gauvins

It took less than 200km for my panniers to grind through the surface paint of my rear racks. Both are supposedly good (Ortlieb & Tubus). To my considerable surprise, the Tubus website acknowledges the fact that surface painting is vulnerable to panniers, Ortlieb being mentioned by name...

I found suggestions ranging from ignoring this fact of life (wear scars with pride) to touching up (with black nail polish) to protecting (with helicopter or duct tape depending on your notion of aesthetics) to the occasional big job (powder coating).

I also read that stainless racks are not as strong...

I suppose that some kind of "sacrificial tape" is the best solution.

What do you use?

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Update - I used tubing to protect the rack
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Naii polish to touch up. Slit leftovers of 1/4 inch reinforced polyurethane air hose glued to the rack frame.

robow

Gorilla tape works well, offered in a couple of different widths but I just consider the worn areas as wounds of war.

mdilthey

For the bike tourist, everything is consumable. The only question is the timeline.

Doug64

I usually clean up the area to remove any rust with 1200 grit sandpaper, and apply a couple coats of car wax to keep them from rusting again. Then about once a year I touch them up with Rustoleum black paint. That is the only complaint, although very minor, I have about Tubus racks. If someone comes up with a good suggestion here, I might give it a try. My main objective is to keep rust in check.

mdilthey

If one were so inclined, I bet you could cut some plastic tubing or an old hydration pack hose and slice it open along one side, and slip it over the rack. Then you'd have a little 1-inch piece of tubing between your panniers and your rack, and it shouldn't move if the panniers are weighted. I might do this myself... it would cut vibration and reduce parts wear.

gauvins

Excellent idea. Maybe some glue to hold it in place (even more so since I happen to have lengths of 1/4" tubing lying around somewhere ). You might suggest this to Tubus. Certainly beats a plastic tape.

pdlamb

I'd be afraid that tubing or tape would trap moisture and hide rust. I'd rather see shiny metal than not see the rack getting ready to break. Count me as a "pride of use" guy.

mdilthey

If you put on the tubing before the paint rubs off, or after a fresh repaint, there shouldn't be any rust issue. Since the tubing has an open slit on it, it'd take two seconds to lift it off and put it back on to do a check every now and again.

I think corrosion is overplayed. Rust happens. There's a big difference between a protective patina of surface rust and deep-eating rust. I am 100% sure I will either have died, or upgraded before my steel frame or racks rust through from the inside.

gauvins

Right wrt tape. But PVC tubing is transparent so you could see whether corrosion becomes a problem. (any king of varnish/paint should be enough to starve the progress of serious rust).

Devil is in the details, or so they say -- I am not positive that sliding a slit PVC tube over problematic areas will be enough. If abrasion has occurred, it probably means that the tube will be pulled/pushed by the pannier and is not likely to stay in place for long. Not clear either if one will have to carry kilometres of tubing to replace worn sleeves. But the idea is certainly worth trying.

The one thing I think I know is that a Tubus rack in good condition is practically indestructible, yet stories of broken racks abound (actually, a close examination of "well traveled" rigs often reveals the poor condition of their racks.

MassiveD

The problem with the tubing deal is that if you have the right rack it is a tight fit for the panniers hardware. With tubing over the rack it is a no fit. I have the hook type mounts that aren't a really tight fit so I covered them with shrink tubing, and shrunk them to a nice fit. All was well, but at some point I hit something and the panniers shifted, and to my horror it ripped I big chunk of powder coating right off.

Actually with powder, you can just buy some at Harbour freight and pile it over a wound, and use a flame to melt it in. Not like the original powder, but it is gone... Another thing you can do is spray with epoxy appliance paint, then cook at about 160, that make a reasonably hard finish, though epoxy isn't all that UV proof, but a lot of the time racks are shaded.

Stainless is less strong, but all steel is pretty much as stiff, which is the real issue, and stainless actually work hardens more in bending and drawing, so it can work out stiffer. The concern is that you can get 4130 tubing which is designed for aircraft use. The stainless aircraft tubing is for stuff like brake lines, a very different animal, but it can work out because of the stuff mentioned above. And if one has doubts, there are simple ways to stiffen a span of the tubing.

Racks can be built with stainless inserts so that the hooks are not resting on paint work.

seeker333

My Tubus Cargo rack came with bits of adhesive tape to help prevent erosion of the powder coating:

https://www.tubus.com/product.php?xn=56

I had a crash (without bags) where the only damage was to brifters and Cargo rack. The sides of the rack towards the rear were scuffed down to the tubing. I sanded the affected tubes and applied a few coats of Rustoleum semi gloss black paint. Looked like new afterwards.

If you don't like doing paint repairs, then buy the SS or Ti Tubus racks.

robow

Even high quality racks made from aluminum will serve most quite well and corrosion isn't generally a problem.

seeker333

True, but the OP's topic was preserving finish on his steel Tubus rack. My conclusion was the only way to avoid finish repairs on a Tubus rack was to buy a Tubus rack that requires no protective coating.

hueyhoolihan

too much time on your hands. go touring!

GlennR

have it striped and powder painted.

LeeG

1. Gorilla tape on rails.
2. Make sure lower hooks are snug and more Gorilla tape on struts.
3. Trying to make racks look new is like trying to make tires look new. Stuff wears.

Doug64

If my wife didn't use my rack to dry her socks, I'd probably get less rust on the horizontal tubes


The wear areas on the vertical struts may be touched up this winter, or not.

Tourist in MSN

Usually just the black nail polish method.

If the panniers rattled and made a noise that drove me nutty, I would cut strips of inner tube rubber and wrap one layer over the rack tubing, then wrap several layers of electrical tape over that to keep the rubber in place. I have had mixed luck with this, sometimes the tape starts to come off and other times I have done it the tape stayed in place.

saddlesores

if you're worried about ventilation.....drill some tiny holes 1/32"
in the tubing before you slit it.

if you're worried about the tubing slipping.....zipties are your friend.

if neither of these appeal, instead of a slit, cut the tubing corkscrew
fashion.

psy

Corrosion isn't the only thing to protect the rack from, the metal can be worn away by your panniers as well. This is what my ortliebs did to my salsa racks in about 12 k miles.
Both sides front and rear. I just bought new racks and I'm going to use tubing or tape or something this time around.


Sorry about the horrible pic, my iPad didn't want to focus, but you get the idea.

Tourist in MSN

I hope you are talking about plastic tubing to put on a rack, not the actual rack tubing.

bikenh

Yeah, I managed to go through a rack, two wheels, an possibly a bike(brand new at the start of the trip), all in one trip. Still waiting to hear on the bike as to whether the Specialized is going to tell the shop how to fix the bike or if they are going to warranty it out. I am surprised given how things appear that more tourist don't end up having trouble with rack inserts falling out. I don't think that is the wisest idea for given the cyclist somewhere to bolt into. I thought they always welded eyelet mounts to the frame instead of sticking inserts into the frame that came come out.

fietsbob

Try Stainless steel sticky back Tape ..

Tubus has a Powder coat protective kit..

bikenh

I guess if you only ride once a year on a yearly trip something like how the rack looks becomes important. If you ride all the time, in kinds of weather it doesn't even phase you. Heck if you saw the bike I rode the past three years on my trips you would crap your pants. It looks like crap and I don't really care. Like mdilthey said, it's all consumable...including the frame and the rack. Use it and be happy with how it looks. The looks aren't important, the functionality is what is important. When you have a rack fail on you many ways, many times during one trip you start to learn to ignore such small things as the look of the rack.

psy

Scratches are character, gouges are structural. I'm going to protect my new surly racks to increase their longevity.