Originally Posted by
skookum
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I have Surly Nice rack on my Jones Plus, It is big and wide and heavy. It may not suit everybody.
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A friend that toured alot in south East Asia a few years back said that no-name aluminum racks constantly failed him and he had trouble sourcing name brand quality racks at the time.
I used Surly racks front and rear on my first tour. The front Surly rack was donated to charity and replaced with a (discontinued) Tubus Ergo. The rear Surly rack is used for around town on my heavy duty touring bike, but I remove it and put on the Tubus Logo EVO for touring. The two positive things I can say on the Surly rear rack is (1) really wide platform, and (2) adjustable rack height. Adjustable height is rare.
Several years ago a neighbor put an 1980s bike out in the garbage, I picked it up and have it on my indoor trainer. That had a REALLY cheap aluminum rack. The photo below shows the poor quality welds that I would expect to fail if there was much weight on the rack. I do not recall if I donated that rack to charity or put it in the recycle bin, but I am not using it.
