front racks
 

My husband and I are planning our first tour in Ireland (Cork to Galway). We have almost everything we need, with the exception of a front rack. We have looked and looked, but can't figure out the advantages of the low-rider racks versus the higher riding racks. Can anyone comment on the advantages/disadvantage of one type over the other? This is our first time touring so any comments are helpful! Thanks!

Generally, low rider racks keep the load centered on the steering axis and closer to the front axle. That mitigates the swaying effect of a cantilevered load. In theory, the bike would handle much the same as without a load, but would weigh more. In practice, there is some sway effect even with low rider racks.

The downside to low riders is the lack of ground clearance if you are riding off road or very near curbs. The higher riding racks often have a platform over the top of the wheel for additional load carrying, similar to the rear rack. I've tried it with the Surly Nice Rack and it isn't for me, but lots of people like the platform on the front.

Ok, I think I get it. It sounds like the low riders are worth the extra $$?

And just out of curiousity, what didn't you like about the front platform? We are thinking this is an efficient place to carry bivys so may need to rethink the strategy for the rear if we don't carry them on the front.

Fantasminha, Looking at Mapquest it looks like the trip is roughly 125 to 150 miles, that's an easy ~50 mi. per day, a slightly less easy 75 mi. per day tour. Even though the trip duration isn't that long, I'd opt for the low riders and be ready for something longer in the future.

While I'm still building my first drop bar tourer, my experiance comes from trying to load up a motorcycle with few and too small anyway luggage options...it's better to have an abundance of storage area, rather than too little.

Brad

This is an area of personal preference more than good or bad.

I had a Tubus Tara low rider front rack I really liked. I thought I wanted to carry more on a front platform, so I bought a Surly Nice Rack for the front. I mounted my regular panniers on the Surly at its normal (higher) position and loaded my sleeping bag and rolled sleeping mat on the top of the front. It wasn't lots of weight. I was thinking of carrying some of the bulky things up front.

After a few shakedown rides loaded like that, I determined I didn't like the heavier steering and sway feeling of the extra load up front and maybe the higher placement. I don't recall ever trying the panniers alone on the Surly rack. That wasn't much of a selling point for me since I never had any clearance problems with the low riders.

I was comparing the Surly to one of the best low rider racks made. I went back to the Tara low rider rack never looked back. The Surly is well made, if a little on the heavy side. When I bought mine, they were using an older style lower mounting bracket that has broken for a few people (not mine, but I hardly used it). Surly redesigned the lower bracket and when I asked them, they sent me a set of the new ones free of charge. The new ones are much more substantial and stronger than the old ones. I have no issue with the quality of the Surly. I merely like the way the Tubus Tara carries the type of load I run on the front.

I typically tour with both front and rear panniers to balance my load. I did a Pacific to Atlantic tour with low-riders, but when I did a tour of the Canadian Rockies which included some forestry roads and trails, I really felt limited by the poor ground clearance of the front low-riders. I will go with "high-mount" front racks in the future.

You only need the platform for major expedition riding, eg where you have to carry several days worth of water.
The Tara is a fantastic piece of kit, light-weight, stiff, reliable and ideal for camping if you need 4 panniers. I have ridden on tacks and trails with one. You do need to take care about hitting stuff but you soon get your eye in.
You could probably get away with just rear panniers for 2 people camping.

I prefer high-riders simply because I don't see any advantage for low-riders, including handling.

I got the Jandd Extreme rack
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pub...FzXQvkgSlN-Wfv
so that I could mount high or low (the low bars being similar in height to the low rider racks) depending on how I felt. I still need to get it installed (waiting on some new brakes coming in and figured it'd be easier to swap out the brakes without having to work around a rack) before I could tell you how it rides though.

The difference between touring on a motorcycle and touring on a bicycle is that, on a bicycle, YOU are the motor and you will be the one who has to move whatever you load your bicycle with. Any backpacker or cycle tourist will tell you that it's very tempting to fill up whatever storage space you have "just in case" you need a particular item, with the result that you end up hauling twice as much weight as is really necessary. I should know, I've fallen into this trap too many times.

A heavier load on the bicycle means more weight for you to haul around, and more wear and tear on tires and spokes. It also makes the bike harder to maneuver in traffic or around obstacles, and makes controlling your speed on downhills harder.

I have only ever toured with a front rack with a platform that puts the panniers at mid-height. I love it. Crossing the country, I put my sleeping bag the front platform. My next two long tours, I had a smaller tent and carried it on the front rack. Now that I tour with a partner and thus a 3P tent, I am back to carrying the sleeping bag on the front rack. Neither my tents nor bags would have gone in my panniers absent a fron platform, so having a front platform did not in any way result in me carrying more than I would have without it. It simply gave me better weight distribution.

