I'm leaning toward buying the expedition rear and extreme front. They seem like the best bang for the buck, as far as quality and moderate pricing. The only negative seems to be mixed reviews for the extreme due to it's weight and bulkiness. Any suggestions ? If it makes any difference, I'll be carrying camping gear.

I have a lightly used Expedition for anyone on this list who lives in northern California (I live in Davis). Great rack, but unnecessary for my daily commute (and getting an Old Man Mountain for my soon-to-arrive Americano).

If interested reply via private message.

Steve

These racks are strong! I have the same set for my Randonee. The rear is excellent even if it is a bit heavy. The extra length eliminated problems with heal strike. The front rack was overkill for me. Also, when I turn the wheel to extreme angles the back of the rack would hit my down tube. I ended up replacing the front with a $10.00 front platform rack from Nashbar (made by Bor Yueh, a knock off of the old Blackburn front rack). This is much lighter and fits better, but not nearly as beefy.

If it's a low percentage of your total weight, it might not matter much, and probably won't make a significant difference in times, unless you're racing or something. It's probably partly psychological too: for some people it's not a problem on that level, for others it is.

It's nice to have the high-low option, and the top platform.

I agree that they are excellent bang for the buck, well designed, and durable.

I used the Expedition on my first tour, and it was excellent. It is a bit big, but I appreciated the extra length. I felt confident loading almost anything smaller than a refrigerator on the Expedition, but I bet it could handle a refrigerator too. I carried all of my weight on the back in two Transit panniers, and strapped my sleeping bag, tent, and bed foam to the top of the rack. It never seemed impossibly heavy to me, but I travel light.

Also, the finish on the rack is excellent - it never scraped off to reveal silver underneath, unlike some other racks that I have used.

That Expedition Rack seems so obese for some reason...especially when I picked it up in the store.

What I do like about it is the length and width of the platform, especially the width, which at 4" (center section) seems like it would also do an acceptable job as a pseudo rear fender.

I'm also looking at the IRD Khyber stainless steel rack, and the Axiom Journey. My luggage will rarely exceed 20lbs, so the Axiom Journey might cut it.

Are these racks designed with 700c 0r 26" wheels in mind?

I ordered a set for my Expedition Tour bike that I am building up out of an old Giant Iguana rigid. Jandd has a great reputation and I expect these racks to fulfill my needs. To me weight is the least of my worries on any of my tour bikes. I want durability/function first then worry about appearance and weight.

Aaron

I look forward to comparing build notes with your Iguana and my Bridgestone XO-2, which comes in with a rack-less weight of 28 pounds...the early 90's revisted.

Here is a "teaser" picture for ya This is the bike right after it came back home from a 10 year hiatus. This bike has been thru a lot, but is still in pretty decent overall condition. FWIW it is getting; trekking bars, yellow freddy fenders, black Jandd racks, new seat post, Brooks saddle and a yellow and black set of Ortliebs.

Aaron

My current "touring bike" is a mid-ninties 20" Giant ATX mtb which was great except for the steering which I messed up with an extender. I don't like having my handlebars below my seat. It was pretty much like riding a tank with the extender.
The XO-2 which is in route is a 23" which should be about right.

What will you do for tires ?

That seatpost was still set up for the last guy that rode it...he was 6'-6" it is a 21" frame, I would rather have a 23" but beggars can't be too choosy.

I am currently going to run the Performance Forte Gothams. I may get something with a bit more aggressive tread if I find need them.

My other touring bike is a converted Giant Excursion, it is a European city/trekking bike. It originally came with flat bars. I have been considering an extender but haven't made the decision yet.

Aaron

Sweet looking bike !
Sounds like some pretty severe brand loyalty to me.
I may need to look into some risers before putting the ATX out to pasture.
Thanks for the heads up on the gothams. I do like that price.

I have the Expedition rear rack on both my 26" mtb commuter and 700c touring bike. Fits fine on both.

The Extreme front mid-fork attachment doesn't have a wide range of adjustment. I had to use p-clamps on my Fuji Touring even though it came with mid-fork braze-ons.

