Icycle

My wife and I have a Trek T-1000 tandem, and we are considering taking it on a week long bike tour this summer. I would like to mount a front low-rider rack, but finding one that is compatible is proving to be quite challenging.

The front fork has eyelets near the axle, but there are no mid-fork braze-ons, which seems to eliminate most front low-rider racks. There are also no V-brake bosses, which eliminates the Old Man Mountain mounting system. Finally, the front fork is more than an inch in diameter, which eliminates the Tubus mid-fork adapter clamps.

Are there any front low-rider racks which can mount on this bike, securely and without damaging the fork or the rack?

Chris_W

Have you already maximized the number of frame bags that you can use? I have several that I place on the tandem when going on tour so that I can keep the nice carbon fork on there with no rack instead of resorting to the much heavier steel fork and rack. We can get 5 or 6 litres capacity between the frame bags, a tri-bag / bento box behind the stem, and a water-bottle shaped toolbox that goes on an extra set of bottle mounts that I place under the front down tube. A handlebar bag can then give you another bit of storage space, and with all this, you may not need the front panniers.

JanMM

In the 80's, Blackburn low rider racks originally came with U-clamps for use on forks without those braze-on's that are referred to. The clamps were plastic-coated. Probably to be found in some bike shops or perhaps a hardware store?

WebsterBikeMan

I have one of those racks - available - I don't know whether I can find the clamps, still, as I've had braze-ons for front racks on all candidate bikes for the last two decades. What I can say is that the holes on the rack that the clamps pass through are two long slots, nearly two inches from one end of one slot to the other end of the other slot. Might work, although I'm sure the purpose of the slots is to allow for variability in fork rake.

Basically the (now missing) hardware was a coated U-bolt and a coated plate with two holes in it, and two hex nuts. The plate went between the fork and the rack, the bolt around the fork and through the plate and the rack, and the nuts onto the bolt. This should be doable without the original equipment.

WebsterBikeMan

Go to the Arkel Overdesigns web site. Click on the rack icon. Now scroll to the descriptions of front racks. It looks like there is at least one, if not several that could work.
To be safe, I'd contact Arkel directly - they're just reselling, but there's a real person who will respond.
Another possible site would be bikebagshop.com. They would know if something they sell will work.

Icycle

Thanks for the pointer to the bikebagshop website. It looks great! This website mentions that Jandd stocks rubber coated hose clamps in five sizes sizes, up to 1 3/8", for mounting front racks on forks with no mid-fork braze-ons. This should take care of my situation quite nicely. And even if I don't like Jandd racks, the solution may be adaptable to other brands without too much work.

tgot 

Hi,

I have a Trek T-1000, and the Jandd Extreme front rack. The rack had the top deck I wanted, one of very few choices. The Extreme also has bars at two levels, to allow mounting low or high.

But the angle of the lower supports did not work with the eyelets on the fork.

I can also tell you that the coated P-clamps it came with did not fit my fork. I think the largest one was too big for the fork ends, but too small for the mid-fork support.

It came with three (two?) sets, and I was not aware of being able to order more/wider sizes. Doing so might have made it easier...

I bought the rack from Bicycle Outfitters, and after phoning them got no help on additional P-clamp sizes; the Talbots cyclery staff were happy to go through their set, but none were big enough.

I ended up cutting some earthquake strapping to length, instead of the coated P-clamps, for the fork end/lower rack attachment. I wrapped the fork in electrical tape to protect it. It isn't pretty, but its pretty secure. Since my riding is local, with small children, I'm strongly avoiding rain (the strap is galvanized, but would presumably rust at the cuts). If I got more ambitious, I'd remove, paint, and re-installl the strapping.

With my homebrew strapping, the rack was low and back even further than if the eyelets had worked, and I was able to secure the mid-fork mounts by putting a bolt through the mid-fork holes, and through the slots in the Extreme. I used some washers to fill the space, so that I could tighten and not bend in the rack legs too much. Again, those bolts were longer than bike shops seem to stock.

Now, my fork must be different than yours, since you say you have no mid-fork braze-ons. I dodn't have braze-ons, but a hole passing all the way through the fork, which is massive at that point.

The setup works pretty well. The top deck is plenty high above the wheel, and would clear large tires and fenders. I wish it were slightly lower, because bulky stuff like diaper bag and bungied jackets tend to conflict with where the brake/shift cables naturally curve.

I hope this helps,

Eric

Icycle

Given that touring is relatively more common among tandem riders, and that people are relatively less likely to have a dedicated tandem for touring, I'm kind of surprised that Trek redesigned their front fork to remove the mid-fork rack mount point, especially considering that they did leave eyelets near the axle.

It does indeed sound like we have different forks, so the compatibility problems you had with the lower supports and eyelets may not apply to my fork. It's not exactly clear from your description what the problem was though. Was it something that could have been solved by a spacing cylinder between the eyelet and the support that the bolt passes through?

I like to carry a handlebar bag. Will the top deck interfere with that? It sounds like it probably won't if it is empty, but it may if there is anything at all on top of it.

tgot 

I think only if that spacing cylinder was 1/2" or so, for the rack as shipped. The problem was that the bar past the hole was too long. If the rack bar had ended with a bare 1/8" of aluminum around the hole, I think it would have fit. But, I was afraid to start cutting that short. While I think most of the extra length past the hole adds no strength, the amount I would have had to remove made me nervous.

Now, maybe a small spacer cylinder would have allowed only a small amount of rack bar removal.

I agree.

I can try to take some pictures this weekend and post them, if you think it would be helpful.

tgot 

Hi,

Attached are some photos. I think they show:

1) How the thick fork body curves up away from the fork eyelet, such that a rack at the angle of the Jandd Extreme can't go past the eyelet at all and attach. And, how my strapping substitutes for the right-sized P-clamp.

2) The bolt-through fork holding the rack.

3) How much space there is above the rack and in front of the handlebars.

HTH,

Eric

Icycle

I think I may give the Jandd Extreme Front Rack a try. My front fork is a bit different, so it might work without conflict. I'll update this thread with details once I've given it a try.

Icycle

So the Jandd Extreme Front Rack seems to have worked out, once I found appropriate sized clamps for the mid-fork attachement point. No spacers were necessary at the bottom braze-ons. I haven't had a chance to try it out with a normal load yet, but it seems pretty sturdy.

tgot 

Great!

Is the rack positioned such that there is room for stuff on top, or just for your handlebar bag?

Icycle

It looks like I could probably put short stuff like a six pack of soda on top, but not tall stuff like a sleeping bag.

twicethefun

Hi,

I own a T1000 and found a way to install the very neat Tubus Tara.

The lower attachment goes in the drop-out's eyelet with 10mm spacers.

For the top attachment, I used rear reflectors collars (those used on the seat posts). I trimmed the reflector attachment from the collar and used a piece of 15mm aluminum tube (from a tent pole) as a spacer to join the bolt tab of the collar and the rack with it touching the frame.

Although this setup is not that sturdy, I decided to go with it because it does not damage the fork -- most of the time, it's off so I did not want it to leave marks.

I wouldn't trust that setup for heavy touring but I did carry a set of 20 litres panniers on rough roads with success.

Tubus sells a kit that is pretty much like this but the fork is too big for it to fit.

I can't post pics because I am not home, PM me if you want more details.

Good luck!

Icycle

I have finally gotten around to taking some pictures of the new Jandd Extreme Front Rack mounted on the Trek T-1000, in case anyone is curious how it worked out. These pictures show pretty clearly what I needed to do to mount the rack in place. They also show that the top platform of the rack doesn't conflict with the handlebar bag, at least for short cargo.