Before I embark upon fabricating a front rack for the touring bike I figured it will be good to get input from those that have used them or do currently use them instead of lowriders.
The set up right now is lowriders (of my own design) and a handlebar bag. In the lowriders there is 11 pounds combined of weight including bags, but not racks, and the handlebar bag has 5.5 pounds including the bag and mount. The bike behaves just fine like this.
If I go to a front rack to replace the lowriders and utilize the front bag, will the front end simply be too top heavy and have a negative impact on the straight line stability and turning stability of the bike? I don't want to put the effort into making the rack and then have it be a negative on the behavior of the bike.
The bike is a 1986 Fuji Sundance with slack head and seat angles. On its own it is a very stable bike, and with a touring load it is well balanced with lowriders and panniers.

Please allow me to be of zero help. Or less.

What about buying a cheap used rack and attaching and loading and riding and see if you can successfully adapt to it?


I have used a front rack for touring on an old RockHopper. A Thulé fork mount deal.
It wasn’t top heavy. I adapted to it fine. But I tend to adapt to the un ideal out of laziness / good enough ness.

mrv, the bike has roller cam brakes and a standard rear rack is a pia to adapt correctly. I know I can find a workaround, however I'd rather put that energy into doing it properly with a custom rack made to fit.

Several years ago I bought a Surly front rack. That rack has a couple different heights where you can hang the panniers. And I was curious, so I tried each height for several miles with loaded panniers. It seemed to handle slightly better with panniers in a lower position. But, I did not think it was a huge difference. I did not like the size and weight of the Surly rack, eventually donated it to a bike charity. Instead use different front racks now.

I use a fairly heavy handlebar bag on my touring bikes, I mount my handlebar bag a bit lower and closer to the steerer tube than the typical mounting. It weighs about 9 pounds.

I think it would be a mistake to use a huge bag on a rack where all of the weight is above the front wheel. But, if it was only 16.5 pounds, which is the sum of your weights, that might work just fine. Your front weight would not be much more than my handlebar bag. If you do this, I think it would be best if the weight is as close to your steerer tube axis as practical.

On the topic of front loading, I saw a bike last summer. I was going west, saw another solo bicyclist going east, stopped to chat with him about the route ahead, etc. And took a photo of his bike. His bike is in the center of the photo below, part of mine is to the left.



Sorry the lighting is poor for the photo, the sun was in the wrong place.

He had a big Ortlieb Rack Pack on top of his rear rack, no rear panniers, Large front panniers and a very large rack top bag on front. He was from asia, had started there. I do not recall where he started in North America, I think it was Vancouver? We met in Niagara, Ontario. I did not understand his english very well so we could not talk in detail. But he made it fairly clear that he was happy with the way his bike was handling. I specifically asked about that.

I would not want that much weight that high on my bike, but it did not seem to bother him. But, I would not want friction downtube shifters either. I think he used a front rack on back.

He obviously has a lot more weight on his front than you plan to have.

One final note. If you decide to buy a front rack that goes over the front wheel instead, Racktime makes such a rack. Rated for 10kg, so it meets your weight requirement. It requires mid-fork mounting points. I have seen this rack used with front panniers, but that was quite rare, maybe only twice or three times?
https://www.racktime.com/en/TOPIT-2.0/097211-001

Not in my experience,

Tourist in MSN, the bike center in your picture is almost set up exactly as I am envisioning. I ditched the rear panniers and am using a duffle instead, and up front I want to ditch the lowriders and use a rack instead. I think I will go ahead and do it. FWIW, I can build a rack for a fraction of what one can be purchased and it won't take more than an hour or two, unless some snafu pops up!
Weight distribution is close to 60/40. With the duffle included in the weight, the rear load is about 20 pounds.

I guess it will depend on a lot of "it depends", but I figure that bikepacking setups are similar. Perhaps lighter weight but higher up, and my experience with this has been fine.
In bikepacking mode, I have a revelate designs front handlebar harness, with my 1 person tent , and a yellow dry bag with sleeping quilt, camp mat and inflatable pillow in it, somewhere around 8lbs ish .
It's pretty high up but the bike handles fine. A little more front end floppy than with low riders, but it's okay and it's fine at speed or along single track, so fine for me all around.
As said, I guess you'll really know when you try it with your specific setup, and maybe find cargo placement makes a difference.

