Biking in Missouri with a couple friends and a piece of my rack broke off. It managed to hold together for about 30 miles with bungee cords and then I was able to get to a hardware store for cable ties and the photo is how I have it setup now with four heavy duty cable ties holding the arm that connects to the frame. The closest bike shop on our route is about 70 miles away. My friends think I should uber to a bike shop (about 30 minutes drive) and buy a new rack, while I think this could hold together until we bike to the shop. Wanted to see if there were opinions on if this would hold up or not or other modifications that could be made to strengthen it. Holding about 40 lbs total of panniers on the rack.
Thanks!
by ReindeerComplete6492
3 Comments
If load condition is good and no bumpy, it will be good for once until you get to the shop.
Don’t expect to use it repeatly.
It is too risky.
if it was the cylindrical knob that held onto the right side arm, then you will be okay. Those arms are to prevent the rack from rotating forward or backwards. the legs are what hold the weight, these two are are stabilizers. very little force/weight is help up by those arms.
also many, many racks have only 1 stabilizer, so you should be just fine.
if you are worried that the heavy duty zip ties are not enough, a hose clamp would be technically stronger, but in this case, would probably be overkill.
you could also zip tie the very front of the top of the rack to you seat stay or seatpost to doubly ensure stability
honestly, i’ve seen many a racks cobbled together like this last for years.
either way, nice engenuity.
Do you have spare cable ties?
Those should hold fine for a while, ive used thinner ones to suspend car parts to a garage ceiling in the past.
The only ones you may have issues with are the longer ones, since they appear to be wrapping a sharpish edge.
Just keep an eye on them every so often and make sure they aren’t getting cut with the vibration etc and replace them as neededÂ