Dahveed

I'm wondering what kind of pannier racks can be put on the front and back of a cannondale mt. bike with a head shock and how well anything performs. Any experience/advice will be greatly appreciated.

velotimbe

We have used cannondale mountain bikes in our rental fleet before.

For the rear, everything normal bolts up just fine. We use Blackburn Expedition racks, and the only thing we do different, is run the drive side dropout bolt from the inside, out, then put the rack on with a nut. Then we file the bolt head down to give the chain clearance. Also, some cannondales need the "wing" where panniers clip to the rack below (the little prongs near the dropout) bent out to clear the tubing.

For front, P-bone or Fatty headshocks should have a dropout tapping. We use the Blackburn Lowrider custom, the one for forks without ferrules in the fork blade. It comes with U-bolts to go around fork legs. For Cannondale. we typically drill the rack out a bit, and get larger U-bolts to fit the larger diameter leg of the Headshock.

We have had very good luck setting up the P-bone forks, but not so good on the Fattys. The P-bone has a straight leg, but the Fatty is tapered, and it seems that once it slides down a bit, it loosens due to the taper, and the racks tend to need re-adjustment every other day during a tour.

I do not know of any "platform" front racks that work with Headshock, and I know nothing will work with a Lefty, I have tried......

Tim

velotimbe

btw, this rack is out of production as far as I know.

I have several if you need one. (this is not a for-sale post)

If you need it, maybe we can work out a parts trade, since I dont want to use the board for selling.

Tim