It’ll be different, how’s that? I don’t like low riders on 26” wheels as the bags are so low. I put an early model OMM front rack on my 26” wheel LHT that provides a top rack and can carry panniers. The important part was that I could slide the panniers back onto the fork blades a bit covering the v-brakes. The problem I see with a lot of commercial front racks is they put the platform too high and forward. Experiment with your top load on the front rack with and without the handlebar bag. If it’s significantly better w/o handlebar bag consider a small frame bag to replace handlebar bag. All that assuming the handlebar bag is on a strut cantilevered off the stem.

the THULE' deal uses four straps - so I didn't have to deal with the brakes or head tube attachment.
found these from 2015..... internets never forgets....

as far as building stuff - always fun to take on a challenge. I'll read through the thread in more details to see if you're using Al-tubing or steel. I'd be curious to learn more about the process. I'm guessing steel would be a low temp braze. I'll follow along! Cheers.

The OP has a front rack and bags mounted low.
The OP wants a front track where the bags are mounted higher?
The OP wants a front rack to hold a bag on the top platform instead of using a handlebar bag?

I don't understand why bags would need to be mounted higher on a new rack.
The bags could be mounted low and there could be a dry bag or whatever sitting atop the racks platform.


I feel like I am misunderstanding something here.

Can help with ground clearance. And a front platform can be useful for things like carrying bundles of firewood to your site, which I have done several times. Once I even transported a half a watermelon from a grocery store back to camp.

Heavy steel, but mounts on brake busses and the QR going through the front wheel. So sturdy it doubles as a crash cage!

Minoura Front Rack

Great topic and one I would like to know the answer of myself. One big bonus to putting weight up front is the rear carries around 85-95% of the overall load from a bike and rider only standpoint. So putting some weight on the front should help balance things out some in my way of thinking.
Personally I'd like to hang a lot of weight up front but that doesn't mean it'll work! IE: batteries My bike is an E-bike I am looking to start touring with. It's the only kind my health can handle riding far.

mstateglfr, you missed the part where I indicate ditching the lowrider bags and just using a front rack. Unfortunately I assumed that it is understood a stuff sack or two then need to be strapped to the rack as replacement of the lowrider bags.

A pair of Ortlieb ”Sport Rollers” (2 x 29L) will fit on the Racktime ”Topit” front rack. Tent or whatever on top leaves room for a handlebar bag.
This set up has no low-riding bags

Ti -- I gave my personal experiences with lowriders and high up mounted handlebar harness stuff, but I guess I should have asked you first off--why do you want to not have lowriders anymore?
Reducing the amount you carry overall?
Do you find they get in the way, like getting into a train or car or whatever?
Is your lowrider rack and or panniers at the end of their lives? --- on this note, I did notice a big big difference when I went from my old Blackburn lowrider front rack on my old 1990 touring bike (probably very similar in feel to your 80s bike) to a much sturdier modern touring bike with a much sturdier lowrider rack (a Tubus). The combo of a burlier front end in general (fork, headset and frame overall) and the stronger Tubus rack really made the bike so much less flexy up front even with a good load. The overall handling of the bike is so much better than my 1990 setup.

I also used the Blackburn lowrider on a different bike, stuff alu frame and a carbon fork, but I could still feel and see the thin Blackburn rack flexing still
Anyway, just some thoughts of wondering why you want to ditch front panniers.
An aside, for attaching drybags to racks, the type of straps like Voile or other brands really work great. Most of us used bungee cords forever, but the stretchy Voile straps are very solid and you don't get any of the loosening or shifting issues that can happen with bungees. Worth getting in my opinion.

Ok gotcha, thanks for help.

On the first benefit- yes I see that as a potential benefit for sure. I dont really think about ground clearance when I hear 'touring' because I envision paved roads/paths where ground clearance isnt typically a concern. But I ground clearance definitely would be an issue on singletrack.
On the second benefit- I agree a top platform can be useful. I just dont think its a 'this or that' situation where you either have bags mounted low or you have a platform rack. Production racks that have both a platform and the ability to mount bags low exist.

Oh! Thanks for clarifying. I saw you say you would ditch the lowriders, but I figured that meant you would ditch them in favor of bags with a higher mounting position. Based on the number of people who have responded with comments about mounting bags higher or rack options with multiple mounting heights, it may be a bit of a widespread misunderstanding.

