they should be written off, and I should work more hours and save up for a front rack (I pray that you say the first!).

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

Cheers,
Rob.

I should add they are the fourth thing down the page.

Have no XP with them, but I did use an OMM rack on my Marin mountainbike that had a Marzocchi Bomber suspension fork on it. I used a QR as the lower mount and a linear pull brake bosses as the upper mount (longer hex bolts were provided by OMM (old man mountain).

As far as the fourth thing down the page, it looks OK, so long as you heed their warning about using it on a steel or thick aluminum fork. I think any kind of heavy loads on a thin or CF fork could be disastrous... On a steel fork, you might be able to get a good welder to put braze ons there, or there are also some things called P-clamps that can be mounted on a steel fork too... YMMV, I never went this way and used the QR mount.

Jay

I used something similar on my first touring bike years ago and outside of mucking up the paint on the fork over time, I had zero issues with them. They did what they were advertised to do. I'd say run with it.

I purchased them three years ago for my 26" wheeled sport/tour bike that has regular Reynolds 531 road blades like you'd see on any road bike 20-30yrs ago. I installed them with a Tubus Tara low rider rack and rode it occasionally with a full grocery load of about 25lbs. for about a year. I wrapped the tubes with some black electrical tape and the supplied protective strips. When I removed them the fork blades were fine.

They work fine. If you have round fork blades I'd use the hose clamp method.

btw my preference for the Tara is with 700c wheels, with 26" the panniers are kinda low to the ground and it felt like there was almost a ground effect wind resistance when going fast down hills as the loaded panneris weren't far from the ground. This is really nit picking though as it's speed uphills that matters for time over distance and any loaded bike will be going slow uphill.

They work great. The mounts are clean, secure, and look OK. I apologize for the picture size, but it shows the detail better.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...ianchi-1-1.jpg
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...ontrack3-1.jpg
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...rontRack-1.jpg