Cammington13

I recently bought a bike, and all the equipment needed for commuting, but was really nervous for my first ride for some odd reason. Instead of my first ride being to work, I decided to ride up to my local bike shop (7 Miles from my house) and pick up some needed supplies. I arrived at the shop feeling very accomplished, and began to ask the worker about rear bike racks for carrying luggage. Being the beginner that I am with cycling, I know I probably sounded extremely naive, but anyway, much to my disappointment the cheapest rear rack was going to cost $70 for the rack and installation. I told him that i'd seen many online for much cheaper, and thats where I would buy one. He told me its not that simple... He went on to explain that my bike was "special". It had attachment screws on the center of the wheels but not on the frame. He said I would need a "special" adapter that would allow the rack to hook to the seat post.
Does this sound right to anyone? What would you guys suggest I do?

Anyway, besides that hiccup, the ride home was great, and I felt very proud and satisfied with my accomplishment.

BTW: I ride a Schwinn Trailways 700cc Hybrid

treadtread

Can you take some close ups of your bike? Specifically, of the center of the wheel (and the frame in that area), as well as the seat post? How much weight do you plan to carry?

lasauge

Unless you have a spot drilled on the brake bridge where you could mount the rack centrally, the easiest solution is to attach the upper end of the rack to your seatstays with clamps like these:

treadtread

And from the pictures I could find online, it looks like the frame does have eyelets to mount a rack on the frame - you should be able to see them close to the deraillers. The pictures online aren't the best though, and models can change across years.

If you are carrying less weight, you can also attach some frames only to the seat post with a clamp. Topeak has racks like this:
https://topeak.com/products/BeamRacks-MTX
but they carry much less weight. Guess other companies have similar racks too. The nice thing about Topeak is that they have racks and bags that work well together - so a Topeak MTX bag can slide and lock into a Topeak MTX rack without clips/velcro etc. The bad thing is, you are then limited to Topeak - and if you need to use more bags on the same rack, you may be out of luck.

owenv

I had a bike with a similar frame situation that you have. the seatpost clamp is a stronger connection (I'm basing this off appearances only) than the frame grabbers some racks come with. I got my seatpost clamp from amazon for under $10, it was something like this.

https://www.amazon.com/Electra-Seatpo...ost+rack+mount

be sure you get one that fits your seat tube dimensions. I used mine for about a year and it never felt weak or needed adjustment. Bonus, it replaces my QR seatpost making my seat less likely to be stolen.

10 Wheels

Seat post rack won 't work

treadtread

Wouldnt that depend on how high the seat is? If there is enough space below the shock absorber in the seat post, wouldn't a seat post rack work? Or would it be risky/dangerous? Don't know, honestly asking the question.

steve0257

Depending on where the OP lives, I don't think $70 for purchase and installation of a quality rack is out of line.

One thing to remember. When ordering and installing the parts yourself, what value do you put on your own time?

mulveyr 

Installing a rack is a 20 minute process at worst, depending on how long it takes to to find your tools.

For the OP: I used to have a hybrid similar to yours. I ended up simply bending the upper mounting struts together so that the seatpost binder bolt went through and supported them. Worked wonderfully. YOu can do that with any rack short of a tubus that has the typical thin steel support struts.

no1mad 

Or you can just get a decent backpack...

Cammington13

This is the best I could do under the circumstances. Hope they are clear enough :0 Thanks for everyones help as well!!! I love this forum!

mulveyr 

Get a bunch of P-clips from the hardware store, a $30 rack from the bike shop, and you should be good to go.

Cammington13

How difficult is it to install a rack?

mulveyr 

If you can use a hex wrench ( or screwdriver, in the case of p-clips ), it's not even remotely difficult. The most difficult part ( which is easy ) will be bending the upper struts to whatever position they need to be in to keep the rack level.

nashcommguy

Ok, the first thing you have to do is take the reflector off so it doesn't light up and obscure what it is you're trying to show us when you use the flash on your camera. Then use a more neutral background. The pics are visually busy(nice hog, btw ) and it's difficult to focus on the structure(s) of your seatpost/seatstay assembly area. Pic #4 is more in line w/what I'm trying to get across. Take the blinkie off as well. Then get close ups of where your chainstays and seatstays meet by your rear axle, so we can get a good look at the attachment holes.

Take some shots from the drive side and non-drive side of where your seatstays connect to the frame under your saddle. Whew!

Cammington13

Yeah, sorry about the busyness, Its late here, so ill have to wait until tomorrow. Too dark outside. This is the best I could do, besides the reflector

blakcloud

The shots were fine. You have threaded eyelets on the drop outs so that works out great. Bolt the rack onto those, then level the rack. Your hardest part will be to modify the center strut to bypass the V brake and thread into that single hole which looks like a brake bridge hole. You need a rack with this style of bracket. Bend the bracket until it levels the rack and you are good to go. Do not buy a rack that attaches to the seat stays, you need the center mount rack. Not as popular anymore but can be found.

Phil_gretz

What I was thinking, too. The old Blackburn center mount could connect to the bridge where the reflector is mounted now. [To the OP, move that reflector out of there, maybe clamping to the seatstay on the left down lower, or to the end of the rack someday.]

Alternatively, with a different rack, there are two ways to approach that center portion of the seatstay (above the bridge). First would be to use what amounts to a large P-type clamp. I'm certain that I could fabricate something like that out of flat stock. The second would be to drill out the stay (through its centerline) and press fit a steel sleeve through which a bolt could fit. The rack center mount could then bolt to the stay. That'd be the better way, structurally, but it's a lot of work.

To pay someone for these modifications...$70 is sounding more reasonable all the time. If there's a rack that mounts to the seatpost AND down to the dropout holes, I'd want to see it. A suspension post just constrains how much post you have to work with...

Cammington13

Yean, I'm thinking that it sounds more reasonable too, especially with me being so new to bikes. Thanks for all of your help everyone! I will be sure to update you when I figure it all out!

ratdog

Take a better picture of the front fork, it looks like you may be able to get a rack on the front there.

Never mind, it looks like I may have seen something that wasn't there.

nashcommguy

Great! Except that's not the OP's bike. Couldn't see a hole where one could get this type of V-brake by-pass bracket onto the bike. I was looking for a drill out, but couldn't see past the reflector. And it's true these are not as popular anymore, but still available.

nashcommguy

Dude, getta life.

ratdog

nashcommguy,

WTF?

treadtread

You can just see a hole for a mount in the third picture OP posted. Not obvious, but it is there. I do disagree on the $70 to mount a rack, but I guess I'm just cheap

neil

I dunno, I paid $50 for a rack and mounted it myself, so $70 with install doesn't seem outrageous. Of course, I was looking for a rack that was up to touring loads and had a support strut at the back to keep my panniers from swinging. YMMV.

Nothing you'll ever have to do to your bike is hard. If you get into more advanced mechanics, they can be fiddly and time consuming, but not hard. Accessory installs are about as challenging installing a doorknob, and often use similar tools.