Originally Posted by
cyccommute
One of the reasons that I like the Tubus is the stiffness. This is especially important for loaded touring and even more important for loaded touring and downhills. I was shocked when I watched the rack on my daughter's Fuji swaying under load along the Lochsa River in Idaho. It was visible from a few hundred feet behind her. The rack was solidly mounted but not solid. The rack wasn't a Blackburn but it was a Blackburn style like the one Doug64 has posted above. Many of the newer aluminum racks use larger diameter tubular construction which make them somewhat stiffer. The
Planet Bike KOKO, for example is a tubular design which is both lighter and stiffer than the Blackburn type. It's cheap too.
This statement is very true, the stiffer racks does make the bike handle better under load...but if the tourist is only going to be hauling no more than 60 pounds with the usual 40% on the front and 60% on the rear which means 36 pounds on the rear and 24 pounds on the front you shouldn't get much if any swaying with that little of weight if you use a quality rack like the Topeak for the rear because your well under it's 50 or 55 pound weight limit. Granted the Tubus would be stiffer but probably only noticeable at weights above 45 pounds. My Schwinn Le Tour Luxe came with a Blackburn rack from the factory which I used once for a weekend tour, I only had about 20 pounds on it and the rack nor bike swayed, of course where I live there isn't much in the way of downhills so I couldn't test it on that except on freeway overpasses which are not much in the way of test for this.