Could Tubus Tara fit my fork? Urgent! Front rack break while touring
12-30-23, 02:08 PM
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Could Tubus Tara fit my fork? Urgent! Front rack break while touring
Hello. I am travelling from Barcelona to China by bike and I am planning to buy a Tubus Tara front rack because mine just broke few days ago and I am still pedaling with the broken one. I have to buy it online and I can't see if it fits before having it.
I saw that in the technical sheet it is stated that minimum distance between lower eyelets (the ones on the hub part of the fork) should be 124mm and mine is 110mm and I have a similar problem with the eyelets placed on the middle of the fork (the distance between them is lower than the minimum one that Tubus is advicing). So my question is if that could be solved adding more spacers (maybe it weakens the system) or in some other way. Thanks in advance for the answer! I have to order it asap and your replies will help me for sure to make a decision!
I saw that in the technical sheet it is stated that minimum distance between lower eyelets (the ones on the hub part of the fork) should be 124mm and mine is 110mm and I have a similar problem with the eyelets placed on the middle of the fork (the distance between them is lower than the minimum one that Tubus is advicing). So my question is if that could be solved adding more spacers (maybe it weakens the system) or in some other way. Thanks in advance for the answer! I have to order it asap and your replies will help me for sure to make a decision!
12-30-23, 02:19 PM
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Tell us WTH bike you have for starters.
Where are you? There's BikeINN by Girona Spain. Ask them. They have everything.
Send them a pic of your bike and measurements.
Where are you? There's BikeINN by Girona Spain. Ask them. They have everything.
Send them a pic of your bike and measurements.
12-30-23, 05:12 PM
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I just checked the drawing, you are correct that it is rated for the lower to be 124mm, or up to 134mm.
https://www.tubus.com/fileadmin/user...Z_Tara_5.0.pdf
But, I am sure you could use some spacers or extra nuts. I assume your bike uses M5 bolts for mounting racks. I use some spacers on my bike, but I never measured width. I needed the spacers so that the rack tubing does not rub on the fork tubing.
A photo of the lower bolts on my bike, the bike is upside down, I took the photo looking down, thus the camera is essentially looking up towards teh bottom of the rack. Disregard teh hose wrapped around the rack, I did that to reduce chafing. The photo is a bit busier than necessary, there are fenders on this bike too, I mounted the fenders on the inside of the fork mounting points, then spacers on teh outside, and finally the rack, then the bolts. The nylock nuts on the inside hold the fender mounts.
It the above photo you can also see I used spacers on the horizontal bar for the same purpose, that is in the lowermost part of the photo.
I used the lower mounting points on my fork that are aft of the axle. My fork also has mounting points above the axle that I did not use. In the photo there are some bolts in the mounting points that I did not use, since those mounting points were not used, I put two spare bolts in there, simply as a way to carry a pair of extra bolts.
The Tara has a very small adjustment range. On the lower mounting point on the fork, my Tara only had one hole to use for mounting, but the drawing shows two holes, thus you have a bit of adjustment based on which holes you choose to use. And the top horizontal bar, that only has a short range of adjustment fore and aft.
Ideally, the top horizontal bar should be horizontal. But I have found that on one of my bikes it was so far from horizontal that I chose to buy a different rack for that bike. The Tara is nearly horizontal on the bike that I have here in the photo.
So, will it work? Probably, and you may need some spacers or nuts and extra long bolts. BUT, it is impossible to predict if the horizontal bar will be very close to horizontal on your bike. On a different one of my bikes, it was far from horizontal. It would have worked on that bike, but it would have looked odd. The above photos are on a 700c bike. The fork in the above photos is a Surly LHT rim brake fork from 2004, I used that fork on a different brand of bike.
Note that my fork is a rim brake fork. If yours is disc, that could complicate things, someone else on this forum might be needed to discuss mounting that rack on a disc brake fork.
Tubus changed that drawing since I bought my Tara several years ago. The second page might give you the information you need to determine if the bar will be horizontal, but I do not read German, so I am not really sure what it says.
https://www.tubus.com/fileadmin/user...Z_Tara_5.0.pdf
But, I am sure you could use some spacers or extra nuts. I assume your bike uses M5 bolts for mounting racks. I use some spacers on my bike, but I never measured width. I needed the spacers so that the rack tubing does not rub on the fork tubing.
A photo of the lower bolts on my bike, the bike is upside down, I took the photo looking down, thus the camera is essentially looking up towards teh bottom of the rack. Disregard teh hose wrapped around the rack, I did that to reduce chafing. The photo is a bit busier than necessary, there are fenders on this bike too, I mounted the fenders on the inside of the fork mounting points, then spacers on teh outside, and finally the rack, then the bolts. The nylock nuts on the inside hold the fender mounts.
It the above photo you can also see I used spacers on the horizontal bar for the same purpose, that is in the lowermost part of the photo.
I used the lower mounting points on my fork that are aft of the axle. My fork also has mounting points above the axle that I did not use. In the photo there are some bolts in the mounting points that I did not use, since those mounting points were not used, I put two spare bolts in there, simply as a way to carry a pair of extra bolts.
The Tara has a very small adjustment range. On the lower mounting point on the fork, my Tara only had one hole to use for mounting, but the drawing shows two holes, thus you have a bit of adjustment based on which holes you choose to use. And the top horizontal bar, that only has a short range of adjustment fore and aft.
Ideally, the top horizontal bar should be horizontal. But I have found that on one of my bikes it was so far from horizontal that I chose to buy a different rack for that bike. The Tara is nearly horizontal on the bike that I have here in the photo.
So, will it work? Probably, and you may need some spacers or nuts and extra long bolts. BUT, it is impossible to predict if the horizontal bar will be very close to horizontal on your bike. On a different one of my bikes, it was far from horizontal. It would have worked on that bike, but it would have looked odd. The above photos are on a 700c bike. The fork in the above photos is a Surly LHT rim brake fork from 2004, I used that fork on a different brand of bike.
Note that my fork is a rim brake fork. If yours is disc, that could complicate things, someone else on this forum might be needed to discuss mounting that rack on a disc brake fork.
Tubus changed that drawing since I bought my Tara several years ago. The second page might give you the information you need to determine if the bar will be horizontal, but I do not read German, so I am not really sure what it says.
Last edited by Tourist in MSN; 12-30-23 at 05:16 PM.
12-31-23, 06:27 AM
#4
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The Tara is flexible and can be squeezed down as narrow as you want. Spacers will also work. I have 5mm spacers on one of our bikes.
12-31-23, 08:48 AM
#5
Senior Member
I agree what the others have said, spacers should not be a problem, I have used them on nearly all of my touring bikes over the years. Maybe you will not need to use them however.
It is always a good idea to put something on the threads of the bolts holding the rack on to help stop vibrations from slowly loosening the bolts. A bike store will have some common product like Loctite. If you cannot find this, even using some thick grease on the threads will help dampen vibration, even using some soft wax on the threads will help with this.
A store will also have various spacers to help you out.
but always check your rack bolts for tightness every week or so anyway, even a few days after you first put on the rack.
It is always a good idea to put something on the threads of the bolts holding the rack on to help stop vibrations from slowly loosening the bolts. A bike store will have some common product like Loctite. If you cannot find this, even using some thick grease on the threads will help dampen vibration, even using some soft wax on the threads will help with this.
A store will also have various spacers to help you out.
but always check your rack bolts for tightness every week or so anyway, even a few days after you first put on the rack.
