On Saturday, June 2, 2018 at 7:28:05 AM UTC-7, Edwin W wrote: > > I have a Joe Appaloosa with a Mark’s rack, Wald medium and a rear > rack.That is all fine and good, but I was thinking of getting a front > lowrider rack to throw on when I am going camping. Partly to experiment > with weight distribution. > What do you all like? > I see the Tubus Duo <https://www.tubus.com/product.php?xn=17> (need > double sided eyelets which I have) and Tara > <https://www.tubus.com/product.php?xn=16> (which has the hoop). $120 > Salsa Down Under Rack > <https://salsacycles.com/components/category/racks/down_under_front_rack>. > Aluminum. $65 > Riv Hub Area rack. 7 lb (really?) weight limit. Sold out/discontinued. > > Any others that people love? Thoughts on steel v aluminum? >
I have three bikes with lowrider racks – An older Toyo Atlantis <https://flic.kr/p/263u21M> outfitted with Nitto Campee front <https://www.benscycle.com/nitto-campee-27f-front-rack---700c/front_mount_rack_nitto__870-780-11/product> and rear racks <https://www.benscycle.com/nitto-campee-rear-rack---700c/rear_mount_rack_nitto__870-802-11/product>; a Boulder Bicycle All-Road <https://flic.kr/p/263tXUr> with Velo-Orange's Campeur front rack <https://velo-orange.com/collections/racks/products/campeur-front-rack>; and a Litespeed Blue Ridge <https://flic.kr/p/241TNNj> with traditional lowrider racks from Tubus. I've ridden all of these bikes with panniers weighing about 10 pounds each on the lowriders, and they all work fine. A few notes: 1. front loading makes steering a little unresponsive at first (but you'll get used to it quickly). 2. Large-ish Ortlieb "Back Roller Plus" panniers fit fine in the front spot, and clear the road, but you'll need to be wary of curbs. I crashed once when the curb (or something) grabbed a front pannier. 3. Structurally, the Tubus traditional lowrider rack felt the most secure and rigid, but they require a lowrider braze-on (urge, no P-clamps) that a lot of forks don't have 4. Although still fully functional, the Nitto and VO racks flex laterally, especially under heavier loads. 5. A positive for the non-traditional Nitto and VO lowrider racks is they are two-in-one, so you can sit a front bag or basket on top. 6. Be aware that the VO rack has an odd lowrider size that didn't really agree with Ortlieb bags (small or large), as it was impossible to find a good perch for the non-elastic stabilizer hook used throughout the Ortlieb pannier line. Generally speaking, front loading works for me. One thing I did notice and do not like is that you need to retain some resemblance of left-right load balancing for front loading, unlike rear loading. Once, I had it unbalanced (probably by <4 pounds), and was too lazy to move things around. After 30-odd miles, my shoulders became knotted and sore. Be forewarned! I do enjoy being able to pedal off saddle much easier with front load-only versus any permutation with a rear load. On steel versus aluminum, having owned both, it's steel for me. For one thing, I've never seen aluminum lowrider racks until your link to the Salsa rack; I wonder how rigid they are, with the tubes having relatively small diameter and being tubular. For another, aluminum racks of sufficient strength tend to appear bulky to me (thinking of Topeak racks, which are fully-functional and reasonably priced). Plus you can chrome or nickel-plate steel racks to make them pretty and durable. I know, mostly aesthetics, and especially irrelevant as racks are mostly covered by bags anyway. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
