Advice wanted please - front racks

sbullett

I need to get some front racks and panniers for my Giant Expression rigid-forked hybrid. It has braze-ons on the fork.

Can anyone recommend a good but low cost rack and pannier set?

Thanks

Simon

alfablue

This Axiom Lowrider front rack looks good at £17.99,



and Edinburgh Cycling Cooperative Revolution Adventure Universal Panniers 28L are well rated (apparently made by Vaude), £47.95.

culverwood

Blackburn Custom Lowrider Pair

£24.99 at Wiggle

Carradice Carradry Front Pannier Pair

£49.99 at Carradice

pneumatic

Are you sure you need front panniers at all? Where are you going that needs you to take more than the contents of a couple of decent rear panniers and a bar bag? You can always use the rack for carrying evening shopping the last few kms to your campsite.

I got the whole four pannier set up with the Super Galaxy and so, of course, I used it on my first tour. Fun, looks quite cool, but second time around I didn't bother with so much unnecessary stuff and, guess what? I didn't miss it!

vernonlevy

pneumatic wrote:

Are you sure you need front panniers at all? Where are you going that needs you to take more than the contents of a couple of decent rear panniers and a bar bag? You can always use the rack for carrying evening shopping the last few kms to your campsite.

I got the whole four pannier set up with the Super Galaxy and so, of course, I used it on my first tour. Fun, looks quite cool, but second time around I didn't bother with so much unnecessary stuff and, guess what? I didn't miss it!

I use four panniers and used to wonder how my mate used to cope with two rear panniers. Then I saw his rear panniers - 50% more capacity then mine.

I could in theory copw with two rear panniers but would do sop only for short 2-3 day tours.

culverwood

I've only just started to use front panniers and will be buying two more of the Carradry front panniers to use on the back. This time I had the full size back pannier plus front and realised how much stuff we did not need. Four little ones is the way to go for me.

alfablue

I just toured the Celtic Trail using 2 rear Ortlieb Bike Paker Plus bags. Some days (after picking up shopping) I had them absolutely full to capacity (40 litres is not quite enough for me). I also found the bike was a bit twitchy at the front end. Given the choice I would use 4 panniers to improve stability and handling (and maybe reduce the load in the rears slightly). For now I can't justify the expense but I will probably go down that route next year.