Rear rack on racing frame and heel clearance - solution!
 

I've been browsing these forums for years and figured that now might be a good time to join. I wanted to post my solution to mounting a rear rack on a racing style frame and the problem of heel clearance. Story goes I wanted to convert my road bike that I hadn't ridden in years to a commuter. Step 1 was to convert to a flat bar - solved thanks to Shimano's flat bar set that's compatible with cantilever brakes and old ultegra 8-speed gearing. Strangely. Finding the shifters in the USA was tough and I had to order from Chain Reaction out of the UK. Regardless, they work great so far! Step 2 was installing the rack. The dropouts were drilled for fender mounting, so attaching the dropouts to the rack was a piece of cake. Installing the rack to the seat stay was a bit more challenging, but a couple of P-Clamps later it was installed and was rock solid. What I didn't anticipate was the heel clearance issue thanks to the shorter racing-inspired wheelbase. I looked online for solutions, but came up empty handed. I decided to fabricate my own solution out of flat steel bar that I wrapped in electrical tape and drilled 3 holes in them: rack mount, fender mount on dropouts and a p-clamp anchor on the chainstay. I now have plenty of clearance and the rack is so far rock solid. I think it turned out pretty great!

the Tubus Disco would also have "solved" this problem.

i don't know if you'd get as much hell strike clearance, but you def get more than with a normal rack, could you measure how far back you moved the axis?

http://www.tubus.com/product.php?xn=10

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=303334

also, FY(and others)I...

http://www.thetouringstore.com/TUBUS...ONS%20PAGE.htm

also, welcome to BF :D

Most panniers have a forward, aft adjustable mounting bracket. Hopefully, this will give you enough heel clearance. Another alternative, would be to install a front rack. Some can be fitted to the front axle if you don't have eyelets on the fork.

Nice improvision

The only caveat I see is that you have about twice the shear force on the eyelet screws.
That might be a problem with heavy loads. I wouldn't extend "the modification" any more rearward then absolutely necessary.
Keep the screws tight.

Up works as well as Back, seat post mounted cantilevered back, rack and side support loops will take a racktop bag
with extra 'spaniel' ears of space, on the side,
Or the British Solution, just get a Really Big Saddle bag.

For future reference, to easily convert a road bike to flat bar shifters and triple front with road sized chainrings, the only thing you really need to get is a FD-R443 front derailleur which is basically a mountain bike shifter compatible front derailleur with a larger cage designed for 50t larger chainrings.

*Any* standard Shimano mountain bike shifter set is compatible with the FD-R443. I just feel bad for anyone who pays a premium for the full "flat bar" R4xx series of parts especially the shifters when all you need is the front derailleur and any front mountain bike shifter set.

Neat idea on the rear rack mounts. Only thing I would worry about is the bike being nose light when parked and loaded heavily in the and falling over. Would that even be possible or would the load need to be much father back for that to be an issue?

A caveat for any solution that positions the rear pannier further back with respect to the rear axle is, heavy loads can be an issue for handling. For heavy loads & heel-strike clearance I highly recommend a bike with long enough chainstays that the load can be more or less centered over the axle (ahead of the axle would be even better, but typically not practicable).

OP - flat steel bar rocks! easy to cut, easy to drill. easy to bend. right on man!

One thing I'd be careful of is when you're out of the saddle, tossing the bike side to side, and have the rack/panniers loaded up pretty good. I think those extended brackets are going to flex a lot, in the best case it'll feel like riding a wet noodle during a good effort out of the saddle, and worst case it flexes all the way into the spokes. I like the creative thinking though!