Can I make this Tubus Vega rack fit my Kinesis Racelight T2?

holiver

Hi all,

Another question from me! I have a Tubus Vega rack which I am looking to fit to my Kinesis Racelight T2 so I can use panniers to carry my stuff instead of relying on a backpack.

Everything seemed to be going swimmingly until I got to the left side stay that secures the rack to the left side seat stay. The problem I have encountered here is that the brake cable barrel adjuster sits in line with the route the stay is supposed to take. This means that the stay cannot reach the mount on the seat stay (apologies for the bad phone pictures!):




Tubus do say the rack stay can be bent:

The stays can be bent up to an angle of 45*. It is important, that the position of the bending is at least 20mm far from the flattened end of the stays.

The easiest way to bend the stays is in a vice. Please wrap the stays either with a piece of leather or a thick cloth to prevent them from bending marks.

TIP: If you have a carrier with 2 rods, bend both rods parallel in one go.

http://www.tubus.com/de_oe.php?xn=8

However if I were to do any bending it would appear that the bend would be too close to the flattened end of the stay.

Has anyone run into this issue before and can offer some advice? I had hoped that by purchasing a premium product everything would work perfectly!

Thank you.

pinno

>Can you put an equidistant 'kink' into both arms that reach the eyelets ? Surely, they are Alu and you could bend them just a small amount without too much risk of breaking them - Alu can be heated quite easily, very low melting point. You will have to straighten the bolt hole ends as well to make them paralell. Got a vice?

>Would it also be possible to flatten the last 2 inches ?

>Could you use a long bolt and place the left arm externally to the caliper? You would need a nut the other side of the arm bolt hole. Screw the bolt in and then tighten the bolt on the inside of the arm to stop the arm moving, if you see what I mean.

redvee

Tubus sell alternate arms with different bends in them. I'm guessing you already have the rods mounted as far inbound as possible.



http://www.tubus.com/zbh.php?xn=62

Monty Dog

I would 'dog leg' the strut inboard around the brake adjuster. I would say the issue is with Kinesis who've clearly put the rack mounting point in the wrong place as they designed the frame and would know where a brake caliper is mounted rather than Tubus.

holiver

Thanks for the replies guys.

The brake barrel adjuster is so close to the rack mount on the chainstay that I wouldn't feel too confident in kinking around it. I may take it to the nearest bike shop to look at, as I do not have any equipment to help effect such a thing having just moved house to start uni.

The Tubus pre kinked stays look like a good shout if they bend close enough to the end of the stay. As you can see I don't have too much room to work with! I will research - thanks for the suggestion.

It does seem that Kinesis placed the mount point in a bad place. However with the bends of the stays they might not have had too much choice in where to put it.

pinno

Monty Dog wrote:

I would 'dog leg' the strut inboard around the brake adjuster. I would say the issue is with Kinesis who've clearly put the rack mounting point in the wrong place as they designed the frame and would know where a brake caliper is mounted rather than Tubus.

I said 'kink'...same thing - you're trying to outwit me again MD, i'll catch up with you yet on that post score.

amaferanga

pinarello001 wrote:

>Can you put an equidistant 'kink' into both arms that reach the eyelets ? Surely, they are Alu and you could bend them just a small amount without too much risk of breaking them - Alu can be heated quite easily, very low melting point.

It's not alu.

spearmint_wino

Would a seatpost collar with a rack mount solve the problem? Or would that make the support arms too high?
Out of stock but gives you an idea: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/mpart-single-bo ... ack-mount/

MichaelW

If you have an eyelet it seems a shame to fit a seatpost collar problem solver.
Germans are usually very specific about their specifications so the 2cm rule may be good but I would be tempted to gently curve the flat stay around the problem area, then dogleg it straight. You would need a pipe bender rather than a vice to curve the metal, or you can bodge your own bender in a vice with suitable curvy bits.

Giraffoto

Would it be possible to bend both of the rods upwards and inwards a bit and then mount them to the stays with p-clips? I know it seems a shame to not use the frame mounts, but it's one way to get the job done. In similar circumstances (Blackburn rack fouling the cantilever hardware on the Tricross) I made up a centre mount that attached to the seatstay bridge, which may be another option. Do the upper mounts bolt to the rack as in the picture that redvee posted?

amaferanga

If it was mine I wouldn't bend them inwards. I'd put a bend in the direction of the rod so it approaches the mount from above. With enough of a bend it should (based on the pictures) then clear the calliper.

keef66

I'd be keen to know how this works out; I'll shortly be trying to fit a Tortec Ultralight rack to my Racelight Tk.

philclubman

Perhaps you could try a smaller barrel adjuster which might give enough clearance?

Something like this? (hopefully someone might sell a silver one!)
http://www.enemite.co.uk/brake-spares/blank-bmx-m6-barrel-adjuster-for-u-brakes-1-pair/11159

holiver

I've ordered a couple of the pre bent Tubus stays to try. One has a 12mm bend and the other an 8mm bend. Hopefully one of these will work!

pinno

You're not all still going on about this Vega bike rack thingy conundrum are you ?!

redvee

Easiest solution is to buy a new bike that the rack WILL fit, n+1 etc.

holiver

In the end I solved this by asking my LBS to bend one of the stays I had. They chose one of the pre bent ones and exaggerated the bend somewhat. Now the rack fits and is rock solid.