Hi all,
Thanks for your help if you have the time.
I have a giant defy 1 which I am now using to commute to work. Commute has gone up from 6 miles to 13 miles one way. It's nice to spend more time on the bike but using a rucksack has become much more of a pain over that distance.
I have puchcaced a pannier rack and bags after reading how much of a life changing experience this would be on reddit.
Due to the giants frame fixings(or lack of) I went for a pannier rack which could fix via the same fixings as the rear rim brake.
Riding this is a dream compared to using the rucksack but the pannier rack interacts with the rear brakes and makes it hard to use them. It is touching the calipers from above and making it hard to squeeze them.
I have attached pics of the issue, you see I had to thread the rack through a gap in the caliper. This doesn't seem to be impending the brake use, rather it's contact with the top of the caliper.
I would love some advice as to how I can fix this please. I feel like I have three options
1) file down top of caliper so no longer touching rack. Will not need much taken off, but could this lead to it failing in future?
2) bend pannier rack frame so as not to touch caliper – I am sure this would be possible but not sure in my head how I would do this without making very wonky or breaking the frame
3) get new calipers with more clearance so will fit under frame.
Do you think this is something I can sort myself or should I give up and ask my local bike shop? I was proud of achieving this much by myself.
Thanks very much for your time reading this 🙂
by Hoverflys
4 Comments
You can buy a bracket that fixes between the rear stays to attach rack. There will be one for your specific rack but if not then adapt one to suit. Rack should be level when in right position.
The frame doesn’t have rack mounts you have it mounted on the mudguard mounts. If it had rack mounts as well it would have 2 sets of screw holes near the dropouts one for mudguards the other for a rack.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to mount a rack just that you will always run into these issues trying to mount one where it was not supposed to go.
As the other poster mentioned, there are clips and brackets that allow the pannier to attach to the frame.
I’ve had some luck in the past making up mounts using rubber p clips to create attachment points along the seat stay for the pannier rack.
In your case though, it looks like you need a bracket to extend up from the rim brake hole to level the pannier and clear the brake caliper itself.
You can get seatpost clamps that have rack threads on them. I think your frame will take a 34.9mm clamp but worth checking. This will let you use a normal four point rack
Don’t modify your brakes