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Help with pannier mounting point on a lowrider front rack

Old 07-02-21, 10:43 AM
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Indigo82
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Help with pannier mounting point on a lowrider front rack

Dear colleagues,

I have just bought my first front rack, a lowrider design, no name I think or some imported one and have a question (doubt) where to mount panniers. Should I mount them higher or lower cause I have two parallel bars? When mounted on the upper one the bike feels less stable, but it is cylindrical shaped one and somehow seems more suitable for pannier mounting. On the other hand, at the lower one the bike handling seems more stable and there is 15cm clearance from the bottom of the pannier to the ground. It looks that there will be sufficient clearance when cornering too. However, I have doubt if this bar was actually intended as a mounting location because it is flat bar. I intend to keep my tent, sleeping bag and sleeping mat in these two panniers, so they will be quite light. Before I would keep this equipment on top of my rear rack but it was bulky and troublesome to some extent when loading everything on a train for example.

What would you advise me to do? Thank you.



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Old 07-02-21, 11:37 AM
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I would use the upper one.

Having your panniers as far aft on the rack as practical may help.

I can't see how the panniers attach to the rack, what types of hooks they use. Thus I can't see how much flexibility you have to shift the panniers fore or aft. You want the panniers to be firmly attached so they do not move about or pop off if you hit a big bump.
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Old 07-02-21, 12:37 PM
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It is supposed to be positioned low. The reason it is called a low rider rack, is because having the weight close to the height of the front axle gives the greatest location for stability. I would recommend to come up with a way for the connector tube be held rigidly/ unable to fold down into your front wheel, potentially giving you a trip over the handlebars.
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Old 07-02-21, 12:57 PM
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i'm fairly certain the lower flat "bar" is simply a support/mounting strut.

i'm also fairly certain you want to use the upper round bar for the panniers.

lookit the pitcher! the right pannier bottom is a'hangin' well below the lower bar.

pannier construction will usually have a flimsy rear support, thin plastic sheet,
which requires the solid rack tubing to maintain its shape. without a support
behind it, they tend to bend in the direction of least resistance.

the right side bag will likely be sucked into the spokes.

if you're "lucky", only the bottom of the bag will be ripped open..............

Last edited by saddlesores; 07-02-21 at 01:04 PM.
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Old 07-02-21, 02:43 PM
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Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN
I would use the upper one.

Having your panniers as far aft on the rack as practical may help.

I can't see how the panniers attach to the rack, what types of hooks they use. Thus I can't see how much flexibility you have to shift the panniers fore or aft. You want the panniers to be firmly attached so they do not move about or pop off if you hit a big bump.
Thanks for the input.

Here are the photos:

1) Panniers moved closest to the pedals on top bar



2) Panniers moved away from the pedals as far as possible on top bar



3) Side view of the rack



Can you please suggest should I keep panniers located like in photo 1) close to pedals or in photo 2) away from pedals? The difference is 1 inch only I guess but does it make any difference in handling. Thank you.
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Old 07-02-21, 02:45 PM
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Originally Posted by headwind15
It is supposed to be positioned low. The reason it is called a low rider rack, is because having the weight close to the height of the front axle gives the greatest location for stability. I would recommend to come up with a way for the connector tube be held rigidly/ unable to fold down into your front wheel, potentially giving you a trip over the handlebars.
Thank you regarding connector tube. I just put it low and close to tire so that it will not obstruct the light beam and create nasty shadow. It is pretty tight at the moment but you never know. I will pay attention to it and see alternative positions, possibly move it up.
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Old 07-02-21, 02:47 PM
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Originally Posted by saddlesores
i'm fairly certain the lower flat "bar" is simply a support/mounting strut.

i'm also fairly certain you want to use the upper round bar for the panniers.

lookit the pitcher! the right pannier bottom is a'hangin' well below the lower bar.

pannier construction will usually have a flimsy rear support, thin plastic sheet,
which requires the solid rack tubing to maintain its shape. without a support
behind it, they tend to bend in the direction of least resistance.

the right side bag will likely be sucked into the spokes.

