Your thoughts on seat rack
 

Am thinking to get a seat post rack.
Kinda like this...
http://www.performancebike.com/image...-BLK-ANGLE.jpg

But not sure if it will fit a pannier. I guess I can bungee cord on the top.
Anyone use these type of racks?

btw, did I mention I got a new commuter bike over Christmas? :D :love:

I started out with one but have since replaced it. I could never get it tight enough. If I put any weight on it at all it would twist on the post. Not good for the spokes or my laptop.

Probably not a good idea with panniers. Usually panniers connect at the top of the rack and also at the bottom by the braze-ons to secure them. Without the bottom mount, they could sway and fall off. If you were close to me, I would give you mine with trunk bag for super cheap. I used it once and took it off cause I prefer a backpack.

I'm thinking I need something like that on my road bike, myself. That's definitely not for use with panniers, only trunk bags. Seems like I've seen some with side triangles that would work fine with small panniers.

Just curious as to why not a standard rack? Is your commute bike full suspension? Or were you wanting something easier to remove when not needed, perhaps?

The Topeak beam racks are specially made for Topeak panniers. Think they would work...

Though you might want a regular rack on the bike. There's a bunch of hardware around to make sure it will fit, or you could do some DIY.

What's the reason you are opting for a beam rack?

I have a similar rack but didn't like it after trying a few times. It is higher than a regular rack, so with a truck bag the weight is centered much higher and affects handling. A much better option is to use a large seatbag such as the Carradice Barley or Pendle, or the Acorn large bag. All of those bags hold just as much (or more) gear than a typical trunk bag, but they center the weight much better so they have little affect on handling. Carradice and other sources (such as Velo-orange.com and Rivendell) sell special racks that support large seat bags, which is needed with some frames. Here's a photo of my Barley and the seat rack.

They make seatpost racks with pannier brackets. I have two of the plain type the OP shows, one with regular bolts for the clamp and one with a quick-release clamp, and one (regular bolts) with pannier brackets. Do not like any of them. They all twist too easily with any load, especially the pannier one, and the max load is very limited (like 20-25#). The only reason to use it is if I want to carry about a rack trunk's worth of stuff and not mess with or can't use a regular rack and p-clips; I did this a few years ago when my wife and I did a supported bike tour - other than water, I carried the gear for the day for both of us on my road bike with a rack trunk. My road bike now has a carbon seat post, so any seat post clamp is out unless I switch posts. Tarwheel's suggestion looks very nice and is what I would look into if I wanted to spend the $$.

A potential problem with seat post racks (and maybe a Carradice or similar) is if you have a small bike frame and not much exposed seat post - there may not be enough vertical space for the rack or bag to clear the rear wheel.

For a commuter, (or touring on a road bike, for that matter), I would get a consider a real rack (lighter, stronger, and cheaper) and p-clips, or a rack that uses the brake attachment, rather than a seat-post mount. The exception may be for carbon frames where compressing the seat stays is a bad idea. One of the guides on the trip my wife and I took had a very nice (Topeak?) beam rack and trunk combo for her also very nice bike she was riding.

I've used this one for awhile, though it's now been 'retired' in favour of a "real" rack
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_oh_product
it will carry panniers no problem, but as others have stated here, the weight it can carry is only around 25Lbs.

I had pretty much the one in the pic for a while (no seat-stay attachments for a normal rack) except mine had the lower triangles for pannier mounts.

I would say 25lbs weight limit (in a pannier) is generous - I put less than that on one side and felt like the thing was going to twist into my spokes.

If you're going to run panniers I'd get an honest-to-goodness rear rack. Don't half do it - you'll be more annoyed than happy.
If you have no upper attachments and thus can't mount a normal rack, get a rack that attaches to your brake bolts - Old Man Mountain (if you got cantilevers) or one of the Tubus offerings (if you got calipers).

If you're just going to toss 10lbs of stuff on the back in a bag and bungee it, then what you're thinking of will probably work just fine.

The reason I am looking at seat post rack is because my road bike doesn't have the braze-ons for mounting the "Legs" of a regular rack. I would so love it to re-use my old Blackburn rack. But without the braze-on, I don't know how to attach it. Any ideas would be most welcome!

I had a seatpost rack for carrying a change of clothes. It worked fine for that. Never tried panniers on it. One night, my friend asked me to get a case of beer for a party he was having. I tossed it on the rack and slowly made my way to his house. It was bouncing around a bit, but seemed fine. I rode off a curb and the weight twisted the seatpost within the seattube a full 90 degrees. Suddenly I had 20lbs of beer and rack hanging a foot to the right and a sideways saddle. That was pretty exciting few seconds. Understand the limitations of the rack and you will be fine.

