attaching surf rack to surly pack rat.... via downtube??
 

hey, been a while since I was here...

I finally finally bought a pack rat, extremely happy with it so far (tho actually haven't ridden with much more than a small dog on the front rack yet, telework has killed my commute so I've mostly been riding around just for fun, so unloaded...), now trying to figure out how to attach a moved by bike surf rack whilst retaining both the front rack and the ability to steer to the right (the side the board is loaded on). Which basically means getting the surf rack, and the board that will ride in it, as low as possible so that when I turn the basket rotates above the board, not bumping into it and preventing turning

On the photo (sorry it's blurry):
B in the head tube doesn't really work because the basket means I can't turn. I MIGHT be able to get it just about low enough if I drill another hole in the surf rack leg, but A actually makes everything easy and fine....A does mean clamping on to the downtube (probably a bit higher than is shown in the photo) - Does anyone think this will be ok (because surly bikes are sturdily built), or is this a terrible idea (because I may crush my downtube).

Also, C works at a pinch but does keep the board rather high, I could drill a extra hole in the surf rack leg but that would only gain me an inch or so where ideally the surf rack (and board) would be about 4 inches lower...So....D is a possibility , but again I'd be clamping things on to tubes that may not be up to the task. Bad idea? or likely fine on a surly?
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7aee0f6db7.png

Finally, an extreme solution might be to get some tabs welded on - I know a friendly welder who helped me with bikes before, but....welding...on to a brand new frame.....I'm fairly confident I'm going to be riding this bike as my utility / commuter for a long time so I'm not super worried about the resale value, and it's my do-it-all utility ride so I'm not super worried about keeping it pristine, but even so.....

Lastly, yep lots of spacers, I haven't had a drop bar bike since I was 15 so I wanted to experiment with bar height.... I will probably drop down a bit soon.

thanks for any thoughts!

EDIT: spent the afternoon fiddling with the permutations: even at A the board needs to be really low to go under the rack (partly because I surf wide round-nosed boards...), gonna need to be careful about kerbs. I am seeing why beach cruisers have raised handlebars and don't have baskets...The alternative to the board being that low is to either raise the front rack up (but then my luggage would be higher up - not so good for my commute...when it restarts) or else go wider instead of lower, tho at present I'm at the limit of the length of the surf rack horizontals so I'm nor sure how I would go wider (and going wider would increase the leverage on those clamps)...

How long is your board? When I was growing up in a beach town in the '80s, heyday of the shortboard, a lot of people used rear-mounting racks like this: https://www.surfshop.com/surfboardbi...untington-1069

I don't think it would work with anything much over 6 or 7 feet, though.

my boards are 6'8" and 7'0", and wider and round - definitely no shortboards, my shortboarding days are lonnnng gone....which definitely makes bicycle-surfing more challenging and no that rear-mounting arrangement definitely won't work, thanks for the suggestion tho.

I also sent and email to moved-by-bike, and they said that whilst the downtube should be ok i might get issues with the rack twisting from the weight of the board (which it can't do on the vertical headtube) . They said the seat tube is trivial, just clamp wherever works, or buy their moped mount to attach to the seat stays, but I doubt that' s necessary.

I have had one additional idea: mount at B behind the headtube inside the frame, but using the extra-long u-bolt that came with the surf rack, and putting a shaped piece of wood in between the headtube and the surf rack mount to move it back a couple of inches, should also allow a maximally low position of the u-bolt on the head tube, probably not that far off A. Maybe not the most beautifully engineered solution, but if it works I'll paint the wood black, should look fine...will try it tomorrow.

UPDATE:

got it working, I attached to the head tube in the end - I realised that in order for the basket to clear the surfboard the surfboard would have to be so low that I ...couldn't really turn right (I didn't realise this for ages because I was working on the bike with it leaned up against a wall, at an angle....duh, schoolboy error....)

I angled the board slightly so it's closer in at the back and a little further out at the front, which gives me plenty of room for steering - I just have to remember that I don't have full steering range when doing slow maneuvering, at normal traveling speed it's not an issue.

I took the rubber covers off and used the tightening screw on the rack mounts because my boards are on the heavier side, not great for the paint (on a brand new bike!) but it's a utility bike so I'm happy with that. Also anti-seize...

All in all it works great, the pack rat is a fun speedy ride that now also carries my surfboard (wetsuit etc go in the front basket). And the moved-by-bike rack detaches in seconds so is very convenient to pop on and off. Perfect!


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ee26f9f7a6.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d5ed3a0680.jpg
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