Sacrilege?

bice

Is it sacrilege to put a rack on a Trek 1.7 - or any more serious reason not to? I noticed only late in the day that it has threads for a braket, and although I bought a fancy ruck sack it is too small to be much use. I like to put things in paniers, and it is a bit irritating I can't use the Trek for errands.

I actually have a spare rack, one of those aluminium ones with a solid plate on the top of it rather than rods. I was going to fit race blades to the bike, but maybe you dont need to with that type of rack, or can fix something beneath it to act as a mudguard?

My view is, I can take it all off if I ever want to use a bike computer or take part in organised entertainment.

Tailend Charlie

fit the rack, it's your bike. why do you care what other people think?

There will always be some people who think you're a muppet, some who think it's ok and the vast majority who could give a flying foxtrot. Do the people who think you are a muppet matter? Cant think why, its not as if they are important.

alfablue

I would say it is not sacrilege in the least, and well worth doing to make the bike more functional. They can be removed in about 3 minutes. The rack won't function too well as a mudguard, it may protect your back but the bottom bracket/front mech area will get mucky. More important though is a front mudguard as your feet get soaked even if the road is wet after the rain. I would recommend proper mudguards (SKS p35) rather than race blades, if you get them in black they merge in with the tyres visually and don't look too bad. You can take them off in the spring.

For a lightweight rack there is the Tortec Ultralite, it is well made, good fittings, only £20 and about 400g. My girlfriend has one on her Trek 1.2, we went touring and I was surprised how well her bike handled with a moderate load in the panniers (it felt a lot more stable than my converted Ti mtb that cost 3 times the price :oops: ).

GyatsoLa

I'm about to put a pannier rack on my Cannondale R600... so I hope its not sacrilege! (but I would draw the line at a wicker basket on it...

Its actually quite difficult to fit a rack on a race bike, so be careful. I'd be reluctant to use p-clips on a nice bike, so I'd recommend one that uses a skewer mounting. Tubus has conversion kits for these, and Oldmanmountain have them as standard. For the connection to the stays, I fitted a rack on a (small) friends roadbike using a seat collar with built in eyelets, you can get them from Wiggle (M parts I think they are called).

The rack won't take much spray off in rain, you will probably need mudguards as well.

LittleB0b

It was one of the things that made me want a trek 1.7 - because i suspected i might want to do a few B&B tours in the summer (where you won't be carrying a lot, but it would be nice to have a pair of shoes and a change of pants).

err so that's a long winded way of saying my vote's with yes.

alfablue

I think the 1.7 is fully sorted with rack fittings.

bice

Unfortunately, I have already got some race blades, though I could probably take them back and exchange. But can proper mudguards fit a trek 1.7? I have a 25 tyre on the back.

alfablue

My girlfriend has SKS p35's on her 1.2 with 700x25 Schwalbe Marathons (which have quite a tall tread profile) and these fit fine. I think there may be some minor differences in the 1.7 frame (though I think the forks are the same) so I am not 100% sure, but if you have about 10mm under the fork crown I think they should work.

Eat My Dust

I stuck one of these on my Focus Cayo. I was using a courier bag but it was giving me problems with my shoulder. It looks fairly big, but what a difference it makes to cycling. The weight is lower so other than making the bike heavier it doesn't do anything to the balance of the bike. The bonus feature is that it works as a mudguard as well!!

http://www.carradice.co.uk/sqr-saddlepa ... tour.shtml

EssexSuffolk

Would it be problematic/inadvisable fitting one of those Carradice bags to a carbon seatpost? Looks like an ideal size for the sort of trips I've got in mind (basically overnighting at friends' homes 60-70 miles away).

Eat My Dust

EssexSuffolk wrote:

Would it be problematic/inadvisable fitting one of those Carradice bags to a carbon seatpost? Looks like an ideal size for the sort of trips I've got in mind (basically overnighting at friends' homes 60-70 miles away).

Not sure about the carbon seatpost. There are 2 metal straps that tighten onto the seatpost. You'd obviously have to be carefull when you were tightening these. Another potential problem is that you need a fair bit of room between the saddle and your back wheel. My bike is set up in a fairly aggressive riding postition, but if you have the saddle a bit lower you may have problems getting the bag on and off.

SBezza

You can't fit normal mudguards on the front of a 1.7, the forks are different to the 1.2 and 1.5 in that there is no threaded mount on the actual fork.