mikenannie

My wife and I bought new bikes last year. I bought a Specialized Sirrus Sport and she bought the Trek Verve 1.

This year we decided to add rear racks and bags to our bikes. Mine has screws (braze-ons?) that make adding a rack easy - I hope But on her bike, where I have screws, she has 'plugs'? I'm not sure what these are, or how / if they can be used to mount a rack. See the attached images for what I'm talking about. (sorry, iphone blurry)

Can these be place holders for screws? Hollow inside for using a not included set of screws?

If no one knows, I'll get over to the bike shop tomorrow and ask them.
She does have one screen centered between the rear caliper brakes that I think I could use too mount a rack (or fender?), but before ordering a rack I thought I try to see what other options she might have.

Suggestions for racks for either bike would be appreciated too.

thanks
Mike

themishmosh

More than likely, those are screw holes. Not sure why they are painted over though but I would bet the threads still work.

Nordo

I bet if you pull those plastic plugs out, the holes are threaded. You'll just have to get the proper size screws.

I checked the Trek web site, and it says the Verve 1 is rack and fender ready. Here is the link to that page:

Verve 1 - Trek Bicycle

I really like the racks made by Topeak. They have a channel on top of the rack that their bags/baskets slide and lock to. A good selection of bag or basket types, and really easy to attach or remove from the rack. The only thing is they are kind of pricey. Here is the link for the racks:

TopeakŪ Cycling Accessories ? Products - Racks

I have the Explorer Tubular Rack w/o spring on my Specialized Crossroads. The racks come with flat chrome bars that go from the front of the rack to the threaded screw holes on your seat stays. They have long slots in them so they can fit almost any size bike. I made the round tubes for mine to the correct length for my bike. Here are a couple of photos:

dynaryder

The holes in your fork are for a front rack or fenders. From the pic on Trek's site,she does have braze-ons:


It's common for braze-ons to be painted(cheaper than masking them) or plugged(keeps water out).

DowneasTTer

I too like the topeak rack system. Last year there was some discussion about racks on hybrids. The topeak came up and all hated the chrome steel flat bar topeak used to connect the front of the rack to the seat stay. DEW21 solved the issue by buying Bontrager large strut kit #427332 (black)
for around $5.00 bucks from his local Trek dealer. I did the same the results are great. You can follow the story as well as a lot of discussion over rear racks here: https://www.bikeforums.net/hybrid-bic...-question.html. I have sense moved on to a Giant Escape RX Composite and moved the rack and system over. btw the Giant had plastic plugs inserted in the frame at the rack mounts instead of the more traditional screws.

mikenannie

Thanks everyone for the info. I was able to get to the bike shop today and they confirmed the plugs as you all correctly pointed out. Thanks!