TiHabanero

For some time now there has been a strong chorus from followers of the "load the front wheel" cult. Have always poo-poo'd them as I have toured and commuted for years with just a handlebar bag and rear panniers. Over the winter I made a set of anything racks for the fork on my touring rig. Strapped 10L waterproof sacks to them today and loaded with the clothes I typically take on tour. Just the handlebar bag and the anything racks and bags on the bike, left the panniers off.
Very pleased with the way the bike handles. Tracking is especially good, and cornering is just fine. Trail on the bike is about 70mm, so it is stable in nature unloaded, but gets a little upset with panniers, tent and handlebar bag loaded up. Simply adding about 7 pounds to the fork legs made a very nice difference.
I am now a member of the "load the front wheel" cult. Didn't believe it until I tried it, and it does indeed make a difference.

indyfabz

I’ve always loaded the front.

From a 2011 loop from Missoula. Virtually all the cooking/eating gear is up front, among other things.

Tourist in MSN

Care to elaborate more on your DIY Anything cages in case others may be interested?

Was that 7 pounds total or per side?

TiHabanero

The rack is made from some scrap 6" PVC pipe. The bag support on the bottom is a 3" u-bolt. Keep in mind the rack simply performs the task of keeping the bag out of the wheel and supporting the bag preventing it from slipping down. Not much to it other than that. The bag is PVC roll top and waterproof as tested.

A bit crude looking, however it functions well.

mtnbud

I'm wondering if that's the natural curve to the pipe, or did you heat up the pvc to relax the curvature a bit. I'm thinking of doing something DIY myself, but am not ready to jump yet. I'll need to figure out a way to attach them to my suspension forks so I'm slightly hesitant as to what I want to try. I read of someone using a large shampoo bottle and someone else was promoting cutting up a bucket. Thanks for sharing!

Tourist in MSN

Thanks for posting. It looks like your lower mounting bolts are attached somehow with Velcro.

I have considered trying something like that with a Blackburn Outpost cage. I picked up a pair of them at a swap meet, but have not tried to use them yet.
https://www.blackburndesign.com/p/ou...100000010.html

But my fork also does not have a lower mounting point that is in the right spot, I considered using a P clip, something like this in the lower mounting point on that cage.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/0-75-in-...1575/202875639

If I do that, the upper bolt would go into the midfork rack mounting point. The lower bolt on a P clip would only keep the cage in the right orientation, the lower bolt would not support the weight on the cage.

TiHabanero

The fork has a single mounting point brazed on, and the lower mount is one of those SKS strap-on things. The top mounting bolt will carry the bulk of the weight, the lower one is simply to stabilize the contraption, but it does carry some of the load, albeit a tiny amount. Only clothes will be stored in the bags, thus not much weight. The bolt is a 4mm and I am certain that it is more than adequate enough to handle the duty.
For sure I can add a braze-on mount, however I believe it is not necessary.

Tourist in MSN

Sounds like what you did for mounting is similar to my thought process and plans with slightly different hardware. Main difference is that I bought an off-the-shelf pair of cages (used) and you started with scrap supplies. Thus, you had to be more creative.

tcs

I tried carrying the entire dunnage upfront for a short self-contained once, oh, golly, years ago. My memory is my bike rode like a jackhammer. YMMV.

We used to debate fork tube gage and crosssection and bend to provide that magic optimum of compliance and accurate tracking.





Now we stiffen the forks for disc brakes and further triangulate their stiffness with load-carrying front racks, and search for the magic optimum tire structure and pressure for compliance and accurate tracking.



Life goes on.

TiHabanero

Unfortunately the destination does little to satisfy the journey. The journey itself makes the destination meaning. Making the anything cages just made sense to me, it became part of the journey. I designed and built the bike frame a few years ago, of course I built up the wheels, but I already had the rear rack so didn't need to make one, however I do have an idea for a rear rack that I will be playing with next winter.

Tony Marley

It is not intuitive (at least to a non-engineer), but it does make for a more stable ride. Especially when going downhill at speed.