Hello everyone,

I've just assembled the bicycle I hope to use for touring (I'm planning a lengthy cycle around Europe in the coming year). I'm having trouble with a front rack, I've used a combination of low riders with a sort of porteur style thing, and they were crap.

Anyway,

does anyone know how to mount a rear rack on the front fork? I've seen several people do it, but I've never been able to ask how they've done it. Money is quite tight so I'd rather not have to spend £80 on a rack.

If anyone has any tips I'd be most pleased to hear them!

I was up north, Newcastle, and wanted to shift some weight off the rear rack ,
a framebuilder knocked one out in 48 hours , for me , of steel ,
It mounted to the ends of the cantilevers, and the bolt hole thru the fork crown.

that was 1991, Its still good..

yes I know how, but you need someone there, to sort it out.

there is a knock off of the Blackburn MTN F, they will serve as a substitute
for the hoop of a Blackburn low rider rack, there is a china copy of that 70~80's
classic too.

Pletscher makes a rack that's interchangeable between front and rear. Mounts to the fork crown using a flexible metal strip, and the struts either mount to your fender eyelets or the fork arms using p-clips. Riv's got one available.

My fork has 2 sets of eyelets in front and behind the axle. I searched for a front rack and settled on an inexpensive Bontrager Basic rear rack . It cleared my 700c wheels and the fender and mounts solidly to the front two eyelets. This rack has center holes to mount the metal strip to the center hole of the fork crown.

In my searches I found the Salsa Wonderlust to be an expensive alternative that would allow a lower mounting point, but could not justify the high price.

I tried the rear on front and while it was acceptable, I did find it wobbled at low speed when climbing. I have posts here in bikeforums showing how I mounted it. I now use the Blackburn MTF-1 front rack and find it very solid:

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/M...?ModelID=14121
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/blackburn...loy-prod15294/

i was able to mount a full sized rear blackburn rack i got for cheap as a front rack by drilling one extra hole on the metal stabilizer plate. i've done lots of long tours and i like the full sized front rack. i'm able to carry two additional panniers up front, or my two person tent or other combinations of loads.

look for a rack that connects with a single "L" bracket through the fork front brake bridge hole - not the ones with two connecting arms. i updated the existing bolt and nut that connects the front fender with a slightly longer one. the front fender connector is fed on from the rear of the fork and the rack L bracket from the front. i used an extra nut to space out the L bracket to clear the bottom headset cup. i drilled one additional hole into the L bracket so there would be two bolts connecting the rack to the L bracket. that's it.

i'll try to post a detail of the connection one of these days...


miyata 610 by brooklyn_bike, on Flickr

If you question is motivated by a desire to have a front rack with a large front platform, look at the Nitto Big front rack from Rivendell. Expensive, but very strong and good looking. The panniers sit a little higher than they do on low riders, but not as high as they do on a hig mount rack.

I made my own to get what I wanted out of alluminum. Quite strong, light and a large platform. My DIY panniers attach to the top rail.

I"d be shy about mounting any kind of front rack that is used for panniers that commits to mounting the pannier forwards of the front axle.

Mine are relatively small and lightly loaded, and I haven’t seen a great deal of stability issues with my setup. That being said I do plan on totally changing the front setup. I agree lower and trailing is better for the pannier load. I love the front rack but with foresight I wished it was frame mounted not fork mounted. My next experiment into a front platform will be a fixed one frame mounted and the panniers will turn independent of it. Haven’t worked out all the details of how to best build that without altering or welding to the frame yet.

If you have canti brakes, a Nitto M-12 might work well with your low rider rack. Low rider to carry the panniers, M-12 to carry the front bag. If you don’t have canti brakes, a Nitto M-15 should work. I have one on my Vaya and it seems to work well with my low rider Tubus Cargo.

I've done it using long bolts to stand the bottom legs off from the forks, and a steel plate bent in an "Omega" shape that had one bolt where the front brakes attach and two bolts through the "front" of the rack. I don't have pictures, but it was pretty easy. Hardest part was I had to flop the brakes to the back of the fork. Some frames won't have enough clearance for that.