polymorphself 

Going on some overnights starting this week and fit this Blackburn rack for my front panniers. One of the bottom eyelets is sharing the fender stays and one of the Blackburn stays while the mid fork mount is sharing the Blackburn rack and nitto rando rack.

I can drop the front rack if needed but wanted to get some opinions on the setup before losing a bag. Thanks.

TiHabanero

It seems to me the bottom anchor point is doing the load of weight bearing. I am not a mechanical engineer, however it simply appears to my mind that is what goes on. The top mounting point does bear weight, just not sure how much. If there is 10 pounds in each bag, that is fairly light load. I don't know what max weight would be, however regardless of the weight limit, I personally would not go over 20 pounds on each side simply because more than that is just too much stuff to carry around.

djb

I've used this rack back in the day and always kept the load light, well under 10 pounds per side.
To the person asking this question, please do not consider putting as much weight as tihab suggests, you can try but you'll see how loosey goosey the rack gets with more weight.

In other words, use common sense.

I highly recommend using loctite on your bolts to help stop bolt loosening.

Why is the top rack so slanted?

djb

Forgot to add, I always used spacers up top to create space near the fork to allow my pannier hooks to fit over rack and not touch the fork, but I never had another rack on top putting weight on that bolt, so no personal experience.

I think it's fair to say that it will really depend on how much weight, how skinny your tires, at what pressures, and how you bash over potholes and such....,. No clear answer here in other words.

saddlesores

i've had lowriders and fenders attached at the dropout, carried a reasonable amount of weight....5-8 pounds i would guess each side.
always put the rack directly against the dropout, fender on the outside. not sure if that matters, though.

that nitto needs to sit level. at that angle expect stuff to eventually fall off into your front wheel.
a couple p-clamps from home depot will do the job.

storckm

I would think that you'd want the heavier load to be closer to the frame to put less stress on the bolt.

pdlamb

There are two potential issues. First the outer mount is cantilevered a bit more, which loads the bolt more than if the load is right next to the support. You've got the fenders mounted outside the bottom rack, so that's good. OTOH, the top rack AND the spacer on the mid-fork rack could be a problem if you're going to load the front panniers heavily. Second, if a mounting bolt loosens and you hit a rock or pothole with a heavy load, that can produce an impact load that can shear the bolt. The mid-fork rack is particularly susceptible to such a failure, since you've got two inner elements. To prevent that you'll want to use Loc-Tite and secure the bolts tightly (but not so tightly as to strip the fork mounts!).

How serious are those potential issues? Some people have successfully done such things and ridden long distances with heavy loads. If you really want to ride like that and hope for the best, I'm overly cautious. You may be mechanically skilled or you may get lucky. OTOH if you've lost or broken a bolt during a ride, or if you're worried about that happening, think hard about how much load you're going to carry and perhaps lose the spacer (or use a smaller one).

Trueblood

That Blackburn low rider rack looks new. I am looking for that model, but it looks like it isn't manufactured anymore. I am only finding clones of it available from the UK, with expensive shipping. Has anyone seen them available in the US? Thanks.

grolby

I had a bike (Miyata 210) that only had single eyelets on the rear dropouts, so I doubled up the fenders on those eyelets and carried considerable weight like that. Not a problem. This setup looks even better with those fender connections - I had the round stays of my Planet Bike fenders directly against the rack legs. You’ve got lock washers and everything so this looks very solid. Loctite wouldn’t hurt but in my experience some grease and general attentiveness goes a long way, and with the lock washers you’re better equipped than I ever was. Only thing I would do is ditch the Nitto rando rack, simply because it’s doing you no favors angled down like that. If you really want a platform above the front wheel, buy a front pannier rack that comes up over the front - there are definitely racks that do this that still allow low rider pannier mounting. This would be more elegant and probably lighter than your current 2 rack system.

Pratt

Yours truly is definitely not an engineer, but it seems, to my naive mind, that if the fender stay is outboard of the rack stay, the rack has no greater leverage on the bolt than if there was no rack. The fender stay just acts like a thick washer. Further, it seems that the fender exerts a near negligible load on the bolt. Picking up a nice stick, while doing 20 downhill is an entirely different situation.

djb

That's how I've always looked at it too.

Tourist in MSN

In a situation like you have, I have mounted the fender stay on the inside of the eyelet with panhead bolts and then attach the rack on the outside of the eyelets with a nylock nut on that bolt. Your photo shows a rim brake bike, so disc brake hardware is not there in your case. A disc could make things more tricky to fit.

I have done the same in the back, but in the back the eyelet has to be far enough away from the chain that the bolt will not interfere with the chain for shifting.

In the photo I have the rear of my light touring bike that has a disc brake. I have the fender eyelets inside the frame dropouts, the rack on the outside with nylock nuts. In this case, the eyelets are quite high up above the chain so there is no interference. You can't see the nuts in the first photo.




Second photo, nut on the left side is easy to see.