Chief Mountain Highway just north of the U.S. border 2009:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davez20...7620763740044/

I've used the Tubus Tara, Jandd Extreme, and Blackburn Lowriders. The Blackburns were light, but they didn't seem as solid. (I used them for probably 2,000 miles, so they weren't so bad.) The Tubus was very solid. I liked them a lot. However, I wanted to try a platform on the front so I bought the Jandd. I liked the platform, so that is the rack I'm still using.

markf, Point well taken. :)

Brad

I just got an Old Man Mountain Cold Springs rack a couple of weeks ago. Before that, the rack I had on the front was platform only, so I've only been playing around with front panniers on my bike for a couple of weeks, but I have always liked having platform up front. It may be empty 90% of the time, but that's part of its utility. When the odd item pops up and you would have to do a lot juggling to fit it on the bike, instead you just strap it to front platform. Yesterday my wife and I took a short ride in a city we don't know well. I made a little cue sheet of our route and taped it to the front rack platform. Other odds and ends were in panniers also on the front. On future tours and overnight trips, I hope to get most of my gear in panniers, with minimal use of the tops of either of my racks, but I still like having the platforms there, just in case.

A front rack with a platform has more metal and, therefore, more weight. Whether it's enough weight to concern you is a personal preference. I just love having the front platform even if I don't use it often. I would say start with a platform/pannier rack and if you don't like the weight or don't use the rack, consider switching to low-riders. Of course you could just as easily start with lowriders and see if you find yourself short of storage and needing a platform rack (and I think there are some low-load capacity platform racks that mount independently of the low-riders). I guess the question is would you rather be potentially over on weight or under on storage. I always opt for more storage, but then I know that a weight penalty comes with that.

Not mentioned above is the AC LowRider. It is light weight (450 gr) and without a top platform http://www.arkel-od.com/us/all-categ...-lowrider.html

2 separate racks .. low rider, + a mini rack , is what I favor..
I have this one :http://www.wiggle.co.uk/tubus-ergo-lowrider-front-rack/

Cheaper?
some what different.. http://www.wiggle.co.uk/blackburn-low-rider-standard-front-rack/
+ it packs in the carton a bit easier, to get to the airport arrival to start the
next , off Ireland? trip.

Wish I had taken a photo of my bike loaded with two bundles of firewood. One on the front rack and one on the rear.

If you need to carry that much weight forward then low riders are best. But..if you don't need to carry a lot of weight there are small front racks where some weight can be close to the head tube and it's just enough to help settle out the front wheel wobblies and handle better than a handlebar rack mounted high and forward. I'd look around for a mini front rack that could carry a bundle over a handle bar bag that's supposed to carry accessible gear. Put quickly needed items in back pockets or small frame bag on the top tube and strap the 2-5lb loads closer to the frame.
If you have too much weight up high and forward it makes handling sloppier than close to the steerer tube. If you have 26" wheels low riders are really low to the ground.
What kind of bikes do you have? This little rack fits on bikes with solid forks as long as the cantilevers bosses aren't too far down, ie. bikes like Cross-Check with big tire clearance. It fits on touring bikes fine.

http://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...ess-steel.html

We have a pair of modified Giant FCRs: changed the flat bar to drops, added mudguards & rear racks, and changed to cantilever brakes. I need the hubby to get home from work to answer the thing about the bosses... :s

do they look like this?

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/EN-GB/...ad/2431/32466/

or this?

http://shop.devercycles.co.uk/images/prod_2851.jpg

if you have steel front forks you can get away with clamping rack supports to it, not recommended for aluminum unless it's at the fork eyelets and fork crown. If these are primarily road bikes with skinny tires I'd concentrate more on reducing total weight and moving some of it forward than increasing total weight capacity.

They look quite alike to me. :( Here are some pix taken recently:
https://cid-410e4bb804c8292e.photos....acko%20Updated

I'm not sure if they are close enough up for you to be able to see the detail that you are looking for. Otherwise, my husband will be home in an hour or so. I'm afraid with this sort of thing I'm very girlie: I like the panniers and tents and bivys, but the technical aspects of the bike escape me!

He said to say that we have FCR3s, not FCR1s. I guess the FCR3 has a stronger fork?

We are thinking of trying out one of each of the below racks. It seems like it's really a question of personal preference (since we don't need to carry more than a days water with us).
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/tubus-tara-lowrider-front-rack/
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/M...?ModelID=14121

We traded in our 5-man car camping gear for a 2-man North Face Tadpole that weighs about 5lbs packed and our bivys are also ultra-light. We don't plan to take the direct route from Cork to Galway (what would be the fun in that!?): we plan to follow the coast but I expect that we will always be on paved roads.


The racks are the last thing we have to buy. Other than that, we just need to get on our bikes! I'm primarily responsible for the planning of this trip, so I'm so worried that I've forgotten something important.

Just test fit this front rack and companion rear last night. It's the Big series made by Nitto for Rivendell. It's as solid as a rock. Not cheap and not the lightest, but it does what I want it to do.


http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=195015

I built a rack with low riders and a porteur top. I find it very useful. I put bulky and light stuff on the proteur, or use it for the last bit of the day to carry groceries from the store to the campground. I don't really have a problem overloading. I know what stuff weights and how it feels to carry it. I create a list, and then I keep to it.http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=195018

I'm with you. I have only ever toured with a front platform. (Had a set of Beckman racks that were stolen.) The argument that a front platform causes you to carry more gear only applies to people who lack discipline. I am going to carry X whenther I have a front platform or not. Sleeping bag goes up front. That's it. Without the front platform it would go on the rear rack. Being able to put the bag on the front platform allows me to place the tent on the rear rack length-wise rather than cross-wise.