Replacement struts for Tern cargo rack
 

For anyone who needs to replace the lower struts on the Tern cargo rack, I've found alternatives available in Europe from the Dutch brand XLC sold on the various European Amazon stores for around 5 to 8 euros. Also in some German online stores and German eBay. SKU 2500604200

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f8e9b2d588.jpg


The struts appear to be dimensionally identical to the Tern except for the length which is around 2 cm shorter because it's missing two holes which are spaced at 1 cm intervals. They're probably made in the same factory.

I haven't actually ordered this yet so cannot confirm. But I haven't found any other alternatives as the local bike shops I've asked don't stock these types of parts. I tried looking on all the far east online marketplaces but did not find them there.

Mine snapped at the third hole from the top where it presses against the plate, while it was attached through the top hole. I could continue using it by selecting the fourth hole from the top but the ground clearance to my panniers is reduced. replacing them anyway to be safe.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5fec58c391.jpg

The failure occurs because a part designed to be a strut (axial load) is loaded from the side (= beam) at a height where there's a big hole in it. Just replacing the part with another that has the same flaw invites a recurrence. To eliminate the weakness: turn the strut upside down, so the place where side loading happens doesn't have a hole. Given that users don't generally change rack height, one could cut off any excess length at the bottom if it interfered with something - although you were already using it at full length. So it sounds like good advice to anyone with these racks to invert the struts, and trim the bottoms if necessary.

When you say "replacing them", I guess you mean the panniers? You could eliminate the need for that by bolting the broken struts & the new ones you found - both too short for your application on their own - together, to make a strut that's long enough and solid at the point of side loading.

I guess these struts are made of aluminum?

I would replace them by a flat stainless steel profile of the same width with two drilled holes.

A stainless steel tube with also two drilled hole would be stronger and stiffer.

If you consider steel too heavy, you can use a titanium tube (you can buy it on Amazon for instance).

The back of the side plate is actually a c shape groove profile that the strut fits into. It's difficult to find a steel plate that fits exactly in the width of this groove.

Wouldn't flipping this part upside down not really help much since you would have a similar amount of lateral force at the eyelet near the dropout flange? so it would snap at the bottom instead of the top if you did install it upside down.

Edit: actually now that I think about it because of the c shape profile, The bending that it applies to the strut in the direction of travel would cause one side of the hole to experience compression and the other side of the hole to experience tension which might have contributed to the fracture. So installing an upside down would help add strength at that area. On the other hand I see now that the other end is shorter from the hole so may not actually work upside down to counter the bending from the c shape profile.

A few years ago I ordered something from Amazon in Germany, very trouble free ordering from Amazon.de. I used a credit card that did not charge for currency conversions, told Amazon to charge me in Euros.

If you decide to order from Europe for shipment to USA, I suggest you do it REALLY soon. More detail here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...urope-usa.html