Sloping Rear Rack - Any advice?
 

I just recently got a rear rack for my commuter bike. I have a slightly older Fuji Crosstown (I think it's a 2006), and I got a Transit rear rack with panniers. I've just installed it and it tips forward a bit - the end that's near the seat post is lower than the back end. I've tried looking online to see if this is a common problem (not much luck), or if I somehow managed to get an incompatible rack. I don't think so, though - I think the issue isn't the rack, but rather where the holes are on my bike frame.

Is this an problem with hybrid frames? Is my best bet to just bend the metal pieces that attach the rack to the rear fork so that it's not so titled?

Yes, bend the metal pieces that connect the rack to the seat stays. Most racks need some sort of adjustment to be fitted perfectly to many bikes - a consequence of manufacturing accessories when there's no standard for where they'll end up being used. My Nitto and Tubus racks are much easier to adjust, as you can adjust the angle of the connecting rods - though obviously you pay a premium for that.

Awesome, thanks! The metal pieces don't look like they'll be too hard to bend a bit. Will it affect how much weight the rack can bear?

Bending the mounting spurs is usually the prescribed action, but I have to tell you, even my cheapie Planet Bike Ecorack had multiple placement positions for the spurs which allowed you to gain optimal leveling. You may want to look under the rack and see if you can unbolt the brackets and slide them forward.

Yeah, I've done that. I adjusted them as much as I could and that helped, but it looks like I still need to bend them just a bit. I wonder if it's exacerbated by the fact that I'm short, so I have large tires on a small bike frame!

that will be typical of a smaller frame on a large wheel bike, the rack will slope forward using the mounting brackets that come with the rack. the same happens with my wife's bike and the rack. to compensate for the lower point of the mounts, i have another set of longer extenders. i bought a generic set from MEC and those make the rack on my wife's bike level.
http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_d...34374302693083

Oh, awesome! I'll see if my bike shop has them, but they're affordable at that link if not. I appreciate the tip!

I had to tweak these to the extreme to get a rack on this little Univega, and it still wasn't completely level. It worked fine though...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-M...ega_606-11.jpg

Ha! Now that is impressive! :-) Mine won't take such an extreme tweaking, lucky for me!

If your LBS is like mine there is a Bin of extra rack struts , longer ones .. there..

I haven't seen it, but I also haven't looked specifically! I'll check it out.

i get this sloping on my rear rack as well and it was installed by a bike shop, waste of money that was, where can i purchase one of these extenders? i live in UK?

+1 I ask at the LBS and usually get them for free.

I wanted my rack mounted as far back and as low as possible The space between the fender and the rack is not very usable and when mounting panniers a little extra heel room was good in my case. Doing this also leveled the rack without much bending of the brackets in the front. I bent the lower mounting point forward and I haven’t noticed any loss in strength in doing this.

http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/47...600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb50.webshots.com/48...600x600Q85.jpg