Jeep_Bike_Teach

I have a '05 LeMond Sarthe that I am going to start to commute to work on in the fall. I need a rear rack to attach my panniers to. My bike does not have the eyelets (I'm sure there is a technical term) for me to attach a rack to. I thought I found a rack (Topeak) that would work which attaches to the seat post. However, the instructions say that it is not designed nor recommended to be used with a carbon fiber seat post. Does anyone know of a rack that I can/should use?

Of course, I live in the rainy PNW - so fenders are the next item to add after a rack. So, if you know if the rack is compatible with fenders, that would be terrific!

moxfyre

Hmm... carbon fiber seat post and no eyelets, not even on the dropouts? It's a steel bike, so you *COULD* braze eyelets onto the frame, but probably not what you had in mind If you have eyelets on the dropouts but not on the seat stays, that's no biggie. A pair of 1/4" rubber-coated electrical clamps from Home Depot will hold a rack securely to your seat stays.

I know that you can use those seatpost beam racks on bikes without eyelets, but I've never seen a fender that can be attached to a bike without eyelets on the dropouts. Also, sport-oriented road bikes such as yours usually don't have much clearance between the rear wheel and the seat tube. This is usually a problem for adding fenders, and prevents you from using wider tires as well.

Hate to say it, but yours might not be the best bike for commuting (assuming it's got stock components). Even if you can attach a suitable rack, you're gonna have a hard time with fenders and wide tires. If you have a double crank, you'll miss that granny gear after a hard day of work, when you're carrying the extra weight of your pack. Also, low spoke count wheels are just a bad idea for commuting: you're apt to suffer from a broken spokes with anything less than 32 spoke wheels.

I commute on a steel touring bike, an 80s model. That's probably the optimal road bike for commuting, in my opinion. Weights about 25 pounds unloaded, but quite solid, comfy, handles well on rough streets. Used touring-style bikes from the 80s can be had real cheap these days.

georgiaboy

You will need to purchase a rack than can be attached to the seatstays, like this one:

Old Man Mountain Rack - WhiteRock



https://www.arkel-od.com/racks/whiteR...asp?fl=1&site=

Axiom and Blackburn also make similar racks with seatstay compatibility.





You made need some p clips from the hardware store. Try to get them rubber coated.



If not, you can cut strips of rubber from and old inner tube to buffer the p clip and frame.

khuon

I have the Topeak QR Beam rack. I'm not sure if that's the one you're referring to but it sounds like it. And while I like the rack for light loads on short jaunts around town... especially on my full suspension mountain bike, I would be VERY reluctant to place anything over 10 lbs. on it and would never even consider putting panniers on it. Since there's no real lateral support, the risk of it swinging about and introducing something hanging off the sides into my wheels and spokes is just too great. Also, I would not recommended it for any kind of distance riding nor offroad riding.

If you have eyelets in the dropouts then life gets much simpler and you can make use of P-clamps for the seatstays. My old MTB had rack eyelets on the dropouts but nothing up higher on the seatstays. I ended up using the clamps for a bit but couldn't get things to fit exactly right. My final solution was to bend the mounting tabs on my Blackburn MTN-1 rack and attach them to my seatpost clamp's binder bolt.

However, if you are sans dropout eyelets you might try some of these hub-mounted options...

https://www.oldmanmountain.com/rear_rack_page.htm




Tubus also has a similar bracket that you can get without the rack but I think it still only works with Tubus racks.

https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/tubus_racks.asp

Allen

I'm using a Tubus Fly Rack. It attaches to the brake boss and I'm attaching it to he seat stays with p-clips.
Pic of brake attachment
Pic of seat stay attachment

--A

chocula

I bought some last night at Home Despot. Got the pair for $1.22. Worked like a charm.

ncscott

It depends on how much of a dork you want to look like, but hey, this is an option...
https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23...wing/rack1.jpg
Why not just replace the seat post with an aluminum one? You can get fenders that attach to the seat stays and fork arms.
Scott