RepWI, yea it will work. This is my wife's 7.5 and although I'm carrying the lion's share of the heavier stuff (so what's new), it works just fine. We've also used an Old Man Mountain rack on the front on other occasions but most of the time we try to travel as light as possible. I should add that my wife weighs in at less than 120 lbs, so the low spoke count rear wheel is not much of an issue.