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carrying a person on a rear rack (?)

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carrying a person on a rear rack (?)

Old 03-14-08, 08:16 AM
  #26  
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I've had people ride on my rear rack before. It's a crappy dirt cheap rack too! But the people were light, and it was more for kicks than for actual transportation, haha. It's really hard to keep balance, especially as the person gets heavier. I can definitely tell you it's not very safe, at least not without a dedicated rack. It is done all over the world though...
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Old 03-14-08, 01:50 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by masculinfeminin
also, in terms of weight, would too much weight on the back cause the axle to slip or strip?
Yeah I've bent two axles on freewheel bikes hauling people this way.


I've found most racks to be really anti ergonomic or incredibly flimsy, the best so far was one made of cast aluminium just like this one except it was black. It's hard to tell in this pic but there's a bar that goes sideways in the middle, and the spring clamp thing rests on it so it feels like there's a lot of surface supporting one's sitting implement, plus the edges are nice and rounded. I guess a cushion would be better tho.

I'd like something similar but made of steel, also with legs that attach on the axle.

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Old 03-14-08, 02:47 PM
  #28  
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I had a rack once which was rated for 70kg: https://bikesandbeyond.ca/itemdetails...gId=39&id=1003

Mind you, i'm not sure that the mounting bolts would have been good at that weight or that the eyelets would've taken it, but it didn't matter:

The rack itself failed under a load of about 10kg loaded on top. With cargo sitting on top of the rack rather than the sides, the problem is that the cargo can create lots of lateral stress on the rack if you/it moves. I would try and find something which is reinforced against that movement, or see if you can reinforce it afterwards.
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Old 11-11-08, 12:29 PM
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A second on the flying pigeon. The rear rack is bolted at the top as part of the frame, and goes directly on the rear axle. Very strong.
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Old 12-03-08, 04:27 PM
  #30  
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Velo Orange has a selection of heavy duty racks including the Master Pletscher

You might also want to look at Tubus racks Some are rated for upwards of 100 lbs.
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Old 12-04-08, 12:12 PM
  #31  
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Flying Pigeons are being imported to Durham Nc and sold through Morgan Imports for all you Southeners. www.flyingpigeondurham.com
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Old 12-04-08, 03:30 PM
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The rear rack they have on the picture at morgan imports looks even more heavy duty than mine:

theirs:


Mine:


That model has it supported by the rear axle *and* chainstay. Bolting to the chainstays on mine would be harder with the full chain guard, but should still be possible. Hmm.

(Aside: can anyone identify the weird metal bits on the morgan imports flying pigeon going straight up from the front hub and then curving back to some sort of spring near the light?)
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Old 12-04-08, 04:57 PM
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I hauled passengers sidesaddle on the rear rack with my old Batavus in Holland way back when with no problems. I'm guessing the current Batavus Favoriet or Azor Opa would work for this. They're available here now, but they aren't cheap.
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Old 12-19-08, 03:29 PM
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Carrying a passenger on the rack is illegal in most places in the US.
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Old 12-21-08, 12:19 PM
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I work in a bike shop in Holland and I see at least two bikes a week that have broken spokes or collapsed rear wheels because the customer carried someone on the rear rack. Whenever I tell that customer that bikes were never designed to carry an extra passenger, I always get puzzled looks and answers like: 'but I thought my bicycle was made to do just that' , or 'well I've always carried people on the back and never had a problem before!'

Dutch people are very spoiled when it comes to this issue and that is because many of the bicycles that were made 20, 30 or 40 years ago ( and many of those are still running) were made significantly sturdier than the bikes produced today. The only way to do it now would be to install a heavy duty rear rack or buy a bike like the Batavus Personal Bike.
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Old 12-21-08, 02:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Batavus
The only way to do it now would be to install a heavy duty rear rack or buy a bike like the Batavus Personal Bike.
Hey, it worked fine back when my friends, and I, weighted 70lbs. Now that I weigh 230 it is probably not a good idea to carry a passenger back there, not much cargo either. I kind of figure a strudy utility bicycle will handle 250-300 lbs no problem. Folks can do their own arithmetic.
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Old 12-21-08, 02:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Stacy
Velo Orange has a selection of heavy duty racks including the Master Pletscher

You might also want to look at Tubus racks Some are rated for upwards of 100 lbs.
Yea they're nice to look at--except that they all seem to have the exact problem I mentioned.
They're all held on at the bottom with tiny little screws, because that's what frames (in the US) are made with.
Until you get rid of that weakness, you're paying extra for a rack that will likely suffer the same type of failure that most cheaper racks would have.

What is really needed, is for bicycle companies to get rid of that tiny screw, which is really only good enough for holding a fender on (why are the fender and rack mount screws the same size?!?!?). They need to put a bolt about 1/4" ~ 6mm down there.
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Old 12-22-08, 09:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Elkhound
Carrying a passenger on the rack is illegal in most places in the US.
Looking at the MA law I'm not so sure about here. It's required to be a "permanent and regular seat". There was some discussion about it in a different thread: passengers on rear rack? (safety and MA law).
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Old 12-22-08, 09:20 AM
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Originally Posted by cbr2702
The rear rack they have on the picture at morgan imports ...
Looks like they took down that picture. Poking around their site, I think that wasn't a picture of a bike they actually were selling. They have way more pictures up now, and they're all for bikes laid out like mine.
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Old 12-27-08, 06:25 PM
  #40  
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check out the " coffee bikes of Rawanda "

https://ubikerwanda.blogspot.com/


or the uganda cargo bike


https://www.bikeforums.net/utility-cycling/489582-uganda-cargo-bike.html
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Old 01-22-14, 02:39 PM
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Old topic with new perspectives > Secret tandem: www.vigurvant.com
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Old 01-22-14, 03:47 PM
  #42  
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Originally Posted by mparker326
My rack is attached to the fender eyelets along with the fenders. I don't use loctite or any of that good stuff. Like I said, I'm sure it isn't meant to do what I am doing so I go slow enough in case something were to happen. If you had a heavy duty rack you could probably achieve what you wanted to do with a full size adult. You could easily pick up an old English 3 speed in NYC anywhere from free to $100.

https://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/bik/599026126.html
I used to do the same thing, except the kid was 60-80 pounds, plus his books. Just a heavy duty rack with bolts in the regular eyelets on an old touring bike.

BTW, it's probably not legal in any US jurisdiction to carry a passenger on the rack. It's definitely illegal here, but no one seemed to care the few times I did it.
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Old 01-22-14, 04:52 PM
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Carrying a passenger on the rack is illegal in most places in the US.
But a Long tail like a Xtracycle Or Big Dummy is not a regular bike ,

Yea I saw many a couple in AMS with a companion sitting on the rear rack ,

but as pointed out [35] they were not your run of the mill rear Rack .
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Old 01-23-14, 10:14 PM
  #44  
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6 year thread necromancy! Jeeze.

In any case, I've never been able to compensate for the wiggling a passenger creates - never got far.

M.
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Old 01-25-14, 05:06 AM
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Originally Posted by MEversbergII
6 year thread necromancy! Jeeze.

In any case, I've never been able to compensate for the wiggling a passenger creates - never got far.

M.
That’s one of the points to let passenger to pedal with you: It balances the ride with synchronized movements, no more wiggling.
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