Road bike with a rack

mattwarin

Hi,

I'm looking to buy my first new road bike, I want to be able to fit a rack to it but also for it it be reasonably fast and light. My budget is about £1000. The Genesis Equlibrium 10 is looking like a favourite at the moment but is there anything I'm missing? Doesn't need to be steel but mounting a rack is a must.

Also ,is fitting racks to light alu frames using p clips and the mudguard eyelets advisable? I did this with an old alu frame and there was a lip on the seat stay when i took the clip off, would this be a problem on a new light alu bike?

Thanks for your help

Matt

holiver

I have a rack on my Kinesis. I built mine up, but there is also an off the peg version available.

iron-clover

The Genesis equilibrium would probably make a fine road/ commuting bike. It wouldn't be the lightest of road bikes but it would probably make up for it in comfort and durability.
They also have all the brazed on fittings needed for modern racks.

Any frame that has the brazed on mounts for panniers will take panniers- my alloy Trek originally had a rack on (a brief carryover from my touring days) which was fine, and it's also a fairly light alloy frame.

As you say, I wouldn't want to use p clips for a pannier rack as even with something to protect the paint/ frame underneath the weight of a load would probably wear into it over time. You should be able to get racks which mount under the brake calipers though, so if it has mudguard eyelets but no specific pannier mounts then you should still be able to put something on- that's how they were always fitted 'back in the day'.