Tubus Tara mounting off-center
08-02-07, 08:47 PM
#1
Dropped
Thread Starter
Tubus Tara mounting off-center
I recently purchased and installed a used Tubus Tara lowrider rack. The seller claimed it had only been used for one 100 mile tour, which I am inclined to believe. However, it took quite a bit of muscle to mount it to my fork, and the hoop is off center to the left maybe 1 cm. But there still is plenty of tire clearance.
I don't know if this is an issue with the rack, poorly placed mount holes on the fork, or (and this seems less likely) a tweaked forks.
First, should I be concerned about the "spring" tension on the mounting bolts created by muscling it into place? Second, how would I correct it? I've thought about bending the tubes, but I'm afraid I'll screw it up worse. I also thought about bending the mounting tabs a bit, but then I thought that might compromise the weld joint.
Should I just leave it be? I suppose it will off-balance the weight on the front panniers slightly, which might adversely affect handling.
I don't know if this is an issue with the rack, poorly placed mount holes on the fork, or (and this seems less likely) a tweaked forks.
First, should I be concerned about the "spring" tension on the mounting bolts created by muscling it into place? Second, how would I correct it? I've thought about bending the tubes, but I'm afraid I'll screw it up worse. I also thought about bending the mounting tabs a bit, but then I thought that might compromise the weld joint.
Should I just leave it be? I suppose it will off-balance the weight on the front panniers slightly, which might adversely affect handling.
Last edited by JunkYardBike; 08-02-07 at 10:55 PM.
08-03-07, 08:31 AM
#2
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I mounted a Tubus Tara on my LHT before I took it across Canada. When I installed it, it was off-center by just over 1cm. I took off the rack and muscled it out- not much, but just a little bit. Now it's about half a cm out of 'true.' I rode that thing from coast to coast and never had a problem with the handling or load centering or anything. I ended up bending a different part of the rack when I accidently took a big drop fully loaded in Saskatchewan; bent that back mostly straight too. One of my weaker racks would have broken I'm pretty sure, I was LOADED that day with water.
I find that you can bend the Tara straighter, but don't try to make it perfectly straight because then it's just going to take too much force and that's when stuff is likely to go wrong.
Loading your panniers improperly is probably a bigger problem I'd say. You're more likely to notice a can of soup in one pannier and not the other than you are the 1cm 'out of line' on the rack.
I find that you can bend the Tara straighter, but don't try to make it perfectly straight because then it's just going to take too much force and that's when stuff is likely to go wrong.
Loading your panniers improperly is probably a bigger problem I'd say. You're more likely to notice a can of soup in one pannier and not the other than you are the 1cm 'out of line' on the rack.
08-03-07, 05:52 PM
#3
Dropped
Thread Starter
Thanks. I took it out on a short "shakedown" run with the panniers partially loaded, and I didn't feel anything that concerned me. Of course, I'm new to touring in general, so I did notice some handling differences with front panniers - mainly the need for more input to steer, and then the desire for the bike to oversteer on slow, tight turns.
