Saw this rack made for front suspension forks at MEC recently and picked one up to try on my old Rockhopper.

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Cyclin...rider-rack.jsp

As I have mentioned before, I use this bike for commuting and have done long day trips and a bit of touring, albeit with rear panniers only and front bar bag. Its a workhorse of a bike, and is stable with a good load on the back while still handling great, and the low gearing comes in handy in hilly terrain.

For a possible week long upcoming trip on paved roads, I was debating using my cross bike, but would want to change the granny from 30 to 26 teeth, and I figured I'd have to buy another Ortlieb handlebar bag attachment thingee as I have already moved mine twice, and I suspect the wire would be a real p.i.t.a this time...

so given that I will be camping, I'll be using front panniers, so started looking around for rack options for this suspension fork. Ive attached photos to show the mounting system, it is pretty basic, with those screw down clamps looking particularly homemade. I've mounted it as per the instructions and it is reasonably stable.

As in the past, I will be using my old small front panniers, and have always loaded them fairly lightly--rain gear in one side, and cooking set in the other, so the weight shouldnt be much more than 10 lbs. The whole mounting system seems kind of marginal, from the bracket on the v brake bolts, to the actual clamp attachments, so I figure it would be wise to go light anyway. Plus I dont want to overdo the weight on the front suspension anyway, but as I myself am fairly light and want to keep the front load down (I prefer the steering feeling that way) this should work out fine.

I do see that for $4 you can buy a new set of clamps, so I am wondering if it would be better to go with two clamps on each fork (forgoing the brake attachment--which I see as the weak point)

Re improvising, on the MEC product page, in the review section, someone put up photos of an improvised attachment system he made, using an L bracket that goes on the skewer, then bolts to the rack. Would this put too much strain on the skewer-have any of you used racks that mount like this?

The other option, is to just go the double clamp route, which seems sturdier to me as the force will be going onto the thick fork body, but may cause issues as the rack will be farther back somewhat and the panniers may be tight being close to the fork (but I guess I could use spacers to keep the rack out from the fork enough...)

opinions? ideas? Basically its still winter here so I'm not out riding, so am messing around with this inside, and have time to try out diff approaches. The actual rack seems well made, especially for the price as well as for what I will be doing (a road trip, not even offroad) but might need some improvising, so Im putting this out for ideas.

here are some pics of how it mounts as is.