We've used one quite a bit on my wife's 50 cm compact frame road bike. I made the panniers with a lot of taper to reduce heel strike. It should not cause any damage. The issue we had was the small frame.

The red bike in the front is one of our daughters riding it. Can you guess why we called this the Teal Trio Tour?
Both daughters are riding LHTs now


Not a good picture due to the amount of enlargement, but it gives you an idea of it how it looks.


Rack unloaded.