Dfrost 

I briefly used an M18, and yes, direct attachment to mid-fork eyelets is possible and preferable. To get the rack farther back, so tombstone would be closer to the head tube, I drilled an additional hole in the bracket that attaches to the fork crown. Not using that rack for other reasons, and sold it it to Andy_K . Don’t recall any forward fender mount however.

polymorphself 

Perfect, thanks.

gugie 

I've done that for @rhm a couple of times.

I have one of those on a bike that I didn't want to ruin the paint on.


My "zero" bike, which is parked in Berkeley, CA, where it never rains, so they warn you.

pcb 

You certainly should be able to use lowrider mounts instead of p-clamps, if your fork has them. Didn't realize the Voyager has 'em. As long as the struts are long enough, should work a treat. If they're not, you _might_ be able to get longer replacement struts made for other Nitto racks? Not positive on that, but there might be another adjustable Nitto rack that uses longer struts?

And apologies for overlooking Salamandrine mentioning the VO Constructeur front rack earlier. I ignored his contribution and expended many unnecessary electrons. I am grateful for this opportunity for self criticism.

pcb 

Holy Hannah! And I also missed natterberry already posting about longer struts for the Nitto rack. When will it end? I need to shut up and go play with a bike.....

Salamandrine 

Uh, thanks? Stop cracking me up!

FWIW I also have a Nitto M18 rack, but I haven't used it yet. It could fit just about anything. Longer struts for them and other Nitto racks are available. I think Ben's has them IIRC.

natterberry 

Haha. The curse of the last post on a page.


Edit: Also, I doubled up on struts. The M1 has that option over the M18 I believe.

bwilli88 

My Mark's rack on my Pro_tour


I got my longer struts from Rivendell, quite expensive for 2 aluminum sticks with a flattened end.
DSC02644 by Bwilli88, on Flickr

The Golden Boy 

What a timely thread...

I think I'm going to be re-evaluating the front rack on my Trek 620.

bwilli88 

I forgot this, just give in to the force, full gugificatizion

polymorphself 

This could be on my future. For now I’ve got an M18 on order. We’ll see how it goes!

polymorphself 

Update: The M18 has arrived. It's not as pretty as the VO rack but still looks good and is clearly well made. That being said, the struts do not reach the mid fork eyelets. It's close, about a 3/4 an inch off. Frustrating! Looks like I'll be ordering longer ones if they make them.

Dfrost 

Here you go:
https://www.rivbike.com/products/nit...uts-pair-20077

polymorphself 

Thanks, just ordered. Really can't tell if $13 per strut is a really good deal or a total ripoff...so I guess they got it just right

noglider 

You could level that rack out if you used a longer bolt at the fork crown. Put some spacers between the fork crown and the rack.

polymorphself 

The new Nitto struts have arrived and I've got some updates, a question, and a conundrum...

Here is the rack installed, I haven't cut the struts yet.











Does it sit lower than the VO rack did? Yeah, it does. Is it enough to warrant the purchase? Probably not, but aesthetically I'm glad to now have the bag sitting below the flat of the handlebar, as this is a "compact bag" and I wanted it to appear as such.

Is it level? Yep, the struts make it very easy to level it exactly the way you want it. However, as noglider mentioned above, I probably could get the VO rack more level eventually, but it still sits higher than I like.

How do I feel about struts attached to the forks rather than small ones attached to the brakes? I'm not sure yet. Obviously canti post mounting is cleaner and less cumbersome, but I don't currently use low ride panniers and it is nice to get some use out of the fork eyelets, although it is clearly a bit more cluttered, but I also like the somewhat utilitarian look.

Forward positioning: This is as far back as the rack can be pushed with the hardware available. The VO rack sat a little closer to the head tube, which I definitely preferred, especially since the Nitto rack almost passes the fender. That being said, the fender is currently mounted with an L bracket. If I mounted it with a daruma underneath the fork crown, which I prefer anyways, it would push the fender forward a bit and solve this problem

My question: I mounted the struts to the forks using the hardware that is already pre-installed on the forks, and I left the mounts on (I hate the idea of losing these so I don't take them off). Assuming I stick with this installation, would you recommend washers be used at the fork eyelets with this setup?



Ultimately either setup will work. It's a small bag up front that won't be carrying a heavy load. This is mostly a question of aesthetics. Any comments or opinions welcome!

natterberry 

Looks good. You could probably make your own L-bracket for the rack to make it fit better fairly easily.

Dfrost 

About forward positioning: I used an M18 rack briefly, and drilled another hole in the L-bracket to move the rack closer to the HT. The limit was the front brake. The material used for that L-bracket is good stuff and not easy to drill. But it needs to be relatively stout.

I’d recommend using the mid-fork mounts, since they move less due to fork flex.

Always use a washer at a bolted joint.

Andy_K 

I've got M18 racks on two bikes, one of which is the rack I bought from @Dfrost as previously mentioned.





You've got a couple of advantages over my setup. First, the cantilever brakes give you more flexibility to lower the rack. Both of mine need to have an L-bracket that clears the front brake. Second, at least currently, you appear to be using a bag that doesn't require a decaleur. The M18 has an absurdly big tombstone, and I find my forward positioning is limited by needing to align the decaleur with the tombstone. You can't see it in the second picture, but it has even less clearance than the first. My bag didn't have a loop to go around the tombstone, so I added a bit of Velcro, which lets me wrap it around the tombstone after the bag is in place. I'm mentioning this, because if you ever switch to a more traditional bag, you might have this problem with the M18.

I think your setup looks good. I'd keep it with the mid-fork mounts. FWIW, the struts are available in a variety of sizes. You might be able to get a set that extend past the rack less if you'd want that.

Prowler 

Whenever faced with excess material, like you have on your struts, I ask "do I cut them off to size or is that excess useful for something?" Think twice, cut once. I had a similar question on a rack and decided to cap the cut ends with a nice piece of red cedar, milled, sanded and varnished. Not a tombstone but a back stop on the rack to secure the front bag to. Maybe leave the struts a bit long and fabricate a bar to go across the ends for a light bar. Or an additional strapping location for a poncho or rain jacket if the day is threatening. Or a place to strap a warmth layer if the weather turns out better than expected. Or a place to zip tie your XXX for President banner of choice.

What unique possibilities are there?

JaccoW

If you want a cleaner non-velcro option to attach the bag to the rack I can certainly suggest the Grand Bois Velo du Reve EB carrier holder.
I've used them on my Batavus Randonneur GL with VO campeur rack.

squarenoise 

Thanks for starting this thread polymorphself! It inspired me to revisit my rack setup and I'm much happier after a bit of tweaking. I have the Velo Orange Rando Rack with integrated decaleur and had the same issue of it being too high and close to my handlebars. I removed the rack, gently bent the canti struts, realigned the fork attachment, and presto! Now it sits lower and further out and it's just perfect, hooray!!