So I use my touring bike as an errands/commute bike these last couple years and it has a half-height 139 basket. The basket used to be mounted to my front rack(platform plus bag mounting) and is currently attached to a flat porteur style rack.
Anyways, when the 139 basket was attached to my front rack, that is basically the setup you are interested in- a bunch of stuff atop the front rack.


For commuting or errands- the basket and accompanying bag(Swift Motherloaf) have been great. And it is true that I could just throw a bunch of stuff directly in the basket and use some webbing to contain it all.
...but the next time I tour, the front rack will be mounted and I will use bags. The steering is more stable with bags that are equally weighted, at least thats the case for me and my bike's geometry. A bunch of weight up high in the basket isnt bad, but the longest I ride is like that is probably 7mi each way to work. Its commute or errands distance only...in a metro.

If you go with no pannier bags, maybe use a rear rack too and lash a drybag to the top of the rear rack?...spread the weight and bulk that way.

mstateglfr, indeed, I have tossed the rear panniers and went to a duffle on the rear rack, and now plan to do the same up front. As you noted, it makes getting the bike through narrow passages, ie doors and the like, easier. I am also interested in presenting less frontal area to the wind. Last summer I put a duffle out back and ran the lowriders with handlebar bag up front and it was just fine. Next step in the progression is to remove the front panniers and run a rack with a duffle up front.

The trend seems to be towards racks that can be quickly installed/removed. To wit, Ortlieb's Quick Rack.
Another trend is to replace front racks with anything cages or fork packs.

My experience has been with the Tubus Tara. First as a supplement to rear rack+panniers, and later as the main (sole) luggage carrying system. I no longer use a front rack because fork packs are *much* more convenient if I have to travel on a bus/train/plane.

I might be in the market for a quick release front rack that would incorporate the 3-mounting bosses that are now almost standard on gravel bikes. I'd be more interested if rack could easily fold along the fork such that it would make it easy to pack a bike for transit (remove the front wheel, fold the rack, wrap in a bag and load in the luggage compartment)

while I still like panniers for the easy on/easy off thing, as well as ease of grabbing stuff like rain gear or whatever, there certainly is something to be said for having less frontal area.
I notice it and appreciate it with no panniers or much smaller panniers that dont stick out very much when dealing with lots of headwinds.

#ViscousCrosswinds

Ask me how I know.

The first time I read your post, I assumed you would hang panners from the top of the rack with a rack top bag.

The second time I read it, I concluded the single bag to replace the panniers and handlebar bag. My previous comments were based on this description. Thus, my previous comments are still my thoughts on the topic if you do the single bag thing.

I want to reiterate my suggestion that you have the center of gravity of the front bag as close to the steerer tube steering axis as practical. That is to reduce the front flop over effect where at low speed the bike may pull to one side or the other. If I put a lot of extra weight in my handlebar bag and have no front panniers, I have noticed the bike wants to pull to one side or the other at very slow speed.

I am not familiar with your bike. And when it comes to understanding frame geometry, I am classified as a true idiot. That said, it is my understanding that a low trail bike would work best with what your are proposing, a high trail bike could have more tendency to flop over at low speed.

If you have the supplies and tools to weld up a custom rack, you may consider adding something on each side, similar to an anything type cage where you could also put a 3 or 4 liter dry bag on each side. Then, if you later decide you want to lower the front weight while also moving some of that weight closer to the steering axis, you have that capability.

Yep. Flexibility is important. What I alluded to above was when I used to strap my sleeping bag to my front rack platform. Caused handling issues in strong crosswinds. One day I experienced gusts of over 50 mph on an open plateau. I felt the need to stop and reposition the larger, synthetic bag I was using at the time to the rear. I can only imagine what being stuck with a large bag sitting up on the front would have been like.

I eventually solved the problem by investing in a highly compressible down bag and culling my clothing herd. My bag now fits in a rear pannier with my off-bike clothes.

And AMTRAK doors.
I've had both - where you roll a fully loaded bike easily into a cargo kind of deal.
Out of Ann Arbor, I have to use the people door. And getting off I have to carry my bike down steps to exit. The AMTRAK employees have yet to express any level of joy when they see a loaded touring bike... narrower is better for sure.
So far they've never made me unload my bike. But I keep anticipating they will.