There are several brands of racks that will allow you to attach a rack to a frame without mounting points. You can also use P-clamps or come up with something else. Check out the Axiom racks and http://www.thetouringstore.com/TUBUS...ONS%20PAGE.htm

Do you have a rear suspension? Those seatpost mounted racks are trouble. I could never get it tight enough, they move, they can't carry any real weight. They can be dangerous with panniers IMHO. Get regular rack if you can. Even if you have rear suspension there may be a way to install a regular rack. I think I actually saw pictures of that on BF. Or just get one of those oversized wedgie saddle bags.

Edit: Oh, never mind, I just saw your follow up post about the lack of brazeons. There is extra hardware for that too, I'm sure. However, that also makes me think that your bike rear triangle may not be designed to carry extra weight in a form of panniers. I'd double check if I were you.

A.

It might be helpful if you just tell us what kind of bike you're trying to mount the rack to...maybe even throw some pictures our way of what you have to work with in the way of brazeons(or not)

P-clips - good for upper braze-ons or lower eyelets
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/images/torte...clips%2006.jpg

OR even better, if your bike can take one and if upper braze-ons are what you need:

Seat post clamp with rack mounts

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/images/mpart%20spt102.jpg

Yes, nowadays there are several rack options available for a rack without braze-ons. I created this thread about it sometime back so I could link to it -
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...70#post8344070

Basically, this is the cheapest rack available - the Axiom Streamliner -
http://www.eriksbikeshop.com/ride/pr...ffset=2&s_id=0

Every Tubus rack and can take a Tubus quick release adapter, though they tend to be more expensive. A couple, like the Tubus Fly, are specifically designed to be put on a bike without rack mounts. Old Man Mountain also makes a rack or two designed for a bike without mounts. More details are in the thread.

I would definitely suggest one of these racks over a clamp-on rack.

If you want to use a seat post rack with panniers, you'd have to get one with lower triangles or else fashion them from a wire hanger to keep them away from your rear wheel. They are hard to secure tightly to the seatpost without a ton of rubber shims and even then, they can still be spun a bit. They're really designed for full suspension bikes and are more suited for bungieing things on top.

Use P-clips for attachment points for the legs of a regular rack for panniers on your road bike and you'll be better off.


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But NOT if you have carbon fiber seat stays, fyi.

don't like them because mine would spin my seat post - including the seat and me with it when it was loaded up. it eventually worked fine for years but i had to make vertical stays to keep it in place. BTW: this little front rack is attached using P-clamps.

I have a full suspension bike for dirt. No choice but to use a post mounted rack. It had a Topeak MTX bag with side pannier and the rack had sides on it. Yes, it rotated around in circle rubbing the spoke singing the tune of "clink", "clink", "clink". One of my friend solved that problem. He first wrapped fiction tape on the post where the rack clamped on it. He then got me some round thingy thing called split ring. I believed he had to "bored" the hole slightly so that it was a good fit around the post (or something like that). He then welded some metal on the ring that was long enough to touch the neck of the rack arm that has the clamp. These arm prevented the rack from twisting. Those split ring was bolted right below the rack clamp. The set up allowed me the convience of removing the rack when I do downhill runs. There were trade off in this set up. It made the bike heavier but that did not matter when it was a FS mtn bike that's already heavy.

You know what guys.... YOU ARE ALL FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!! :thumb:

Those clamps would be perfect! I found these at my local MEC store.

Would these work?

http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_d...=1262206574913

I have been using a Topeak Beam Rack for several months now with one of the Topeak rack bags. It seems like carrying anything over 3 or 4 pounds will cause it to slowly shift. Not a lot but enough to bug me. I have it clamped down as far as it will possibly go. As mentioned earlier, you can buy the optional pannier holders but in my experience I wouldn't try it.

This week I ordered a Topeak Explorer rack because I need to carry more without the worry of shifting and want the option of panniers. The beam rack is going on the mountain bike. I really like the Topeak rail system and recommend it. Here's my beam rack:

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...DSCF4556-1.jpg

Yep, those would do the trick. However, as stated above, I'd hesitate to use these on carbon tubes.

^ nah, it's not carbon frame. Just the fork is carbon. Few more questions...

- Can I not attach the upper rack arms to the existing seat post clamp?
- How secure are these P-clips? 25lbs weight? 40lbs weight?

thanks!

there's an accessory mounting kit just for that - it goes around the seatpost separately from the seatpost clamp

Actually, Old Man Mountain makes racks just for full squish bikes. Take a look at the Sherpa Gallery to see just how versatile these racks are.