Trouble with a rear rack
 

So I bought a new bike last week, a Salsa Casseroll. I need a rack for it so I ordered one online, a Civia Market/Hyland rack in silver. Well, I can't seem to get it on. The rack didn't really come with directions, soooo... Pictures are better than words, I guess.

http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0092.jpg
http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0093.jpg
http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMAG0094.jpg

Are those arm thingies supposed to bend? I have a Topeak rack for my winter bike and when I installed that one the arm things were bendable. But this rack is made of aluminum, and I don't think aluminum is supposed to bend...

I'm going to be pissed if I can't get this to work. That rack was 60 bucks and it doesn't say on Civia's website that their racks are only for their bikes

it looks to me like the upper stays rotate somehow. do these racks come in different sizes? maybe you need something different for that frame

Can's see a problem yet, as the rack hasn't been bolted in at the bottem. Would want to see it all aligned before you could see if there was an issue

For the arms, these look like a similar design to Tubus racks solid aluminium arms, which can be bent carefully, have you tried bending them yet? they may also need to be cut down, but that can be assertained till the rack is fitted.

The thing is, I can't have the rack bolted down at the eyelets until I have the stays clamped in the place I need them. There are screws that I can't reach that tighten around the stays that I need to rotate all the way up. When I first started to put the rack on, I did it at the eyelets first and I couldn't get the stays to reach the holes. :/

Bah, I'll go mess with it some more...

Edit: I tried to bend them, but I'm a little afraid that they'll break, or something... And the depsriction for the rack said that it was designed for 700c wheels, which they are.

Eyelets first, as that point is fixed, they stays have a lot of movement it there, still thinking some bending / cutting may be needed

It is not designed to bend. If you try to bend that stubby piece at the bottom you'll ruin the rack. Can't you 'trial & error' the fit with the adjustable 'stays' at the top? And those can be bent if needed. You should see how I butchered a Blacburn rack years ago putting it on my wife's Schwinn 'Mesa Runner'. I had to bend the whole mess at the bottom on both sides to get it to bolt up. Then she quit riding, but the Schwinn is still around.

It looks like the two arms that join to the bolts at the top of the seat stays each have two degrees of freedom:
1. sliding fore and aft
2. rotating the angle of the arm in the plane of the bicycle

This should enable you to get the eyes on the end of the arms to right where they bolt on to the seat stays.
I would suggest attaching the bottom part first to the dropouts, then loosen the bolts on the upper arms to allow easy adjustment on both degrees of freedom. That should allow you to manipulate the eyes to where they bolt on, by a combination of rotating and sliding, without having to bend the arms.
Alternatively, you could attach the upper arms firast (which you have done), then loosen both their sets of bolts to allow easy rotation and sliding, and use that freedom to manouvre the bottom eyes to where they bolt onto the dropouts.

If the upper arms don't have anything that can be loosened to allow them to rotate then there would seem to be no alternative to bending them, which doesn't look like what you're supposed to do.

I got it. I undid the stays and put the eyelets on, then I took a step back and realized that the rack sits reeeeally far back, farther back than the racks on my other bikes. Like, the stays are almost fully extended.

yaaaay

Edit: Holy crap this rack is awesome. I recommend this rack to anyone who has heel-strike issues. I have size 8 (womens) shoes, and I have probably a good 5 inches of clearance, a lot more than my other racks :3