Hello! I'm doing my first tour in a couple weeks across Utah's West Desert and I have a question. So, I've got a Surly Ogre with Salsa Down Under racks and they didn't quite fit. So, a ton of spacers and some really long reflector bolts later, I got them to fit around the fork, but now I'm worried about the bolts shearing. I'll post pics when I've got 'em, but does anyone have a heavily-spaced setup, and what's been your experience with it? The road we'll be traveling is dirt/gravel with a few 2k ft climb/descents.

Use High Quality steel bolts & that should not be an issue.


I fabricated an adapter out of extruded aluminum angle to use a front low rider rack with a large mis match between the fork braze on and the rack ..

it all depends on your fabricating chops..

I went on a tour with a buddy once, and he had an MTB with disc brakes. The cheap trek rack he got avoided the disc brakes by using a 1" spacer on the bottom bolt. After about five days of riding (mix of paved and dirt), one of the bolts fatigued and broke. The rack was loaded with about 30 lbs, and had a rated capacity of 40 lbs. I would avoid putting very many spacers on a bolt if at all possible.

Higher quality bolts will help. High-strength English spec bolts are called grade 8, metric is called 12.9. Another solution is to use a male-to-female standoff: McMaster-Carr.

If it is your front, will you have a heavy load in it? Most people have pretty light loads in the front. I am most concerned about spacers in back because most back racks carry a much heavier load.

But me have no idea how long your spacers are. I often run spacers on my front rack that are about a quarter inch in length.

Thanks for the replies - I'm heading to the hardware store this very afternoon! The standoff would be my ideal choice, but the Down Under has a strut that mounts to the inside boss on the fork.

I'm not planning on a heavy load - a Dromlite bag in each one with some lightweight clothing and food and a few bike tools: ~10-15 lbs each. I plan on carrying a lot of my gear in my backpack since I only have one rear pannier and I don't want to overweight one side.

Auto Parts stores Have higher strength steel Bolts one Marked 8.8 on the head is a lot better than mild steel used in common Hardware.

These are the size of the spacers I use on my front rack:

I consider a front pannier over 10 pounds to be on the heavy side, but not uncommon. At 15 pounds if you are off pavement, you want a good rack mounting. If that road you cite as dirt/gravel is a 4X4 road, you want REALLY good mounting for when you hit the big bumps.

Does that rack you use have a hoop over the top, or is each side independent of the other? If a hoop type rack, I think that adds more structural integrity.

I think the spacers I use on my front are about the same as Doug64 uses.

I've used spacers of maybe 10mm tops but I suspect the issue here is being on gravel roads which will be a heck of a lot rougher riding than anything I've ever done. Lots of variables and tire width and pressure will be a factor also, a big factor in my opinion.

If it was me, I'd want to ride test rides and observe and see how it goes and not bash the bike unnecessarily over rough stuff.

Think it's going to come down to your specific situation and keeping an eye on things.

[MENTION=3190]tourist[/MENTION] - they're independent: Salsa Down Under rack. The route isn't exactly 4x4, but it is popular with ATV'ers...
[MENTION=199530]djb[/MENTION] - We're headed out on a loaded test run this week. I think that I'll be running a 29x2.3 up front for safety's sake. I'll let you know how it goes.