Originally Posted by nashvillwill

Well, it wasn't the rack that failed, but the rear wheel. It was the factory Alex rim that failed. And just to be clear, it wasn't a sudden catastrophic failure of the wheel, but i just blew out spokes and tubes constantly and couldn't keep the rim true (myself or pros), until it ultimately just became deformed. But i weigh 200 lbs and carried an average daily load of probably 20 lbs or so (on the rear rack). Peak load was probably 40 lbs a few times a week (groceries). The rack is a Topeak Explorer MTX and has performed flawlessly. Also, the reason for the pannier replacement was just that the stitching would eventually fail, but these were fold out panniers from a top mounted bag. Granted, this pannier configuration isn't the most sturdy in the world, but i like the setup and don't mind the occasional replacement cost to have the ability to tuck them away. It's handy, while riding on a train, to be able to slender down the bike a little.

I had a new wheel hand built by a guy in Oakland that was highly reviewed as a wheel builder. It's been bullet proof ever since.