I put this TA rack on my '71 Super Course in about '77, been on there ever since.


I modified it to fit the Weinmann brake, and added the headlight support. Which I'd do differently today, to allow a longer fender, but that's how long the fender was, I didn't shorten it to clear the headlight...

Anyway the main thing I wanted to say is how badly I've overloaded it. Many 6-packs but also a few 12-packs. Full grocery bags including canned and bottled, stuff, whatever that weighs. When I was poor in my 20s, lots of trips to the laudromat with all my clothes in a duffle, sitting on that rack.

Being aware of how that's all cantilevered off one 6 mm bolt, and being less immortal, more breakable now than I was in my 20s, I limit it to light loads these days.

Maybe a Weinmann bolt is stronger than a Mafac bolt? Swiss steel > French? Either way I don't recommend overloading one of these racks (without brazed-on brake pivots), because the stakes are too high if it breaks.

EDIT: the green bungie in the pic is not there to help hold the rack up. Well I supposed it does, a tiny amount not worth mentioning, but it's purpose is to stabilize a bag of groceries. I use a canvas shopping bag with cloth handles that I drape over the back of the stem, where the handles naturally hook and stay put due to the shape of the stem. Not a highly-evolved cargo system, just a low-effort, ad-hoc, git 'er done kinda thing. I should have taken the bungie off for the photo, it's a distraction from the main focus.

Mark B