Front rack for old Trek 520?
 

Reposting from mechanics subforum...

I'm in a bind, since I want to take off on my 2000 mile tour within a week. I don't have a front rack for my 1983 Trek 520, which lacks eyelets on the front forks (except for the eyelets in back of the dropouts).

I bought an Old Man Mountain Sherpa rack which just arrived this morning, and it doesn't even vaguely fit my bicycle--for one thing, it is substantially wider at the bottom than my dropout spacing.

I left a message with Silva Cycles to see if they can do a quick eyelet braze-on, which is probably my best option. That opens up a lot of options for the sorts of racks that are sold at the LBS, right?

I have access to a Bob Trailer I could borrow for the summer, but I would far prefer having all my stuff right on the bicycle.

How narrow are your dropouts? And are you sure you have a front rack?

I have an OMM Cold Springs rack on my LHT, and, while it is wider than the fork (100mm, I think), it's made with that in mind. I had to replace the quick release skewer of the front wheel with a wider, rear wheel skewer, and all was well.

Nice thing about this type of attachment is that it should work with most forks regardless of what attachment points are on your fork. If you don't have brake posts, you can use p-clamps for the upper attachments. However if you have bolt on axle, I don't know how that would work.

Fitting a front rack is always a challenge, and on those old Treks, it's worse than usual. I know, I have a 1982 720, and I've complained about this repeatedly. Can you get the legs of the Sherpa rack anywhere near the eyelets? Perhaps with a short spacer (not more than a few mm, that will stress the bolt and it will break). You should be able to bend the Sherpa rack legs in, make them narrower, to fit your eyelets; just don't bend them repeatedly. Bending metal once is not usually a big deal; repeated bending fatigues the metal. Also, look at the options of P-clips and U-bolts that might go around the fork and hold it on.

Jandd makes these adapters (even in custom lengths):

http://www.jandd.com/ProdImages/WebS...ities/dbfa.jpg

Disc Brake Adapter for Racks and Fenders

as I said here http://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-me...rek-520-a.html

If you are trying to put a rear rack on a front fork, can't help.

If your rack is a front rack that is designed to use the eyelets instead of skewer, it is quite simple. Get some long M5 bolts, lots of washers and some Nylock nuts. Put the bolt in from the outside, thru the rack, several extra washers or a bushing or spacer if you need more room, then put the bolt in the fender eyelet, then put the fender mount on the bolt and attach with a nylock nut. That way your rack is outside the fork dropouts, your fender uses the same eyelets on the inside.

Unfortunately my photo was cropped from a much bigger one so it is not easy to see with poor resolution.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=458435

The photo is a LHT with Tubus Ergo Rack, the upper eyelets on the dropouts are not used, both rack and fender use the fender eyelets with long bolts and nylock nuts. I think I have spacers between the rack and fender that are about a quarter inch long.