Tortec ultralite rear rack
 

I just recently added a tortec ultralite rack to my bike. I want to post a bit about it because I had a hard time finding pictures, or much information about it previous to my purchase. It's probably difficult because it does not seem to be widely available in the US. I purchased mine from Wiggle for a little more than 30 dollars. Shipping would have been a real killer, but it's free if you spend 85 dollars (which I did).

The Good:
I realize it's probably not touring strong, but it does seem to be a very good commuter rack. It's cheap, simple and relatively light. The hardware is stainless steel.

The Bad:
I had some issues with the seat stay mounts. They want to bend and attach on the outside, unfortunately my bolts are on the inside of the seat stays. I had to reverse them and flip them upside down to make it fit. It's solid as is but the hardware is difficult to access.

There is nothing at the bottom of the rack to hook my panniers to. I used long M5 bolts that stick out far enough to hook to. (thanks to grim for that tip)

Hopefully this is helpful. Here are some detail pictures for anyone interested:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7159/6...55bf8378_b.jpg


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6...0491ba7d_z.jpghttp://farm8.staticflickr.com/7170/6...a19cd9fb_z.jpg


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7010/6...799580fd_z.jpghttp://farm8.staticflickr.com/7173/6...d4fe3f75_z.jpg


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7032/6...ccf53bf8_z.jpghttp://farm8.staticflickr.com/7009/6...39866729_z.jpg

Lovely Mercian too! King Tour?

Rick / OCRR
'86 Mercian Vincitore

Beautiful bike! How do you keep it so clean?

The Tortecs are okay racks. I have the same one (but in black) on my crosscheck. I don't use panniers on mine since it lacks anything to hook onto on the bottom, but it's perfect for a trunk bag. For the seat stay attachments, what happens if you flip them so the part that attaches to the rack is more horizontal? That's how I have mine, but then again, I'm using the lower/further braze-on in the back where you have your fenders mounted, which gives the rack attachments more room. In your case, the fenders are so beautifully aligned, that I wouldn't move them.

Thank you. My bike just recently got a mini-makeover and I cleaned the whole bike during the process. The wheels, tires, cassette, brakes, chain and rack are new.... installed the day I took the pictures. I figured it was a good time to take a picture, before I ride in rain and gunk it up.

Anyway, I was pretty excited about the rack. Initially I was considering either a blackburn or maybe a Tubus. I weighed my panniers two days and got 12 and 15lbs. I figured a tubus was overkill for my use. The blackburn racks are pretty affordable, but the tortec price was even better. I just wish they were more available in the US. We'll see how it holds up I guess. I did consider moving the rack to the other eyelets but I haven't had the time lately.

Thanks. Yes, its a 2002 KOM

That is a really sweet bike, I too was wondering why it's so clean... The rack looks great but no hooks points on the bottom seems like an egregious oversight on the part of the designer.

This is why it's so clean.

The rack is clean-looking, but like many racks these days, it could do with some lateral triangulation to resist sideways flex. It also sits awfully high over the wheel. With a 12-pound load, it shouldn't be a big issue, though.