Can you fit racks to a road bike?
cusimar9
Posts: 101
I have a racer and was wondering if I should / could fit racks to it ready for a LEJOG.
Do I have to get anything in particular or do any of these fit?
Do I have to get anything in particular or do any of these fit?
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Most rear racks can be fitted to a racer with P clips. But your heels may bash the panniers, unless they're small and you can push them to the back of the rack. Think about front panniers on a lowrider. It makes the steering slower but the handling should be OK, and the weight will be lower down and the aerodynamics are better. You can only have small panniers there, but if you combine them with the Carradice SQR Tour you should have enough capacity for LEJOG.
Don't tell me...you've got carbon forks so you can't have a lowrider, right? Silly me. :?<hr>
<h6>What\'s the point of going out? We\'re just going to end up back here anyway</h6>0 -
I do have carbon forks actually...0
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redddraggon wrote:I've just today fitted a rack to the back of my road bike, it is a carrera though.
I didn't even need p clips.
Got any pics?0 -
cusimar9 wrote:redddraggon wrote:I've just today fitted a rack to the back of my road bike, it is a carrera though.
I didn't even need p clips.
Got any pics?
My camera is at work, so I'll have to do it 2moro.
I hate the panniers already, I prefer the use of a rucksack. It seems to take the fun out of cycling home.0 -
I bodged a rack and mudguards onto my Basso last winter using P-clips and a bracket that I fitted onto my seat-post clamp. I use a Trek Interchange rack and bag. The bag has small fold-down panniers which can hold a surprising amount of stuff. I try to carry the heavy things in those to keep the weight lower on the bike. I do notice that the back end weighs a lot more if I stand up and 'honk' too vigourously on hills - the bike then fights me. If I don't swing the bike about too much it is okay.cusimar9 wrote:redddraggon wrote:I've just today fitted a rack to the back of my road bike, it is a carrera though.
I didn't even need p clips.
Got any pics?
Some photographs for you:
Warning to anyone bodging mudguards - make sure you know what you are doing - you don't want there to be any chance of them getting tangled up in your front wheel!
As you can see if you look closely at the photos above - I've added a cable tie for extra security on the front guard. Also - note the rear mudguard extension made from an old carbo powder bottle.
There is some 'toeclip overlap' on my bike. It gave me a fright when my shoe touched the front mudguard during a slow turn in traffic, but since I became aware of it, it hasn't been a problem.
PS - yes, I know the rack isn't level! It didn't bother me, but so many people have commented on it that I'm now getting fed up of it - I'll rebodge it some day to level it out.0 -
Tubus (I think the site is Tubus.net) make an axle mount kit for rear carriers to fit bikes without mudguard/carrier eyes.
It seems like a quality fitting, and comes complete with an elongated q/r skewer.
Their racks are certainly very good - The "Fly" being particularly lightweight.
For mudguards, the SKS Raceblades are designed to fit on mudguard-less bikes.
Not quite as good as full guards.
What's the blue thing at the bottom of the rear mudguard pictured - reflective tape?
Some road bikes come with mudguard eyes.... e.g. Trek 1000, Condor Agio.
"Audax" AKA sports-tourer bikes are a good halfway house.0 -
You could always credit card your way through LEJOG with a rack that fits to the seat stem and ask a good friend to drive ahead of you with clean clothes at the end0
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OnTow wrote:Tubus (I think the site is Tubus.net) make an axle mount kit for rear carriers to fit bikes without mudguard/carrier eyes.
It seems like a quality fitting, and comes complete with an elongated q/r skewer.
Their racks are certainly very good - The "Fly" being particularly lightweight.
For mudguards, the SKS Raceblades are designed to fit on mudguard-less bikes.
Not quite as good as full guards.
What's the blue thing at the bottom of the rear mudguard pictured - reflective tape?
Some road bikes come with mudguard eyes.... e.g. Trek 1000, Condor Agio.
"Audax" AKA sports-tourer bikes are a good halfway house.
If you look at the first and last photographs you can see that the rear mudguard is plenty long enough to ensure that I keep a dry bum in wet weather. It definitely isn't long enough to keep spray out of the face of anybody riding close behind me so I bodged an extension from a strip of blue plastic cut from a 2 kg Maxim carbo-powder bottle. It's done as a courtesy to my riding buddies.ColinJ wrote:Also - note the rear mudguard extension made from an old carbo powder bottle.0 -
Oh I see how they fit now, thanks
My bike doesn't have mudguards or extra threads for a rack... but looking at those pics above, I could presumably use a rack like this together with some P clips to mount the rack to the top of the forks?
That would be good...0 -
I assume that you mean on the back of the bike?cusimar9 wrote:Oh I see how they fit now, thanks
My bike doesn't have mudguards or extra threads for a rack... but looking at those pics above, I could presumably use a rack like this together with some P clips to mount the rack to the top of the forks?
That would be good...
I used P-clips like those to fix the bottom of my rack to my seatstays. The clips seemed slightly too large but the next size down was too small so I went with the bigger ones. The clips held for about 1,000 km but then came loose. After that I made some shims up from bits of aluminium beer can and now the clips fit perfectly. I drank the beer as a recovery drink...
