Rack on Specialized carbon frame
 

My wife rides her bike to work all year, 20 miles a day, so I decided it is time to replace her old bike.

Looked at a nice Specialized with carbon frame. In the specs it says "fender and rack mounts" but the frame only has eyelets for fenders. There are no eyelets on the outside of the seat stays.
Specialized Bicycle Components

Do you think the site is in error or does anyone know how it´s done? On my own commuter bike I could easily fit a Tubus Fly via the main fender eye on the bar connecting the seat stays, but on a small ladies frame the strut would have to be long, making the rack unstable.

I think they are taking some poetic license with the "fender and rack mounts". It looks like there is a threaded mount on the rear seat stay for the lower leg of a rack. I suspect that they want you to mount the upper stays on the rack to the seat post collar. You could use something like the Problem Solvers seat collar rack mount. I don't see any kind of mount on the fork at all. It's a stretch to say that this bike has "fender and rack mounts" when you have to use a work around to mount them.

The stays on Tubus racks are very stiff. Even if you have to bend the stay to make it fit, the stay is really only there to stabilize the rack rather than carry much of the load. On the other hand, if you used a Tubus Vega and the seat collar rack mount, you probably wouldn't have to bend the stays as much. I would suggest getting longer stays for the rack which you can get from Ortliebusa. These are quite a bit longer (by about 100mm) than the normal stays and they are helpful for smaller bikes.

You can also use only one stay on the Vega and still have a stable mount. I've had to do that on my wife's Terry Symmetry. Because of the small frame, the brake interferes with the mount on the left side. I just ran one stay to the right and have never had problems. Here's what it looks like.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/DSCN0575.jpg

That's one of the 350mm stays on the rack. I did have to trim the end to fit, however.

Sunlite QR-TEC Adjustable Rear Rack - Fits 26"/700c, Black. Try one of these.

If she just needs a rack to carry minimal stuff for the commute (some clothes, a light, maybe lunch and a spare tube), maybe a rack that clamps onto a seatpost. Then a rack top bag on that type of rack. If you go that route, the seatpost should be metal so the clamp does not damage seatpost.

Thanks a lot for your answers. The commute bag may carry a packed lunch, but sometimes also a laptop and a pair of shoes, so a seat post rack is probably too flimsy.
I guess a seat post collar mounting would be OK?

Seems that me that changing the seatpost to alum. so you can safely attach some sort of collar to it would be the best way to go about this.
Axiom makes a rear rack called the Streamliner, which has a disc version, which may be an option, although you will still have to come up with a way to attach to the seatpost area.

Perhaps write to Spec. or ask at bike stores what rack they would recommend, perhaps there is a system that they have that would be simple, and not expensive. Given she will probably never be carrying more than 10kgs perhaps, this probably or hopefully gives more options.

I have a Specialized Roubaix Expert Disc, and wanted to do some light credit card touring on it last year, so I gave Wayne a call, at The Touring Store. He asked for pics, and set me up with a small Tubus rack with a seat collar and skewer attachment. It fit fine and seemed solid, but I moved overseas before I had a chance to use it. I suggest giving him a call - he will set you up.

Had an alu seatpost rack on my single bike (all carbon, including seatpost) for 30,000 miles.
It will easily carry 20+ lbs, rack bag or even small panniers.

seconding this. I've used an ibera rack + mini commuter bag for commutes and even a few tours.

http://i.imgur.com/8q4BA9Z.jpg

Tubus has some clamp things that should work. I'm gonna check out the touring store.

just as a comparison though, the Axiom streamliner using skewer can be had for under $40 and it is perfectly sturdy. I guess if you put a rack on that doesnt use the skewer setup, then its always a bit easier to take off the rear wheel, so any rack will thread into the holes in that frame at the bottom, you just have to find to hardware and whatnot for the attachment point at the seatpost area.

**I would add that some racks have a diff distance between the two lower parts, where the bolts go through, maybe check with a given rack that the rack is not putting too much force on the frame at the bolt hole area--this was the case with mywifes bike, even though it has bolt holes at the dropouts, the axiom rack needed to be spread really hard to get it to go onto the frame bolt area (which was rather wide at that hole place) and Ididnt like the force it was putting there-maybe I could have bent the rack supprts out more, but I just went with the skewer option.
I do know taht this axiom rack is put on carbon bikes successfully, although they would have road brakes, so the single attachment point goes onto the brake bolt and nut, like on mywifes bike , and it works fine there (not the case with this bike I know, iwth discs)

Many bikes come with plastic mounting brackets for rear reflectors that fit around the seatpost. I've used such a bracket for mounting a rear rack on a bike without seat stay braze-on fittings. Since the upper rack hardware doesn't bear any weight but serves only to stabilize the rack, the plastic bracket works fine.

From the bike's photo, it looks like it has a mounting point at the bottom of the seat stay, just above the axle (probably only for fenders...I doubt that would be load-bearing on a carbon frame); however, it doesn't appear to have such a spot up near the seatpost, nor is there a standard brake boss that would allow you to use a boss-mounted rack strut. I wouldn't recommend using a seatpost-mounted rack on a carbon seatpost, either, so it could be that your only option for a rack on that bike would be to replace the seatpost collar with one that has mounting points, and a rack which attaches at the skewer instead of frame bosses (like the Sunlite rack linked above, or like this one from Bontrager).

You are talking about the quick release adapter but this addresses the wrong end of the mounting issue. The bike has the threaded eyelets for the lower legs of the mount. It's the upper stays that are problematic. There's no apparent place to attach them. The seat collar is probably the best option.

felsby: Not that it solves the lack of fender mounts on the front of the bike, but if you look at the picture of the rack on my wife's bike, you can see a hole in the plate between the legs of the Tubus Vega rack. That hole isn't just there for style or to lighten the rack. You can mount fender to the rack itself like this

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/IMG_0270.jpg

This is a slightly older rack with a different configuration but it works the same way. This also makes fender removal...if you hate fenders as much as I do:roll eyes:...easier. You don't have to remove the rack as with more conventional fender mounts on a single eyelet.