SSmith

(Warning: Please excuse crappy cell-phone pictures)

Ok, first off I just attached my rear rack, and I think I did everything right except I'm not sure if I should have bent the attachments which go to the bike before I screwed it down (which created tension, note the curve, that was straight before I fastened the down the nuts and bolts on the rack, and it naturally got that curve as I tightened them).

Is it going to break on me if things get rough because of that tension (i.e. should I take it off, bend them and then re-attach?)



Secondly, when attaching the front rack I noticed that my fender and front rack need to use the same mounting point, any suggestions?



Closeup

Sheldon Brown

No need, you did it just right.

This is common. Ideally, the rack should mount closest to the frame, and the fender stays outboard of the rack, but that isn't always possible.

Sheldon "Hope You Lubed The Bolts" Brown

SSmith

Fantastic, thanks for the assist!

One more thing, I got the front rack on and removed my fender temporarily, but the front rack seems to be skewed. Is it defective? Can it be bent back into shape?

TheFool

I would just gently bend it back. My impression is that racks and their attachment parts are meant to be bent a bit, they need to be to fit various bikes without coming with a big bag of bizzare adapter pieces