if you're "lucky", only the bottom of the bag will be ripped open..............
Thank you very much. This totally makes sense and clarifies my doubts. I will keep it on the top bar.
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Old 07-02-21, 04:03 PM
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Indigo82 Were are the the brake stiffeners for your Magura hydraulic brakes.
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Old 07-02-21, 04:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Rick
Indigo82 Were are the the brake stiffeners for your Magura hydraulic brakes.
Magura HS11 don't come with brake boosters. Anyhow, these brakes have enough stopping power for my needs.
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Old 07-02-21, 05:12 PM
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Magura HS11 don't come with brake boosters. Anyhow, these brakes have enough stopping power for my needs.
I have the Magura HS66 brakes on my Tandem. The boosters keep the fork and seat stays from being forced part as the brake handles are pulled. The stock aluminum boosters still allowed a little movement. So I put steel brake boosters on.
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Old 07-03-21, 07:40 AM
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Originally Posted by headwind15
It is supposed to be positioned low. The reason it is called a low rider rack, is because having the weight close to the height of the front axle gives the greatest location for stability. I would recommend to come up with a way for the connector tube be held rigidly/ unable to fold down into your front wheel, potentially giving you a trip over the handlebars.
Not on this rack senor, look carefully at the photos.
that lower flat aluminum horizontal section is only for mounting the rack to the fork, not for putting panniers on.

this is completely standard for these types of racks and has been for many many decades.
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Old 07-03-21, 09:16 AM
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Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN
I would use the upper one.
I would too

Originally Posted by headwind15
It is supposed to be positioned low.
not that low

Originally Posted by saddlesores
i'm fairly certain the lower flat "bar" is simply a support/mounting strut. i'm also fairly certain you want to use the upper round bar.
I agree

Originally Posted by Indigo82
I will keep it on the top bar.
yes!

Originally Posted by djb
look carefully at the photos. that lower flat aluminum horizontal section is only for mounting the rack to the fork, not for putting panniers on.
this is completely standard for these types of racks and has been for many many decades.
yes again! Here's my Bruce Gordon rack. The middle bar is just for an attachment point to the frame and to add a bit of rigidity ...

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Old 07-03-21, 12:48 PM
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Originally Posted by Indigo82
Thanks for the input.

Here are the photos:

1) Panniers moved closest to the pedals on top bar



2) Panniers moved away from the pedals as far as possible on top bar



...
Can you please suggest should I keep panniers located like in photo 1) close to pedals or in photo 2) away from pedals? The difference is 1 inch only I guess but does it make any difference in handling. Thank you.
Option 1 as shown in the photo looks like the aft-most pannier hook could slide off the rear of the rack and possibly fall off. Option 2 looks better.

The key here is when you hit a bump, the panniers might shift their rack position, and I have seen panniers completely come off a bike when someone hits a good bump, I almost ran over one of my touring partner's panniers once when it flew off his bike. And his pannier was big enough that if I hit it, I would have crashed.

Most of my rack and pannier combinations have something that will prevent the position of the pannier on the rack from moving fore or aft, perhaps a bump on the rack or perhaps I adjusted the hook position on my pannier (Ortlieb and Carradry pannier hooks have adjustable positions) so that the pannier can't move fore or aft.
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Old 07-03-21, 02:13 PM
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The Rixen & Kaul "Vario" hooks in my photo include a center locking clip that prevents bags from disloging vertically from a bump. My rack is constructed with a near vertical front hoop which prevents forward loss and it places the rear hooks in front of the fork blades which prevent rearward loss.

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Old 07-03-21, 02:23 PM
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I’ve never used lowrider racks. Bike handles fine. Current setup.



