After being giddy about finding fork eyelets on both an old MTB touring frame and a Schwinn Voyageur I picked up, I now set about the task of putting those eyelets to use in finding a lowrider rack. However, I've talked to some people who swear by handlebar bags, which made me look for lowriders with platforms. So far, I've only found the Surly, Nitto, Old Man mountain and Jandd racks that do both, and each runs about 80 minimum, more than I was hoping to spend on a front rack. Are there any more reasonably priced alternatives out there?

Or....is the platform worth it? Or alternatively, is a lowrider worth it?