inbetweener racks?
 

So I'm rack/bag shopping for my commuter. I have a rack I got off nashbar (supposed to be the "expedition" rack) that lasted about 4 months daily loading with about 10 pounds of goods. Obviously, I need something a little beefier, since next year I plan on carrying about 30 pounds of goods daily, and possibly doing some fully-loaded touring. I was hoping to avoid purchasing touring-quality racks at this point, but there doesn't seem to be anything between $20 and $90 in the way of racks. I suppose I'll just go for the good stuff, and probably pick up a Tubus or Surly in the next couple weeks, but that leaves my pannier funds pretty short. I'm also a little worried that my commuter doesn't have all (only most) of the necessary eyelets to mount a good rack, which means a new frame is in the picture, too. Anyone else looking at a spaghetti-and-margarine spring?

I suppose the upside is that I've finally been spotted in the community as the guy who's always wrenching bikes, and calls have started coming in for occasional paying repair jobs - and for some reason I never feel bad putting that money right back into my bike habit.

There's not really a question here, but if there was, it would be to ask if anyone had a recommendation for a rack that would get the job done reliably, without the wallet pain ofsomething like a Surly Nice Rack (which is what my LBS recommended to me - and where I'll probably buy my rack/bags since I want to be sure it all goes on right this time)?

My Topeak Explorer rack has thus far lasted just fine but I've only had it for about 3 months though.

I am very happy with my Radical Explorack which cost about $45 Cdn. This from Nashbar ($20) has a similar strut arrangement which stops bags swinging into the wheel during sudden swerves.

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...All%20Products

If you have fenders, bend the fender struts so you can fit them outside the rack struts.

I give the Explorer rack the thumbs up as well.

I've got the Explorer on my commuter as well and it serves me well with my daily load, Arkel Briefcase loaded w/laptop, lunch, sometimes a blazer, and other random stuff. I've got an MTX trunk bag... but rarely use the bag for commuting. My Explorer rack has the tell-tale signs of my Arkel Briefcase's mounting system.

It's a good rack for my everyday commuting use and I've used it on some loaded tours well.

For more serious touring or other loads I'd probably consider Tubus or something, but the Explorer has suited me well so far.

The Jandd Expedition is a nice and strong rack. It also costs about half of the Surly, which in my opinion is way overpriced for a Taiwanese rack. OTOH, I really like my Tubus racks. My wife now uses the Expedition.

http://www.jandd.com/ProdImages/Rack...ditionRack.jpg

http://www.jandd.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=FREXP

I got a delta rack and delta water proof panniers from REI. Total cost was $130 for both rack and panniers. So far, no complaints.

My gf has that Jandd. It's very solid looking. Old Man Mountain and Tubus would be some others to look into.

I use the blackburn XR1-Crossrack. It carries my ~ 25 lbs of stuff and has managed 2+ years of abuse.

http://www.bikepro.com/products/racks/black_racks.html

+1 on the Jandd Expedition.

I love mine. It's so sturdy that it eliminated the engineered-in rear-triangle flex in my frame. The bike rides a little rougher now, but on the other hand, the rack just laughs at loads the exceed its rated capacity.

I've been using a Blackburn mountain rack for 9+ years now, tens of thousands of miles of commuting and some loaded touring, with some pretty heavy loads. It was about $25 new, about $35 now. No complaints, although the aluminum is starting to abrade at the pannier attachment points.

I'm using a Delta Mega Rack Universal that I picked up for $30 ... it carries about 10 lbs day in, day out, every time I'm on the bike, and 50-80 lbs of groceries twice a week. I put it on the beginning of June, and have put over 4,000 miles on the bike since then with no issues. Just my two cents. :)

+1 on the Jadd Expedition Rack.. I got it because of its extra length to position my panniers further back on the rack to prevent my heel from hitting the panniers. I have it on my road bike w/o eyelets ( I use a quick release mounting system; not the best solution but it allows me to mount a rack on my bike!). Its beefy but it is also 2.24 lbs!.

The key feature of Blackburn style racks are the rear stays that are angled inwards to provide extra triangulation. This makes the rack very stiff and strong.
I have a genuine Blackburn expedition and a cheap clone but both are effective. My clone gets far more use.
Another useful feature is a rear LED lamp bracket at the rear of the rack.

The Delta has a rear mount for a light or reflector, as well. The only thing it doesn't have is the extra rear supports that help keep stuff out of the wheel. If you're using decent panniers, it's not a problem at all, but if you try to use other stuff, you could have some problems. Like my soft sided cooler I strapped to the side of the rack.. it was fine until I tried to ride with the cooler totally empty except a full bottle of water in the bottle holder... the bottle ended up in between the rack and the tire.

Hrmm .... maybe this rack? I'd try it!

http://www.amazon.com/Sunlite-Alloy-...633313-8741461

My Old Man Mountain Red Rock is rated to 60 lbs. It's pretty new though, so I can't tell you how long it lasts. It's close to the top of your price range also. I got mine along with Arkel's Bug which is great. It's a pannier that converts to a backpack. Anyway the rack works fine with it and my Arkel Tailrider.

