FML123

I just received and mounted a Tubus Tara front rack onto a Poseidon Redwood, size XS.

- It has plenty of clearance on the 47mm tires I’m running, but I noticed it seems to be skewed ~5mm right of center.
- There’s about 20mm clearance between left side of tire and the rack, and ~26mm between the right side of the tire and the rack.
- The left side of the wheel has a brake disc.

Is this common? Is it a problem? Other than the visual imbalance triggering my OCD, I don’t yet see any functional problem.

UPDATE: I rode ~30 mi today with panniers loaded on the rack. No probs at all - rock solid and no tire clearance issues.
From what many of you are saying from your direct experience, that’s just a small defect within Tubus’ tolerances. I’m already learning to ignore it.

indyfabz

Photos would help.

Yan 

I too am disturbed by off center rack OCD. This is common and there is nothing you can do.

saddlesores

Machine-built wheels? Check to see that the rim is properly centered over the hub.
Ignore the rack for now...........what is the clearance between tire and forks, and rim and forks?
Now that disc brakes have become standard, less attention is paid to dishing the wheel.

I learned this the hard way, ordered online chinese built wheels.
Couldn't get the v-brakes to work, until realized the rim was 1/2" off center.

Ghazmh

I have a Tara on my touring bike and have noticed that it appears to be off center. I think that’s just the way it is for some reason.

Tourist in MSN

My Ergo (Ergo is a discontinued Tubus front rack) is a bit off too. It bugged me a lot that such an expensive rack was slightly off, but I got used to it, no longer notice it. I bought mine over a decade ago.

Tandem Tom

I'm going to jump on this thread!
My wife and I have the same rack on our touring bikes. Before last year's tour I noticed the same "problem. So after having built a few steel frames and having an idea of how strong chrome moly is I set out to correct them. I fabricate a steel spacer to simulate the dropout then made a wooden insert that matches the "hoop". Mounted in advise with a lever and Voila! I was able to tweak them! I added those bits to my other frame building supplies.

tyrion

Could be the frame. I had a Breezer Radar and my rear rack (Tubus Vega) was slightly off center. I didn't know if the problem was the frame or the rack. When I got a new frame (Velo Orange Piolet) the rack was perfectly centered, so I think the problem was with the Breezer frame.

Tourist in MSN

I put the rack on the lower eyelets reversed (right side of rack on left eyelet, etc.) to check for that. If the fork was the flaw, the error would be the same. If the rack was the problem, the excess space to the side of the tire would shift to the other side of the tire.

In my case the rack was the problem. But you are correct, the error could be the frame or in this case with a front rack, the fork.

FML123

Photos added.

FML123

They’re Hunt x Mason (apparently hand-built in Taiwan or China, and they look properly centered as far as I can tell.

FML123

Oh God, that’s definitely beyond both my skill and work ethic levels! 😂

indyfabz

Have you tried adding spacers to a/the left mounting point(s)? My rear Nitto rack requires a spacer on one side to sit straight.

saddlesores

c'mon, indy! you know better than that!
this is a forum for the velocipedigal dark arts. we wanna delve into the necromancy of cycling.
why ya wanna offer a perfectly logical, supremely reasonable, ultimately simple fix?
there's no romance or intrigue in "add a washer to move the rack a few mm"!!!

djb

My Tara is offset a bit also. I took it off my bike recently to put on some fork cages, so can't show you, but mine has always been similar to yours.
it's been consistently like this despite being taken off and put back on four times per trip when boxed for air flight, and I zip tie to my rear rack inside the cardboard box. About four trips in planes over the years.
Like others have said, it bugged me a bit at first, as said given the price of it, but then just ignored it and looked at where I was riding, and it's the best front rack I've ever used.

Knew instinctively that I could figure out how to tweak it a bit reliably if I put my mind to it, but just couldn't be bothered.

djb

Knew I had a photo showing it. Not quite as much as yours, but a bit.
My fender is also not centered in this photo, so while I have fiddled with it to get it better at times, I really don't notice the rack.

speyfitter

The way to fix this is to go with the Tubus duo

djb

An option, but personally I feel having one connected structure has its inherent rigidity advantages.

pdlamb

If you load up that rack, or ride down rocky or potholed roads, I'd worry about that spacer putting a moment on the fastener. Levering the load out like that would stress the bolt more than bolting directly to the fork. Perhaps find a higher grade bolt than you'd usually use to attach the rack to the fork. OTOH, it's not too uncommon to bolt the rack outside the fork, and that usually works out OK.

I'm a bit amused that you're more worried about the rack being off-center, which I'd call cosmetic, than the off-center fender which can start buzzing on the tire.

djb

all legitimate concerns, but I have used very short spacers a lot over the years on front racks less sturdy than a tubus, with no issues. This setup you see here as been down so many rocky and potholed roads over a mumber of long trips that it has proved to be very sturdy with no issues, with even minimal bolt loosening when checked regularly.

Part of what has helped is that I have set up my panniers to be very tightly held to the front rack, so no rattling etc. Also I tend to use larger tires with more volume and pressures that allow for more suspension effect than narrower higher pressure tires. And I do make an effort not to go too fast over a given surface, just to help things getting less rattled.
(hope I havent jinxed myself and break a bolt next time out)

as for fender, what you dont see is that from the side, there is a ton of clearance between tire and fender vertically. I set it up like this taking into account that I might end up on muddy roads and wanted to avoid mud accumulation problems with the fenders. Yes, less effective with water, but no big deal for me really. This also allowed me more leeway if I had to mount knobby tires somewhere on my travels--fenders were set up with 2 inch slicks, so wanted the leeway for tires more knobby than these seen in the photo, which still have a reasonable amount of clearance.

speyfitter

It’s harder to bend a shorter piece of metal.

djb

whatever works well is how I look at things. If a duo works great, perfect.