Adding bike rack eyelets to a bike with none?
 

Hello all,

I have a nice road bike that I like a lot.

But it doesn't have any eyelets for a
permanent bike rack. Which I need.
Expected load would be up to 40 pounds.


Is is possible to have a frame builder add
eyelets to the frame or dropouts? Perhaps
with braze ons? I've included a picture.

What's involved with this kind of thing?


Thanks a lot!

Picture of the rear dropout
 

Here's a picture:
http://www.geocities.com/cycling22/dropout.jpg

Not sure why the upload didn't work. I uploaded it twice.

Brazing eyelets to dropouts is a relatively simple and easy task for any framebuilder. Henry James and other suppliers sell braze-on eyelets.

The quickest and cheapest way to attach a rack to an eyeless frame is to use P-Clamps. They also mean you don't have to worry about taking a torch to your frame's paint.
Ortlieb/Tubus makes some that are stronger than hardware store p-clamps.

I can't find an image of the Tubus clamps. Wallingford carries them here. They are about $8.00

These are hardware store P-Clamps, they cost a dollar or two.
http://www.armadaleautoparts.com/use...l/p_clamps.jpg

Right
 

Thanks, I already knew about these clamps.
But I'm still thinking of modifying the frame.

Did you upload that picture?
What is the secret to make the uploads work??

Right on.
As Scooper said, adding eyelets is fairly easy. Henry James and Nova are two frame builder supply houses.
If you can't weld or don't have a local framebuilder, your local auto body shop should be able to tack them on for you.

I hot linked the image. [img]the url of the image here[/img]
Click quote on my previous post and you will see the syntax.

Hey. That's a pretty convenient solutions. Obviously, the braze-on eyelets are going to be stronger, but for those not going to carry a huge weight load, the p-clamps are a nice alternative. Does anyone know how much weaker or how much less weight you can carry with a rear rack mounted to p-clamps?

I keep a Krypto NY chain and lock in my rack trunk and carry my laptop in a pannier about half of the time, load weights between 12 and 20 pounds. I broke a P-Clamp after about 5 months. The Ortlieb/Tubus clamps are holding up well after a year or so.

Fab or buy your eyelets, pick up a mapp/oxy rig, bronze rod, and some white flux. About $50 or so total outlay, and you'll have the small welding rig leftover for future projects. ATMO...

Would the P-clamp solution, even the better ones, be too iffy to mount a rack that will hold a child carrier? My son is just over 20lbs. now, so adding the weight of the carrier and allowing for growth I should estimate that I'll be carrying 30lbs. or so. I'd like to put a carrier on my road and mountain bikes, but neither has braze-ons.

I'd check the child thing with the manufacturer, or a manufacturer of a similar rig.

I can't really see the point of brazing on the eyelets. By the time you have bought all the stuff and wreaked a few tubes, and burned off all the paint, it isn't going to look that slick. Seems like a lot of money for the bike that is probably attached to the drop.

It's not so difficult to do a braze-on, it's just the kind of thing that has a high up-front cost, and will take a few tries to get right. So practice on something burnable for starters.

I would try some superior mechanical solution, like something built around the cuttout in the drop, a u-bolt, or a piece that bolt and clamps on like clamp on deraileur mounts. I'd also go for the P-clamp. Not so long ago that was the standard attachment for a rack, even on a touring bike.

The Ortlieb ones, maybe (email Ortlieb first). Hardware store P-Clamps I would not trust.

A framebuilder can quickly and easily braze some eyelets onto your existing dropouts. It will damage the paint, of course, but there's no getting around that. They will take lots of load and never shift. It's also one of the least expensive services a framebuilder offers.

Well, the framebuilder I was thinking of was on vacation until
into July. So, I went ahead and bought an Axiom Odysee rack.
The idea being, to see how well the bike handled with
weight on the rear. And to start riding it to work.

But it works awful on my roadbike!!!!

See the pictures:

http://www.geocities.com/cycling22/s...zed/axiom1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/cycling22/s...zed/axiom2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/cycling22/s...ed/dropout.jpg


Just look at how high the center of gravity is!
It's definitely a rack for mountain bikes.

It is well made. Light. Good tig welding. The area for
the pannier hooks is just the right distance down.

Too bad they didn't make it for a road bike.
You would figure that they would put pictures on
their website of the rack mounted on different bikes.
But, it's just nice pictures of the racks on a
seamless background. You only do that to admire it.

Couldn't find it in silver either.
That black would be scratched in no time.

BTW, I tried to find p clamps too. But the stay is
so narrow, that nothing fits tight.

What an incredible waste of my time. To save how much
weight of an eyelet????