Corrected: I thought I'd owned the Mega Rack Universal, but it was the Mega Rack DiskRack instead. Why do they use "Mega Rack" in the name of very rack they sell? Edited this post to make the correction.

I replaced my Mega Rack Diskrack with the Jandd Expedition because the single leg of the Diskrack let the corners of my grocery panniers swing into the spokes when loaded, resulting in broken spokes and damaged panniers. I'd recommend the Diskrack only for carrying stuff on top of it. It is not a pannier-friendly (or spoke-friendly) rack.

I have this rack. It has performed well for me. It's rock solid on the bike..doesn't sway. I've not toured with it but have had the one pannier I use to commute full-I'd guess maybe 30 + pounds. The rack design keeps the pannier from sagging into the wheel too.

Love the Jandd Expedition: tough, relatively light for its size, and I think about three inches longer than a typical rack. The only rack I've found that gives me enough heel clearance to roll with a briefcase-style pannier. Haven't done any heavy touring with it (nothing more than Chicago-Milwaukee-Chicago), but it's handled my daily commute as well as countless shopping trips flawlessly over the past 3.5 years.Couldn't recommend it more highly.

Most every pannier I've ever used had stiffeners to keep the load in place. The Delta really isn't that different from the old Blackburn and I've ridden many, many miles on those without problem. I'm not saying that you didn't have a problem but it might be a pannier problem and not a rack problem.

For inexpensive quality racks, the OMM White Rock is a good value too.

I have two of these and have loaded them WAY over the 25lb limit that this website states. Plus, I got them for $20 each at the LBS. I have one on the front and one on the back of my commuter and have had no problems with the racks.

http://www.bicyclebuys.com/Items01.a...KU=0114541PART

Pic of my bike with the racks:
http://rykoala.org/ryko/rockhopper/drops/rightside.jpg

They are different colors because I bought them at different times. Also the drop bars only lasted 2 commutes. I'm back to flatties with bar ends. MUCH more comfy. (let the flame war begin lol)

EDIT: They are not made to fit on the front of the bike like that. I made my own bracket.

A few things about the OMM White Rock racks. I have them on two of my bikes, including my daily commuter which has seen about 6000 miles of use.

Plusses: extremely lightweight, rated to 40 lbs. but I've hung 30 lbs. off one side with nothing on the other and it was rock solid, solid platform over rear tire (nice to have on a road bike without clearance for fenders), great customer service (sent me spacers and p-clips for free to get the rack to fit my road bike)

Minuses: no mount for taillight (I fabricated my own)

Neutral: will only mount to brake bosses for canti's or V's or with p-clips. I was able to make extensions to the mounting arms to allow me to mount the rack to traditional rack braze-ons before I got the p-clips (I had planned a long ride using the road bike and was swapping the rack from the commuter to the road bike the night before when I realized the arms were not long enough. this was before the second rack purchase). Basically, if you have brake bosses, you are set, otherwise you may be disappointed with the mounting options. My extensions did hold up with 20 lbs. or so mounted to the rack over the 200 miles of riding that weekend but they looked godawful.

My bad.

I owned the Delta Diskrack, not the Mega Rack Universal. So my remarks as to usability for panniers should refer to the Diskrack, not the Mega Rack Universal. Edited the previous post correcting my mistake.

It was certainly a combo-platter of problems between the Diskrack and the Nashbar grocery panniers. The panniers are certainly serviceable but are by no means a model of structural rigidity. Other open-top grocery panniers at my LBS were better, but with sides designed to fold and no structure on top, I felt they were still likely to befall the same fate, especially when loaded with gallons of milk, sacks of potatoes and onions or canned goods.

For $90 I could have tried different panniers, or for $65 I could get a rack designed to keep panniers out of the spokes (and off my heels). I went with the rack. Still use the same panniers. Happy with the combination.

I too have this rack. Just over 2 years old and I've used it to haul all kinds of stuff along with my panniers.

Had me wondering for a minute there! I load up to 30 lbs in each grocery pannier, and have never had a problem with it going into the spokes, despite the panniers being as far back as possible on the rack.

The cooler that went into the spokes was a soft-side cooler that I picked up for $5 from Family dollar... the panniers never even came close to the spokes. It has 3 supports, one straight, and two angled... just doesn't have the extra part that some expedition style racks do that extends back and down.

I would certainly agree that the Disc Rack would not be good with panniers of any kind. It's a good rack for top loads only. Certainly more stable than the seatpost mounted rack but only for trunk bags. The Universal is a good cheap rack that's adjustable which is a nice feature for smaller riders (I have a whole herd of them at home...racks and small riders). Maybe not up to the quality of more expensive racks but very serviceable for the price.

Are OMM racks still made in the States?

Both ones I have say made in the US (Santa Barbara if I recall correctly).

http://bgcycles.com/racks.html If you want to see an over-the-top rack. Definately out of the price range you gave us.

Thanks, I bought one of each.

Does anyone have any food they can send me? I can't pay for postage, but I can bum a prepaid postcard off a friend and write a very nice thank you note... :p

Those are definitely something to reach for. Thanks for all your help, guys.

+1 on the Topeak Explorer, at least for heavy-duty grocery haulage.