So I just built up this Schwinn ATB because I felt that I needed another touring bike that I wasn't going to tour with. lol. In all seriousness, it's on city/gravel duty, might do a dirt tour one day , I'm hoping to put my LHT to it's intended purpose a little this summer.

ANYWAY.

I'd like to put a front rack on this puppy, and was thinking of going for something like the Pass Hunter from VO



But it's damn pricey. There is also the other end of the spectrum, the platform rack from Nashbar, but it's so damn ugly.



So do you guys have any suggestions of sources for something along these lines with a decent price? Or any vintage ones I could keep an eye open for?

Thanks

Not half as ugly as that stem.

It's an ATB commuter tourer, I needed a high rise stem and this fit the bill. I don't think it looks bad

the Nashbar one is made by sunlite and comes in silver too. It's a great cheap rack. There are no beauty contests on dirt roads

I like my Jannd Extreme front rack but you'll probably find it ugly and more than you want both in terms of price and function.

I just ordered the VO rack for my own bike, but I haven't gotten it yet. I also have one of those Nashbar racks in my pile of parts. It works just fine, but it's definitely not pretty. Of course, if you plan on having a bag attached you'll hardly even see it.

MEC is your friend...for $13 it will make that stem look a lot (somewhat) better!

I wonder if you could mod a old TA.

I run the VO Hunter Pass rack and like it very much. One suggestion: if you plan to use a loaded front bag, consider the option with the integrated decaleur. I wish I had done so myself and wound up constructing an integrated unit so that I didn't have to stabilize the bag with a handle or stem mounted decaleur. I've also used that Performance Bike front rack on a mountain bike to build up an offroad tourer and it worked pretty well. A friend of mine has one of those on a bike and - this true - he carried a large microwave oven on the rack. I never did anything quite so crazy but it handled loads well, just didn't have the same sort of additional braze-ons as the VO rack.

My brother used to have the small Nitto rack (similar to the VO) on his Long Haul Trucker, and he could sit on it. I mean, obviously that's not something you'd want to make a habit of, but for showing off it was pretty impressive.

I think I'm going to go with the MEC front rack for the sake of flexibility and price.

Thanks for all the opinions guys.

Uglier but heftier than the Mec is the Blackburn MTF. Rated for around 25lbs but will handle a bit more.