Hey folks – hopefully the right community to ask this, but as a someone who at 38 years old now owns his first (2nd hand) bike since he was about 14 years old I know nothing and need some help.
In the picture you’ll see the pannier rack arm hits the brake cable, which I think is using the caliper on the same side against the wheel. I can’t see how I can resolve this without removing the rack arm, because the back mount of the caliper looks like one piece, so twisting it away from the wheel means the cable moves in to the rack arm?
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can resolve this?
Apologies if I’ve made no sense and am saying all the wrong things 🙂
by hawkwasps
14 Comments
Try swapping the left and right bracket. The bend might be a little more forgiving in the other orientation.
Well youre early with figuring out disc brakes are better. This brake and rack are incompatible. Good luck.
Those rack arms are flat and bendable. Try switching and “dry fitting” them. If that doesn’t work, you can either bend them to clear your brake arm or take it to the local bike store and ask a mechanic to do it for you.
Can you use a vise or pliers and move the twist further back in the stay?
just bend the pannier arm until it doesn’t hit the brake and adjust the length bolt accordingly ( not ideal but as long as it doesn’t touch the brake) 👍
In addition to my other comment, using a much longer bolt at spacer to move the mount outside of the cable may also work, if you don’t hit it with your foot/leg while pedaling.
You should be able to alter the rack stays so that they don’t interfere with the brake. Loosen off the end attached to the rack and then bend it out of the way with some pliers or a crescent wrench. Then tighten the end on the rack again. Shouldn’t affect the performance of the rack that much if you are using it as intended (no giving rides to friends).
Not sure if this will get me done heat, but you could probably file a small notch into that bracket to make room for the cable. It’s not like that arm is holding any weight, it just keeps the rack from pivoting.
If you don’t like the idea of bending the arm, another option would be a seat clamp with rack mounts.
There are seatpost clamps with mounting holes that would get the mounts up and away from the brake caliper. Problem solvers sells them, and there are many clones. Salsa makes a mount that only clamps into the seat tube for the same function as well.
Thank you all so much! Great community with heaps of advice for me to try today 🙂
File down the pannier a bit, it will survive – unless you’re carrying bricks around.
Remove both of the horizontal stabilizers (the silver stamped metal strips). Then take one and crush the 90 degree twist flat using bench vise. Next, put a ~110 degree bend about an inch back from the hole. Slip the hole over the mounting bolt of the caliper (in between caliper and frame). Now mount the stay to the center of the rack. Best and cleanest way to fix this.
Track down a center-pull brake if you can. Do you have a community bike shop nearby?