Tandem Tom

Time for maintenance on our racks. I have used Gorilla Tape as "wear/protective " points on the rack but they are needing replaced as they have worn through. Wondering what others have used?
Thanks!

gauvins

I've used slit air pressure tubing (leftovers) but gave up. Glue wouldn't reliably keep them in place. Every other year or so I spray paint. But now that you mention this, protective stickers may be a good idea... will read the thread with interest. ( )

Tandem Tom

As I was cleaning off the racks from my wife's bike I thought maybe "helicopter tape" might be a better idea than Gorilla Tape.

Tourist in MSN

I slit some clear plastic hose from the hardware store and put that on the wear spots. This is for a rack where the vast majority of time the panniers are on it, thus aesthetics do not matter. My pannier hauling racks on tours come off the bike when I am home, I use some lighter duty racks around home.

Initially I wrapped electrical tape around it to keep it in place, later I also added some small zip ties over the tape to keep the tape and hose in place.

First photo, this is on my Tubus Logo EVO on my heavy duty bike, photo is before I used the zip ties. You can see that I use that plastic hose in all spots were the panniers touch the rack. Exception, there are a couple spots where the side of the upper hooks touch a tube and I simply used electrical tape there.




Second photo, this is my light touring bike, Racktime Addit rack, I just put the hose, tape and zip ties on it, but have not yet used it with panniers, so it is unusually clean. You might have to expand this photo to see the tubing and zip ties, it is a bit hard to see. It is on the upper horizontal bar that the pannier upper hooks hang from and also short pieces down lower on the closer to vertical bars where the bottom of the panniers can rub on the rack, including the pannier lower hooks.



In both cases here I do not use the little plastic inserts in my Ortlieb upper hooks, the plastic tubing is the right size for that. It is 3/8" ID and 1/2" OD if my recollection is right.

Doug64

I just clean my racks and apply a couple of coats of auto paste wax. If the worn spots have a little surfce rust I use some polishing compound on them to remove the rust and apply the car wax

This Tubus Tara rack has hauled panniers on them for approximately 22,000 miles.

himespau 

Someone dragged up your post from 2014 about wear on your racks. Did you ever repaint/powder or just decide to go with the gorilla tape?

Tandem Tom

I did repaint and used Gorilla tape. But it is ripped up and I have some wear/rub points.