Fitting a rack on a kid's Trek?
 

The Little Brother has wanted to take a bike camping trip for a couple of years now. He's 17, and we'll probably do it this next spring or summer. Problem is, he's a short kid, and the bike he rides is something like this:

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes...es_9_12/mt200/

I don't know if it is exactly that model, but it's something like that. I don't see any way on his bike to attach a rear rack. I suppose I could use a seatpost rack, but attaching panniers to that seems iffy. Any ideas for how one goes about putting a rear rack on a kid's bike?

I think you are in the wrong forum.

Oops. I thought for sure I clicked on the Touring forum. Sorry, I'll report the post and ask that it be moved.

We had a really hard time finding a kid's bike that would work for touring - they just don't expect small people to be out touring, I guess! We ended up buying the smallest size Safari they had at REI and it works for one of our boys (too big for the other so he rides on the back of our tandem). As for putting a rack on a bike you already have - I'm clueless!! good luck!

Between P-clips and extension arms, you can get a rack on that bike one way or another. It may not be pretty. The biggest issue will be with heel clearance; the rack needs to be as far back as possible.

Also, you might look into racks made specifically for folding bikes with 20" wheels (Dahon dealers will have them). My daughter rides a bike with 22" wheels, and to my surprise it fit a rack made for a 16" wheel bike.

How tall is he? Is he still growing?

I'm built like a small teenager (5 ft. 3 in). and find I can comfortably ride most MTBs with smaller frames (15" or smaller). These can be found used on Craigslist with a bit of searching. As often mentioned here, many older hardtail MTBs have eyelets on the forks and dropouts for racks, and make good touring bikes.

If he's still growing, a used MTB also means you've invested less money on a bike that he'll soon outgrow.

Blackburn used to have a mountain rack for a bike with 24" wheels. P-clips should work if you don't have eyelets. There should be a way; isn't there always a way? I agree, a seatpost rack wouldn't seem to be a good option for carrying a load. I read about a guy touring with one. It didn't fail, but he kept having troubles with it rotating on the seatpost, i. e. swinging out to one side or the other.