Originally Posted by
Lionheart
Rumor has that you shouldn't put a rack onto a carbon fork. Is this just risky or totally wrong?
I'm riding a Specialized Tri Cross with a Specialized FACT carbon cyclocross fork. I'm planning a one week 550 mile light tour where I'll camp but not cook. I do have a rear rack but am starting to worry about putting all the weight in the rear of my rig. Any wisdom?
Danny
I'll add one more voice to the Chorus... Don't clamp to a cf fork, but using the existing mount points is fine.
Light touring, depending on how you define light, you probably won't have any reason to go with front
and rear panniers.
BTW, using front only panniers is my preferred setup if carrying a light load using panniers and if there are braze-ons. Light to my mind is sub 30 pounds, and probably closer to 20 than 30. I did front only panniers with a 22 pound base weight and was very happy with the setup for a longish tour.
If I go lighter yet (15 pound base weight, plus or minus a pound or two) I skip the panniers and go with very light dry bags. So far that has been on top of a rear rack and in a handlebar bag. That worked out very well on my recent San Diego to Sarasota tour.
For my next tour (3 weeks in the Colorado Rockies in August) I plan to mount the dry bags on the sides of the rear rack and also use a handlebar bag.
FWIW, I found the superlight Sea to Summit UltraSil bags to not hold up as well as I would like and have moved to a little heavier bags. In this case the still light but more substantial Sea to Summit eVAC Dry Sacks.