Aushiker

I am tossing up the option of carrying panniers on the front of my forthcoming Reise and Muller Supercharger 2. This is just one option; I may stick to getting mounts to mount my Salsa Anything Cages.

In the meantime, I am considering the various options, including a front rack.

In days long past, I used a Tubus Swing on a mountain bike, which worked okay, but Tubus no longer makes them.

I have come across a couple of options. Have I missed any other options?

[1] Topeak Tetrarack M1. I am not keen on using velcro, but I believe they can be swapped out for hose clamps. The load rating is 10 kg.

[2] Zefal Raider Front - uses four hose clamps to mount it. It is lighter. The load rating is 2 x 9 kg (complying with ISO 11243:2016 standard). It's way more than I need, but it speaks to the rack's strength.

[3] Old Man Mountain Elkhorn - very expensive to purchase and import to Australia.

Thoughts on these racks or others?

Rick

The Old Man Mountain Divide is available with a hardware kit that will work With full size panniers. The Elkhorn is for bike packing.

Arrowana

Old Man Mountain Divide is very sturdy, it is worth the price.

Haven't heard of the Tubus Swing before, but I am very intrigued by it. Attaching a rack to the fork crown sounds like better idea than attaching it to the lowers. I might have to find one, or learn how to make racks to make something similar.

Aushiker

The price to me is US$339.43 ... that hurts.

MarcusT

ouch!

Arrowana

That is quite expensive. Which version is it? The USA made one is more expensive than the one made in Taiwan, though both are plenty sturdy. If you want sturdy, it might be worth it anyways. Otherwise, maybe there is someone in Australia who could make a custom rack for less money.

If you don't need it to be really sturdy, then the Zefal and Topeak racks will probably do their job well enough, though I don't have personal experience with either one.

Rick

Aushiker: I'm guessing by the price you quoted that you live somewhere other than the USA. I was looking around and found an Axiom front rack that might work.

Aushiker

I was not aware of different versions. I just went to the Old Man Mountain website and calculated the costs. Is there another source?

Just googling then, I found Australian retailers which I had missed before. The rack is AU$290 plus $150 for the axle kit so US$292 which is still expensive but cheaper than buying it directly.

Aushiker

Yes in Australia. Thanks for the link.

Tourist in MSN

The Minoura if your bike uses skewers. Not sure if it would work with through axle.
MT-4000SF | MINOURA JAPAN

Tourist in MSN

Has been out of production for over a decade.

That design solved the problem of the pannier weight being unsprung weight.

I have only seen one once, the gal I met at a campground a decade ago said that because it was no longer made, she had to keep getting her rack repaired. Photo below, but unfortunately I did not get a close up of just the rack on the bike. this is the best photo I have of it. The panniers were mounted way up high.

Aushiker

Thanks but the bike is coming with a thru axle.

Aushiker

I have dragged out of the archives a few photos of the swing which I attached to my Giant XTC 2 in 2012 or thereabouts.













I have some more detailed shots of the mounts if anyone wants those.

djb

hi Aus,
I have a similar rack to the zefal, in fact it might be the older version of it. Bought it ages ago, close to 10 years ago and had it on my front suspension bike for a while.
Been hanging on my garage wall since I took it off the bike. Kept it just because it is unique and one day could be useful.
It is ok, but the 4 connection points using that slotted part, with washers and bolts, is not super super inspiring looking. My thoughts always were that they could easily loosen just because there isnt a ton of meat of contact point with the washers and bolts. I bought it thinking I might use that bike for more Latin American trips, but in the end went with a diff bike and a strong lowrider.

the topeak one looks interesting, and solid.

depending on what you want to carry, have you considered some good fork leg cages? You could easily put some 5-8L bags on each side, and the whole thing will be possibly lighter than a front rack setup--to me lighter is always going to be better for a front suspension, suspended weight and all that. These would be a lot less expensive (I hope) than the OMM rack.

your thoughts?

ps, I have some Topeak stuff, a 10L seat bag, some fork cages, and the quality is all good stuff. As you say, you could work around the velcro thing if you didnt find it sturdy enough.

Aushiker

And a couple of the Tubus Swing in action ...

The first is an off at speed on a downhill ... it hurt.



The second was taken at a lunch break I believe.

djb

whammo.
did it damage the trailer attachment point, getting twisted?

Aushiker

The only damage was to my pride and my body. The Exrawheel simply disconnects from the bike,

Road a few hundred kilometres after that until the brakes failed. Got a leak somehow and whilst olive oil helped it was not an ideal solution coming into some big hills so bailed from the ride (no bikeshops).

Aushiker

Thanks for the feedback on the Zefal. Appreciated.

I do have Salsa Anything Cages on my fat bike and that is an option for sure. I just need to come up with a suitable mounting option to add to the suspension forks. There are a few ways to go about it and that may be the decision in the end. One I like is the Old Man Mountain Axle Pack but it does get pricey as I will need their thru axle. It is very neat but. There are cheaper/alternative options but they are not as neat. Bikepacking.com mentions a few in this article on mounting water bottle cages.

djb

The Topeka cages I got came with some sort of rachet attachment system for forks without bolt holes. Never used them so can't speak for their toughness. If possible, I figure clamps are a sure thing and stronger than plastic.

Polaris OBark

Old Man Mountain makes a thru-axle kit, and the price seems more conventional:


https://www.gravelcyclist.com/bicycl...-for-any-fork/

djb

That's pretty neat
I don't have a thru axel bike, but that's a neat think around.

Small cog

This thread reminded me that I have a Tubus Swing rack that I could never get to fit nicely to the original Marzocchi Bombers or replacement Pace RC40 on my Roberts Roughstuff, whatever I did it seemed to be too high and too far forwards but have just tried it on the Magura forks on my Thorn Sterling and it fits a lot better being further back and lower, I might actually get to use it again.

Arrowana

Thank you for sharing these, should make a nice reference if I actually do decide to try and make one. I wouldn't mind seeing the detail shots of the mounts.

Tourist in MSN

That gal that I mentioned in a previous post that was using one, she had hers repaired a few times, I believe it was the part that attached to the fork crown that needed repair.

If you have an older fork, old enough that it had canti brake posts, Tubus also made a rack that would attach on those posts. I just did a google search and some dealers apparently still have old stock, model was Smarti. Check it out if you are intersted.

I do not recall if my Rockshox fork had mounts for the bottom of the rack or not, if it did I think that fork would have worked with the Smarti because of the brake posts.

Arrowana

Good to know, I imagine I'd be tweaking the design some. I'm thinking pounding a star nut into the bottom of the steerer tube could provide a place to bolt it to for some extra stability, even if most of the weight would be resting on the top of the fork crown and the strut going to the uper part of the steerer tube.


Also discovered the Faiv Hoogar exists, and attaches to both the uppers and lowers while allowing the cargo to benefit from the suspension. Very expensive even without factoring in international shipping though. https://faiv.de/fahrrad/gepaecktraeger-hoogar/