I have one. It's fine for what it is. I don't have any complaints. The best use for a beam rack is if you only need to carry stuff on your bike occasionally and want to be able to install and remove the rack easily or you don't have rack bosses on your frame and don't want to put clamps on your seat-stays. They are only rated for 20 pounds, so I guess you could use it for credit card touring on a bike that can't be easily fitted with a regular rack. I expect the weld failures are from people who overloaded the rack.