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Old 07-03-21, 04:04 PM
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this is completely standard for these types of racks and has been for many many decades.[/QUOTE]
I used an actual original Blackburn Lowrider rack back in 1984. (I have experience with them) I owned bike stores for 12 yrs. This is some sort of really bad cheap Chinese imitation rack. So I am not saying you are wrong, just that jees this (junk) rack is so far from being designed properly. I have another Cheap Chinese imitation rack that is so much better. But, the goal should be to mount the pannier low, keeping the load close the axle center. I agree that the panniers should not attach to the flat piece. On a real low rider) the lower bolt attaches to the eyelet behind the drop out, which this fork does not have. I just got done with a two week tour in Colorado, where I had the load (about 4lbs each side) attached directly to the forks, above the axle center and absolutely hated it. The bike wobbled on the down hills and riding no handed was sketchy. The wobble instantly went away when I put the load back down at the axle level with my faithful low riders. Looking at his photo again, I believe that the whole rack is mounted too high. To the O.P. it might be useful to look up images for low rider bicycle rack on google to compare.
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Old 07-03-21, 06:06 PM
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I do not think it hurts much if the panniers are a bit higher.

The photos posted by Indyfabz above suggest his panniers are positioned so that the bottom of the panniers is maybe three inches below axle height.

On my Sherpa (26 inch wheels) I use a Tubus Ergo low rider rack. That has the center of the front panniers set at about axle height. But I did have a close call about eight years ago, a car crowded me into the edge of a road and I scrapped the bottom of a pannier on a curb, did not crash but it was close. After that I wished my panniers were a bit higher.



My Lynskey Backroad (700c wheels) I have a Tubus Tara and the fork on the bike is from a LHT. That also puts the weight at axle height, but with 700c wheels the pannier is a bit higher off the ground.



My Nomad (26 ionch wheels) has a cheap rack by Axiom, it has the position for the pannier upper hooks several inches higher than the mid-fork rack mount. I added some bracing to the rack but that is off topic.



With that higher position, the bottom of my front panniers is up almost as high as the bottom of the rear panniers. That does not cause any impaired handling on this bike. Rear panniers are hanging on a Tubus Ergo EVO that sets the panniers a bit lower than normal.



On this bike I like the higher ground clearance on the front panniers because I have taken this bike off road.

On all three of those bikes in the photos I have rain gear strapped on top of the front panniers, so the total load on the front rack is a bit higher than normal.
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Old 07-03-21, 06:41 PM
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Originally Posted by headwind15
I used an actual original Blackburn Lowrider rack back in 1984. (I have experience with them) I owned bike stores for 12 yrs. This is some sort of really bad cheap Chinese imitation rack. So I am not saying you are wrong, just that jees this (junk) rack is so far from being designed properly. I have another Cheap Chinese imitation rack that is so much better. But, the goal should be to mount the pannier low, keeping the load close the axle center. I agree that the panniers should not attach to the flat piece. On a real low rider) the lower bolt attaches to the eyelet behind the drop out, which this fork does not have. I just got done with a two week tour in Colorado, where I had the load (about 4lbs each side) attached directly to the forks, above the axle center and absolutely hated it. The bike wobbled on the down hills and riding no handed was sketchy. The wobble instantly went away when I put the load back down at the axle level with my faithful low riders. Looking at his photo again, I believe that the whole rack is mounted too high. To the O.P. it might be useful to look up images for low rider bicycle rack on google to compare.
I too have an original Blackburn lowrider, and also have a cheap chinese (I assume) front rack made for going on reg forks or mtb suspension forks, and it has this middle flat part for attaching to fork. I found that it worked ok, but nothing as good as a well designed low rider.
Ive never ridden with stuff attached directly to the forks, but I suspect that it depends on the specific bike, as bikepacking stuff is super common and theres no way that this inherently causes loosey goosey handling as a rule, or we'd read about it all the time. Plus 4lbs per side is pretty darn light, so I would suspect that there are other factors making the bike sensitive to wobbling etc.
But yes, absolutely, a good low rider, plus a good solid front end of a bike, can give excellent handling--which my tourer has, the best handling bike Ive ridden loaded. (tires are a big factor with my experiences also).
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Old 07-05-21, 06:28 AM
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Indigo, a general rule is that a rack tubing made for putting a pannier on is going to be round, not the flat section you asked about.
Also the distance from the mounting tubing down to the "hook" area for the pannier hook or tab will be a clue to how to use a pannier.
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