needed some parts from lane and he offered to meet me in person and then refused to accept money for it. i've talked to him a few times and he seems like a good dude. out of the handful of bad reviews i bet he has hundreds and hundreds of great ones.

But the bad reviews are not that someone doesn't like the racks or the shipping was slow, it seems he is not delivering on prepaid orders. He might be a nice guy in person and just needs someone to keep things in order at the office but taking people's money...

Obviously there is a niche to be fulfilled in this market.

So all you guys at the top of Maslow's hierarchy.... consider delivering! haha

yea but we don't know the whole story. perhaps the op was a complete jackass on the phone and lane is just stringing him along for 6 months to tell him to screw off or something. not saying that he would do that, but i would.

If I was telling someone to screw off, I would send back the money. I don't know if any of the story is true, just like all the interwebs, but based on what I have read, I would get on top of it one way or another (I've been running tiny businesses for many years). People don't mind if I am going to be late as long as I tell them the truth and let the customer decide on what to do.

You live in SF, so why not: http://www.passstow.com/

$250...

but see, that's the genius of it. dicking around with someone's money on hold is a way better form of screwing with someone than just a straight up refund.

man, are you so cheap that you don't want quality? my pass and stow is the best rack i've ever used, and imo the best out there. and when you think about it in terms of how long it will last, it is totally reasonably priced. people always complain about the price, and it just seems really stupid to me.

There's always the standard porteur rack from VO, $145-160: http://www.velo-orange.com/racks.html. I think Leah's Rack Lady racks are amazing, and at ~$200 for a custom rack, an amazing deal as well (and I don't think she's hurting for business). For off-the-shelf, I'd probably go with the Pass and Stow. I didn't know the ANT racks were being sold separately from bike builds again, but I'm sure he's charging well north of $200 for those. As vegenaise mentions, good racks may seem pricey, but I think they're worth it, if you rely on them a lot and to carry a lot. A couple of things to note regarding quality is how well the struts are triangulated to the platform, and how/where the platform attaches to the frame.

Good luck with your search!

Whoa, is this guy your brother or something?

I'm a college student who doesn't have that much money to start with (lets save the stereotypes here, I don't blow my money on booze and weed). I want a rack for groceries laundry and street rummaging.

I do think the rack lady is providing more value because its CUSTOM work for a comparable price.

And if I was going to be spending $250 on a rack I would probably step it up and get a fork with a drilled out crown (which yes would prove to last my lifetime).

Its a good looking rack, but its also a designer rack.... Its one of the first options that come up when searching. you're paying for convenience of attainment, the actual product and the fact its a designer rack.

I havent ruled out the P&S, I'm looking for any and every alternative. I may end up dropping that much but I'd really like to see if there is another solution first.


It's not so "stupid" as you crassly put it as it is just getting the best bang for the buck.


side note.
I have read that the tange on the VO rack attaching it to the top of the fork is a bit flimsy and could be a problem down the road so that kinda bummed me out.


one more thing... consider Freight Baggage's rack bag in concert with a pass stow rack(which they desgined the bag for)... Thats $400!

stop being so broke dude. get in the drug trade. i won't ride any bike that costs less than 2 g's.

on a more serious note, just because it's custom, doesn't necessary mean it's better. you'd be hard pressed to find a platform rack that is better designed than the p&s. like, im not sure how you could improve upon it. any other platform rack that can also take panniers that i've seen don't come close. i guess if you're into wood slats and all that crap. i want something that will work and last. not something that doesn't serve much of a point other then being flashy.

$400 bucks for a quality waterproof bag and a rack like p&s seems very reasonable to me.

Yeah, fair enough.

I guess looking at it in the context of my bike being worth like $250 and then having $400 over the fork is what makes me hesitant.

cheers,

Any updates on the guys that are waiting on their Cetmas? He updated the site with new racks and prices...


also, I found the alternative I've been looking for. I'll keep you updated...

Muni- try his website. It list a 4 week wait currently. It also list his phone number.

Porteur racks are for posers.

I wanna be a poser!

care to elaborate on this statement?

Believe in yourself and make it happen!

No

***.

By the way, your suggestion that this merchant intentionally steals from customers who he doesn't like is the most damning comment in this thread so far. I certainly hope he is not as despicable as you think he is. Shame on you for slandering him and you should be even more ashamed to approve of such behavior whether or not it is true.

what kind of moron are you? i already said itt that lane is a good guy. and did you even read my hypothetical post? there was no mention of stealing from whatsoever. just prolonged screwing with. i think such behavior is hilarious when deserved. would do it to you in a heartbeat.

Are the different kinds of morons? We are smarter than imbeciles and even more smarter than idiots, but I don't think these words are used by intelligent people these days. What kind of moron are you?

You are a shameless lout who continues to put forward the idea that this merchant has taken the money and has intentionally withheld delivery, which is theft, my fellow moron.

Thanks, but I was just asking about the OP's situation and the other guy. I'm not ordering from him.

I know this is splitting hairs, but I thought it was funny just because you guys were arguing intelligence. You said "...more smarter...," which is obviously redundant.

And as far as only posers use porteurs, elaborate.

Nothing is wrong with wanting to make your bicycle more useful than it already is.

http://i.imgur.com/aqFn8.jpg

We were arguing ethics, not intelligence.

For someone claiming to be a moron, I think I write pretty good. Thanks for pointing out my error though, I'm always trying to improve.

If you use your bike to impress doofus hipsters, adding a wide front rack will make your bike more useful. For carrying stuff, a rear rack is much more better.

The picture you posted reminded me of this one I took yesterday. Enjoying a smoke on a rainy day.
http://i478.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/DSC01668.jpg

For $250, dude could buy a helmet, long pants, a waterproof jacket, socks and have money left over to get a patch kit for his friend.

I've got a CETMA sitting out in my garage. I tried to install it on my cross check and the drops got in the way too much. So, any of you folks out there that might like the quality of the rack but don't want to deal with the wait/possible nonarrival can buy my five rail powdercoated black if you wish.

Feel free to PM me.

This is the rack I have: http://www.cetmacargo.com/CETMA%20cargo%205-rail.htm

they both have their uses. i find that the majority of the time when i need to carry something on a rack, my front platform rack manages the load better. i used to work as a courier, and i can tell you that my cetma rack was 10x more useful than a rear rack would have been.

A load that would be more manageable on a rack mounted to my fork than on a rack mounted to my frame is hard for me to imagine.

the rack actually mounts to your hub axle and your handlebars. doesn't mount to the fork at all. also, go look at the cetma gallery. half the random **** that people carry would have been much harder to carry on a narrow rear rack. that fact for the matter is when you're carrying large parcels, they're much easier to manage when you have a wide platform rack underneath.