RoadWearier

I have this Raleigh Capri and want to mount a standard rack. I'd love to find an old silver ratrap but I don't want to pay a fortune for it. Anyway since I don't have braze-ons on the seat stays, how were they mounted back in the 80's? Is there some hardware I can buy to do it that way now?

daka

The Pletscher type racks clamped on the seat stays and seldom left them unmarred. A Blackburn or Vetta rack, which is more rigid, would fasten at the rear brake bolt or with P-clamps to the seat stays.

Reynolds 

P-clamps on the seat stays or on the rear (solid) axle.

sd5782 

There was a Plestcher rack that mounted to the seatpost clamp in the 70s, but it isn’t common. I personally cringe at the ones that clamp to the seat stays. I have one of the seat post clamp style on my 73 Schwinn. Of course there is also the Blackburn rack that can mount to the rear brake bridge bolt. They are quite versatile, and I even have one mounted that has the mounting strut going through a center pull brake straddle cable.

79pmooney

Nearly all (all that I ever saw) racks before the modern seatstay braze-ons mounted on the rear brake bolt. Usually going over the brake and bridge and acting as a washer under the brake nut. Cantilever braked bikes were a joy because there you needed just a bolt through the unused brake bridge so rack on and off was child's play.

This was not as stiff as seatstay bossed rack mounts but worked quite well and before recessed brake bolts, it was not hard to add racks to existing bikes with a clean installation.

Edit: What I am looking for is an easy, clean way to convert seatstay compatible racks to the old brake bridge style. I own zero bikes with seat stay braze-ons and to me, P-clamps belong on crawlspace pipes, not my bikes. Rack on-off isn't as easy and straight forward and they are paint nickers if you don't pay attention. I've never owned a bike that didn't have a brake bridge and I look at brake bridge paint at the brake and nut as I look at paint on dropout faces. Expendable.

79pmooney

"...I even have one mounted that has the mounting strut going through a center pull brake straddle cable." Done all the time in the 1970s. No one would blink. (Or even notice.)

Vintage_Cyclist

Pletscher made a bracket that would allow their rat trap rack to be attached to the brake bolt, instead of the stays. I've never seen one in the wild, but there are probably a few on FleaBay.



Another problem with the Pletscher racks was that they only had one strut on each side and were prone to swaying (which probably helped with the paint removal on the seat stays).

A vintage Blackburn (or Vetta) has 3 struts on each side and is much more rigid.

abdon 

Or a rack with a center mount for the brake caliper mount:



​​​​​​

John E

My mountain bike lacks any eyelets on the dropouts, so I use padded P-clamps. The drive side chain hanging peg prevents downward slippage, and the upper anchor is to the seat post bolt. (I replaced the original quick-release skewer with an Allen bolt and nut to at least slow down any Brooks Pro thieves out there.)

RoadWearier

That second one is interesting, but it looks very narrow. You'd absolutely have to buy panniers. I would probably do it anyway but it would be nice to have the option to just bungee stuff to the top.

As to the p clamps. I have read on here I can buy them at home Depot? Any idea what size?

Trakhak

That bracket wasn't meant to be used instead of the seat stay mounting hardware. It was supplied in the package of mounting hardware along with the usual seat stay mounting pieces and the bolts, screws, and nuts. The rack was meant to be installed using all of the pieces in the package.

The piece pictured above was added to the package at some point in an effort to prevent the rack hardware from sliding down the seat stays (and taking off paint) when the rack was carrying a significant load.

randyjawa 

I have a couple of these old Pletscher racks, The struts bolt to the eyelets on the drops...


And the front clamps onto the seat stays...


Hope that is a help...

abdon 

you don't have to get that model. Browse rear racks on Amazon, all sorts of racks come with the center mount, a bunch with dual hardware for whichever the case may be.

For vintage Blackburn are popular. They came with center mounts

repechage

for a long while before the Blackburn, that was almost IT for everyone during the bike boom.
before the bracket that extended down to the brake mounting, the way we secured them was to hammer the stamped bracket around the stays each side- it was a quick two man task, one with a big ball peen hammer and the other with a small sledge with a blunt chisel end to buck up the strikes. 2 whacks each side and secure. We did appreciate the accessory bracket before Pletcher included one with the parts kit.
a procedure not done in front of a customer.

there was the Wald rack….

pastorbobnlnh 

Here's an image from my '75 Schwinn Sports Tourer which compliments the ones randyjawa posted. I used some dense foam to help protect the paint on the seat stays.

cyccommute 

You can go old school and use p-clamps but those do suffer from several problems…paint marring being only one. They are easier to install if you have a few extra hands. An octopus would probably have some difficulty. A far better alternative is a Tubus rack clamp. The ones in the picture below are a little too small (they come in different diameters) but it worked well for roughly 25,000 miles.

IMG_0622 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

That bike had rack mounts on the dropout but I’ve used them successfully for bikes that didn’t have mounts. I used them top and bottom on this frame and have never had any issues with carrying smaller loads. I’ve never used loaded panniers on the bike but I have used the rack with 10 to 15 lbs in a rack bag while doing mountain biking.

79pmooney

Thanks guys. Pre-head-injury memories. Pletscher racks. I remembered the rat trap but not the clamp. I thought I'd always been using the downturned early Blackburn style but these posts bring me back to my first several bikes and setting up those Pletschers. (The journey of two lives, one before my 1977 accident, one after. Periodically windows onto that first life get opened. Again, thanks.

RoadWearier

Yes that is a help. Wish I could find a rack that did that. I may have to resurrect my old eBay account

streetsurfer

Here you are

Rear rack-ebay


Hardware

and as another used foam above, I've used cork/rubber automotive gasket material to mount the
stay brackets.

RoadWearier

Lol.. Well there it is! Almost perfect enough for me to re-activate my eBay account! Although I guess for $65 I could get a pretty solid rack on Amazon. But yeah that would be tempting to get

madpogue 

Aren't pieces of retired innertube considerd the universal material for protectively mounting things like Pletscher-style brackets?

randyjawa 

I just took a look and I have one rack left. In fact, I think it is the one that I took off of the Freddie Grubb (I could be wrong about that). The rack is complete with mounting bracket and in good shape. The only problem is some surface rust on the steel clamp. I rubbed the rust with aluminum foil and it cleaned up not to bad. Let me know if interested via a PM.

RCMoeur 

These also work for keeping Wald rear baskets from sliding downward on seat stays. I use one on my chrome cruiser - even though the chrome is resistant to scratches, it helps keep that large assembly more stable at the seat stay mounting point.

bharrisonb

Needed a rack for my 21" 1971 Raleigh Sports ... I tried the Ventura Universal Bicycle Carrier Rack --- which has proved to fit well and support fully loaded panniers. Some like, some don't, but I do.

See photos for how I attached it successfully. It took a while to figure it out. Basically, attached it to the rear brake bolt and the fender drop out holes.


The label for the Ventura Rack ... available on eBay and other sources (in the US)

Attaches over the rear mudguard nicely (with about 1 mm to spare), and parallel to the ground

Attached to rear brake bolt

Share the rear drop out mudguard holes

Panniers attached. Note that there is no place to attach the hook of a bungee cord. Oh well.

RCMoeur 

For racks without a lower hook, I'll take an S hook, push one end into a closed loop, turn the other end 90 degrees, and then put it on the rack eyelet bolt. Seems to work well.