Giant has always been a good value for the money. It just happens that is what I got the best deals on at my LBS at the time. I also have several Raleighs a couple of Motobecanes and a Staiger, but none of them are really touring oriented.

Aaron

Great racks for offroad use, espec on a MTB, since the rear rack will improve your heel clearance. The front offers the shelf, and they are really tough. I have them on a trek 970.

I agree. This is an excellent quality rack at a fair price. I have been using one for commuting purposes (not daily, but I commute 26 miles RT 1x/week; I total about 300 miles/month of riding) for the past 2 years. I would buy it again.

Regarding the finish, mine is wearing where my pannier touches. Ironically, the pannier is fine, but the finish is showing silver.

Wherever my panniers made contact with the rack, I wrapped some duct tape around the rack. That's probably why I never saw any silver.

My Jannd front rack is really, really good. Lots of room and options for anything I'd ever need to load onto it.

I have a Jandd expedition and extreme combo. I love the expedition, and the extreme is good, but I have had a couple issues with the extreme.

First off, my bianchi volpe doesn't have mid-fork braze on bolts. That means that I have to use the accessory clamps to connect the extreme rack to my fork. Not a real problem, but I wore through a set of clamps after about 3000 miles of touring, and had to finish a long tour by zip tying the rack to my fork. I'll buy beefier clamps before touring with the extreme again.

Second problem, the extreme just barely fits my bike. It works fine with 700x28 tires, but it was too small to fit the 700x32 cyclocross tires that my bike came with originally. I have to think that this is an issue that is specific to the fork geometry of the volpe, but it might be a good idea to test fit this rack before purchasing.

And the finish on the expedition rack has become heavily scarred after years of use. But I commute every day with this rack, in addition to touring with it, so it has seen a ton of abuse. But even though my panniers have removed a lot of the finish, especially on the top of the rails, there isn't a single sign of rust. I kind of like the scuffed up look, anyway. It shows that my bike is actually getting used.

I have the Jandd Expedition and Extreme on my Surly LHT. The Extreme on front allows me to carry a Lone Peak rack pack, and thus avoid having to mount a handlebar bag on my drop bars. Both racks mount relatively easily to the LHT braze-ons, with no need for extra clamps. Also, my Ortlieb panniers fit both racks well. My only concern is how the top rear corners of the Extreme strike the barrel adjusters on the down-tube whenever the bars swing fully to one side or the other. I'm afraid that this will eventually lead to failure of the barrel adjusters. Not sure how to address this.

Jim, What size LHT do you have? I'm wondering how the Expedition/ Extreme will fit the 26" wheels on my 52cm LHT.

Mine is a 58cm LHT with 700c wheels. Not sure how the Jandds might fit on a 52. You might post the question to the SURLY LHT/CC Group and ask if anyone has a 52 with Jandds.
Surly Long Haul Trucker & Cross-Check Owners Group <SurlyLHT@googlegroups.com>

I use an Expedition rack on bikes with 700c and 26"ers. No issues on height except make sure that your forks aren't too wide - about 5.5 inches is the rack width, so don't expect them to work with "fat" (Karate Monkey, suspension compensating, 29er rigid, etc.) or suspension forks. I do have a set of supension forks on a hybrid Novara Corsa (RST C-7, I believe), but I had to flex them at the top a bit and use hose clamps.

They do tend to run a bit low (close) on 700's when it comes to fenders if you're running tires 40mm and bigger.

apologies for the bump.
I read on https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/longwayhome that the jaand extreme front rack doesn't work with 26" LHTs. The author also mentioned something about bending his fork? Some of the stuff in the journal isn't exactly clear.
Can anyone verify this?

edit to include quotes
" SURLY LHT WITH BENT FORK (Fork is best 1.678984 degrees which makes it awesome)"
"Don't know about the Surly fork. I need to ask them to find out but I think its a 700c fork with the brazeon positions for the brakes changes. Fenders that I use don't fit very well on it and it also doesn't accomodate the Jandd Extreme front rack. I need to cut and reweld the rack to make it fit. Will do that if I go out again. I think a stiffer fork would be good, but then again, the compliance might be why the bike has been so comfortable."