I used a funny bracket with a twist in it to attach the top of the rack. I thought that it might prevent the seatpost clamp doing up tight enough to stop the post slipping, but I was lucky and both rack and seatpost have remained firmly in place.0 -
My girlfriend and I are also fitting panniers to our road bikes. I have a Trek 1500 and she has a Specialised Dolce. Last time I had panniers was on a tourer so I didnt consider it. I remember a friend did it on a racer and he had some really small pannier bags which I think he got from decathlon.
There is a massive price range on the bags. The altura's tend to be around 50 each whereas you can get the all in one things for about 15 but I think they might be too big. Feet hitting bags is not what you want during a fortnights riding.0 -
What about a seat post rack that has mounts for side panniers? I have the Topeak MTX BeamRack with the optional MTX Dual Side Frame and on this I place a Topeak MTX Trunkbag DXP.
The bag has folding out panniers and has 24 ltr of storage space.
According to the instructions it can fit both mountain bikes and road bikes. Currently doing great service on my GT Avalanche 1.0 but I hope to press it into service on my road bike when I finally have saved up the money to buy one. The GT is just way to slow on the roads!
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I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.0 -
LordSplodge, do you have a link to that seat post rack? I'd be interested to have a look...0
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This is a link for the mtx rack
http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=11126
and here is one specifically for road bike use
http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=113560 -
shropshire nomad wrote:This is a link for the mtx rack
http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=11126
and here is one specifically for road bike use
http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=11356
Would the MTX one that I have fit a road bike?
Otherwise I am going to need a new QR Rack (The RX one)...bummer--
I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.0 -
I guess the MTX one is just a more solid construction...0
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This is a bit OT but here's an unusual combo - a lowrider on carbon forks, without P clips. The forks are cyclocross ones and the lowrider is the type that mounts to the brake bosses and the axle.
Reynolds Ouzo Pro Cross forks:
Old Man Mountain lowrider:
Both fitted to a Serotta:
A very nice tourer, but it should be at £5k++<hr>
<h6>What\'s the point of going out? We\'re just going to end up back here anyway</h6>0 -
Don't forget the carradice SQR saddlebags as a luggage option, more stable than one of those seatpost rack things, which cant twist round at inopportune moments. This one has a decent capacity too (16l) http://www.carradice.co.uk/sqr-saddlepa ... tour.shtml0
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16 litre capacity :shock:
That looks quite good too. Pricey though.0 -
cusimar9 wrote:I guess the MTX one is just a more solid construction...
Dep on how much you want to carry. The MTX will take up to 9kgs. You may also need to get the pannier kit for it, dep on the pack you buy for it. I have the MTX for my commuter, but I bought it intending that it may find some use on my road bike and/or my MTB (dually). They come with three 'angles'. You need to ensure that you get the one set at the correct angle for your bike(s) too. I got the pretty straight one (one bends up, and one bends down).
Finally - you CANNOT fit them to a carbon seatpost. (I mean... of course you can, but it's not recommended and a shattering seat post with your butt coming down... lets not go there OK?)Commute - MASI Souville3 | Road/CX - MASI Speciale CX | Family - 80s ugly | Utility - Cargobike0 -
If you can afford it the Tubus axle adaptor
in conjunction with a Tubus rack like the Logo
and the "better than ordinary p-clip" Tubus upper fittings
make for a very solid set-up, "as one" with the bike.
The lower rail on the rack moves the bags lower (better centre of gravity, imroved handling) and further back, improving heel clearance, and the axle mount increases heel clearance further.
This set-up should be available for about £90 - pricey, but you want to know everything is safe and secure, and I think it is worth the money (I did once have a loaded rack part company with the bike on a long decent when mounted just with p-clips, I wont take chances now!).
(I use these with the Tubus Cosmo which is the stainless steel version of the Logo).
Oh, and Tubus carry a 10 year warranty, and within the first 3 years they undertake to courrier out any spares or replacements anywhere in the world - though I doubt they need to do this often as they are superbly built racks.0 -
Alfablue,
What bags do you use with your Tubus setup?0 -
I use Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus for touring, and when commuting I use one of these plus an Altura Urban 17" bag which is like a brief case/laptop bag.
I recently got the Ortlebs, I like the waterproof thing, the easy QL2 fitting system, and the accessory ant-theft cables. Before that I was using some old Karimor panniers that were not brill.0 -
the best solution I have found is a carradice seatpost mounted SQR saddlepack. It won't carry as much as 2 panniers, inevitably, but if you are just looking for light touring, it works perfectly for a race bike, without interfering with pedal stroke etc.
http://www.carradice.co.uk/sqr-saddlepa ... tour.shtml. There are three different types offered.0 -
We bought some pretty cheap at the weekend, I think the make was avensis. They look sturdy enough, we also picked up a couple of racks, I have felt lighter but they arent too bad and they were only £18 so I cant complain. Off to the Lake district this weekend for trial run0
