I am about to set off on a bike trip from Portugal to Vietnam and have been finalizing my bike setup. Trying to avoid unnecessarily spending money but also avoid future headaches as well.
Has anyone had issues using rear rack attachments like the ones shown? They are aluminum and bend pretty easily and I fear that they will break over time, but don’t want to waste money upgrading unless necessary. I am also just using a cheap Giant rear rack I already had laying around.
Added a picture of my whole setup for context as well.
by NoIndependence2327
10 Comments
I’m pretty confident those are steel. But, anyways, folks have been running those for years and they are bomber. Remember to check that all bolts are tight periodically. The nuts on top of the rack are prone to loosening.
No. It won’t fail, but l strongly advise you to put some irrigation pipe over the two strip’s at the front. My mate dismounted and got a really deep cut in his leg by hitting them. Not good in the middle of nowhere
Are you sure they are aluminum? Usually that type is stainless steel and they are plenty strong. They are not under a lot of stress, anyway.
This looks all right but personally I would put a crisp bend in them so they run straight to the seatstays rather than curving. That would make them stiffer.
I commuted 10 miles every day for about 12 years with almost the same set up (although the rack was made by Blackburn). Never a problem. Maybe add a dab of locktite on the bolts?
They’ll be fine. The majority of a racks strength comes from directly below it, this just helps stabilize and keep level. Dont exceed carrying capacity and check the bolts and nuts periodically and it will give you years of service, cheers!
Had these on my old bike for over 30 years they are literally bombproof.
They’re steel, they’re pretty tough and replacements will be available at any bike shop. I had one fail once but that’s when I was using one centrally mounted that allowed for a lot more rack flex.
If you’re worried grab a couple of spares and zip tie them to the rack
You can’t break that
Rack will give up first. Not much of a load gets transferred through them. I use similar if not the same supports in my enduro-packing setup 😉
I’ve seen and helped cobble much worse