Old 05-16-19, 12:53 PM
  #16  
joshtee
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Originally Posted by seeker333
The "hitting the down tube problem" is not much of a problem. When the rack is installed properly, it will limit the steering wheel turn radius to ~ +/-75 degrees, like in this picture:



This image came from an Amazon review, which is where I'm where I'm guessing you got the information.

My JandD rack shipped with no hardware, which is how I believe all of them used to ship, so I had to improvise, and I ended up with a fit like the one in the photo above. To me this is not a problem, since I never turn the wheel that sharp when loaded and riding. Actually, my bike/steering was more limited by toe overlap plus simply balancing the bike in such a sharp, low speed. Anything more than 30 degrees is unlikely to occur except when you're trying to make a U turn in a narrow 2 lane road.

Racks (and fenders) are rarely a simple "bolt on with original hardware in 3 minutes" kind of job. They almost always require a little resourcefulness, a trip to the hardware store, filing/cutting/sanding, etc. With racks, the problem mostly lies in the fact that there is no universal standard for the location of mounting points on the dropouts and fork. Plus no standard for fork rake, axle-to-crown-distance, etc. Some bikes+racks (or fenders) are better combinations than others. Surly Truckers and Tubus go to together almost perfectly in the rear, but less so in front.

You may have fewer issues WRT downtube interference with the Tubus Grand Expedition (TGE) since it lacks the upper rearwards rod section of the JandD Extreme rack - but it appears to cost more. I cannot find any TGE in stock anywhere - one Euro shop quotes 10 week delivery. You may not be able to purchase a TGE at good price until Fall or Winter. The JandD has low, medium and high mounting rails, while TGE has only low and high rails.

Probably the smarter, simpler, lighter, cheaper solution is to reduce your gear/load so that only small "front" bags are required with a good lowrider rack - Tubus Tara or Duo.
Thanks for the info.

I actually read about the 'hitting down tube problem' from multiple places including a few from here on this forum. In the Amazon example, the person had to basically fab his own bracket to get it to have the clearance shown in the photo you posted. His first photo shows the frame hitting issue. I am not against making my own brackets, but if I don't have to, I'd rather buy something that does not need me to do so.

I definitely would like to have a rack with the mounting options of the Jandd. I'm pretty sure I'd be using the medium or high mounting points, mostly.
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