So I had a gift certificate and wanted to try a front rack with platform that could handle mounting panniers high or low. I narrowed the potentials to a Blackburn Outpost or Jandd Extreme. I eliminated the Surly front rack because it weighs 19oz more than the Outpost and I simply don’t need the extra weight or the extra strength that comes with the Surly rack. I’m not crossing Western Africa here.
Simply put, the Blackburn Outpost front rack is a raging POS. I wanted so badly for it to not be terrible, but in spite of my hopes, it was beyond terrible.
I took it to a bike shop to have them look at it as a 3rd set of eyes since a couple of us were stumped. The rack blew their minds and I ultimately returned the heap of metal.
Below is a rundown of the good and the bad. I wanted to get this all down(both the positive and negative) since this forum seems to get a decent number of hits from general google searches.
Good
- Incredibly versatile mounting. I know there was thought that went into this rack as the versatility in mounting is very impressive. It fits 26”, 27.5”, 700c/29er wheels. It fits tires up to probably 3” wide. It mounts to traditional brazeons, or to the skewer, with Pclamps, or to canti posts. Genuinely pleased with how many options there are.
- Solid rack once tightened down. There isn’t sway.
- Can use it with the top rack or without. The top rack is secured with 4 hex bolts.
Bad
- Absurdly wide. Yes, that’s part of the good column, but its comically wide. My 35mm tires look like 23s with the rack on.
- The directions are as close to useless as you can get. It’s a few blurry pics and they identify parts by names that aren’t listed anywhere. They have 3 different types of 5mm hex bolts and you have to guess which bolt to use where. Just unnecessary confusion. 5min of time spent on the directions would have made it clear for most everyone installing the rack.
- The rack is advertised as high or low mount capable. Well that’s just wrong. To mount panniers low, you would have to hook the bag onto the bottom of the rack which is a smooth curve. The hook obviously slips off right away.
- The rack didn’t fit 5 different pannier brands. I tried Axiom and Banjo Brothers at home. I borrowed some Jandd and Avenir panniers. I then tried Arkel at the bike shop. None of them fit the rack. The horizontal mounting bars on the rack are too close together to attach the bottom hook. And retying the bungees isnt an option as each hook then is too short to be tucked under the flap which is necessary to keep the panniers from flopping outwards.
I tried emailing and calling Blackburn. I got an email from them stating the rack is not capable of mounting high and low. I politely let them know that they advertise the rack on their website as capable of doing this and the packaging the rack came with advertises this capability.
Shocker- they haven’t responded since.
This rack could be really great, but I have no idea how people use it. The bike shop couldn’t figure it out either. Racks need to be customized for each bike, yes, but this rack would require way more changes than what’s reasonable.
Long review for something I never even go to try out, but I wanted anyone looking into the rack to be aware of the conflicting comments by Blackburn and the other…quirks.
I just ordered a Jandd Extreme rack since bags mount to it easily, as they should.
below are a few pics. The mounting arms are facing outward, which is an option, but I ended up rerouting them to point forward and parallel with the bike. As mentioned, mounting is legitimately very versatile...its just a useless rack.
