Here's what I did at work this morning, instead of earn a living:


Pletscher racks are cool: strong, simple, well-designed and cheap. They have two flaws. The rat-trap thingy is heavy & useless, and their seat stay clamp is responsible for almost as much frame disfigurement as kickstands. I removed the spring-loaded part and got rid of the clamp, bolting the rack to the brake pivots instead.

I modified an old MAFAC brake bridge by cutting off the pivots & drilling the out spring bosses. The Pletscher rack needed two reliefs cut to clear the offset part of the bridge: after that it was a straightforward drill-&-bolt job. The rack's legs were also shortened a bit to get the angle right and to get the rack as low as practical. If I were to carry a lot of weight, I'd add a second leg forward of the first to reduce bending loads on the brake.

Now that's a nice job!

+1. Very clever and neat-looking mount, Michael!

That's spectacular. Love it. On a Frejus?

Yup. '62 TdF. Got rid of the original miserable Balillas & put on MAFACs. Huge difference!

i'm taking the design to china, getting it mass produced then i'm gonna sell them all over the North America and the world and i'm gonna make millions..

j/k... it's really nice, great work! keeps everything clean and smooth