Rear Touring Rack
 

Anyone know where I can get a simple rear rack like this (with the two rods for mounting to the seat stays)? See picture...

I look around on-line and the racks are super heavy duty (and expensive).

Thanks,
David

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=344198

Planet Bike Eco Rack
Blackburn Design XR-1, MTN-2 and others

Take a look at the Axiom Streamliner Deluxe for 700C. Surprisingly lightweight, ally tube construction. $35ish on fleabay.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=344199

A used one will probably cost $30 on the eBay.

Be careful in ordering the Blackburn ones with the "non-adjustable" stays- they're designed for bikes with specific angles and braze points. If you get the wrong size/angle your bike looks like this:

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/5910/2h6.JPG


I think those racks were OEM for a specific bike. The Racks that have the adjustable stays were probably the aftermarket racks.

Just my guess.

My all time favorite rack is still the old Pletscher mousetrap, which I have on my Peugeot.

Whenever I use the Blackburn MTN rack on my Schwinn (mounted with adapter clamps on the seat stays, since the bike has no mudguard/rack lugs on the dropouts), I miss the mousetrap feature on the Pletscher.

Avoid the new Blackburns with two struts instead of the usual three. They are too flimsy to be of any use.

I feel the same way about the Pletscher above.

Yes, I've tried both of them.

+1

The Pletscher is a great rack if you aren't carrying much as they lack lateral stiffness and a proper touring rack will usually have triple stays to provide better support and add stiffness, especially if they are made of aluminium.

MEC in Canada offers a rather decent, triple stay rack that sells for $15.00... these will handle light to medium loads and for heavily loaded touring one would want something better.

Steel is a different animal... it does not suffer from the same fatigue issues that aluminium does and because of tubing dynamics a steel rack is not going to weigh much more and can often weigh less than a comparable aluminium rack because the tubes can be thinner and lighter for the same diameter. The Filzer rack that came off my Pugsley weighed 200 grams more than the rack I built and was flimsy in comparison.

One caveat is that a really nice steel rack will probably cost quite a bit more than an aluminium one... many are custom made and many of the mass produced ones tend to be of very poor quality which is true for many things.

That is a design feature to level loads on climbs... :)

"Load Leveling" it's a feature!

Thanks!