For most applications I would go with a Blackburn for price, weight, rigidity, and looks. A brilliant, simple, elegant design, I would say it was the first really good mass-produced rear rack. Everybody later copied it. They entered production in the mid or late 70's and would be appropriate to anything from that point forward. I bought my first one in 1977 or 78, it was the fixed center brake mount model. They had their limitations: I did a long fully-loaded tour with it and broke 2 of the 3 attachment points in the middle of Morocco. Since then I only use chrome-moly steel for serious touring-- it doesn't break, and if it does you can get it repaired at any roadside shop. But the Blackburn is great for commuting, recreational excursions, light touring, or any light-to-medium load, and I still use several. The pre-Blackburn racks, whether steel or aluminum, generally sucked. The most common were the Pletscher and Esge aluminum racks, and with any load at all they both swayed all over the place. You can feel them pulling you to the outside on a corner. There was an English steel model which looked very nice but could not handle a load either. They didn't have the triangular rear struts of the Blackburn. The French had a lot of rear racks, mostly cheap steel rod (rather than tubing) that from the looks of them are not all that rigid either. The VO chromed steel racks are well made and look good. If you want pre-bike boom classic, suck it up and lay out the 60 bucks for one of those. You'll soon forget about the extra $20 or $30 you paid, and will enjoy it for a long time.