Originally Posted by
Eggman84
You keep talking about bar to wheel space, but all you need is about 1 inch between the bottom of the rack and the top of the tire. What you really need is space between the rack top and your handler drops. That is why the store want to "chop" your bars or convert to a flat bar. In the last picture, they could have just attached the rack to the handlebars but then the rack would have been very high, which would negatively effect the steering; the lower the load the less its going to effect the steering. I think you need to go to a different bike shop; in my opinion the one you've gone to has "their" solution, and haven't really thought out others. Spend more on a rack before changing bars (drop to flat conversions don't come cheap).
Thanks Karl, I think you are right that bar to wheel space doesn't matter too much. It's more a concern for how much stuff could be fit between the rack and the bars if I did manage to wedge the rack in there.
On your main point, the handlebar extender was my solution to trying to create space between the rack top and handler drops. The biggest issue is my brakes and the bar drops, so you are right there. It was looking like the extender would give me 2.5" in any direction, I thought somewhere between straight down and a little forward could open up the space I need (similar to the picture) without interfering with my brakes, but maybe that's just not going to keep it secure to have two connection points.