Advice on rear cargo bicycle racks

[Gigglebug]

Good morning.....I'm new to this site and also to bicycling as an adult. My boyfriend and I are becoming addicted very quickly and have thus far done 25 miles this past Saturday on a couple of greenways near our home. We hope to do some light "bike touring" in the near future, if that's an appropriate term in our case -- perhaps more just family-type outings that run anywhere from 25 to 50 miles with no steep hills, at least not yet!

I'd like to get opinions/advice from those of you who have rear cargo bicycle racks. I'm wanting to purchase one for my Giant Cypress DX bike, but I'm confused what would be a good quality 25-30 lb (or more) load bearing rack. I've tried a Bell Quick Attach Bike/Cargo Carrier that supposed to attach to a bike's seat post. Although I'm sure it does great on some bikes, it will not work on mine. I like the idea of a quick attach, but I've also heard they don't always stay very secure.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[p38lightning]

I looked up your bike model and the commuter/hybrid configuration pretty much limits your selection. A seat post mounted rack disconnects easily as you know but has limited stability and load bearing. Other racks are more perminently installed.
This rack is rather typical:Racktime Foldit Rack
The struts in the front (horizontal plane) mount to the clamp bolt on your frame seat post clamp. This is best for your type of frame as a clamp arrangement for the seat stay tubes (from seatpost to back wheel dropout) would be too low on your bike.
This type of rack seems to have hardware to mount on the frame at the bottom if your frame doesn't have eyelits(little threaded holes near the back wheel dropouts which are used for attaching a rack) The double down struts which form a triangle will keep a down hanging panir type bag out of your spokes if you go to a large touring type bag. The rack shown is in my judgement best for your type of bike and purposes.

 

[alfeng]

I looked up your bike model and the commuter/hybrid configuration pretty much limits your selection. A seat post mounted rack disconnects easily as you know but has limited stability and load bearing. Other racks are more perminently installed.
This rack is rather typical:Racktime Foldit Rack

Sorry, but how is a Hybrid limited in the racks that can be used on it?

Regardless, I would opt for what I will call Performance's BLACKBURN COPY rack:

Performance Basic Rear Rack / Item #20-5271​

Performance Basic Rear Rack​

It's currently on sale for $9.99 -- Why pay more?

The "tongues" in the front are easily bent so they can be attached to the seat stays either via "bosses" on the stays or with P-clamps.

 

[p38lightning]

Take a look at the rear triangle on the bike Giant Bicycles - Cypress® DX (Black/Brown) (2009) It looks to me that you would have to put the mount bosses way down on the seat stays to mount the rack. That's why you wouldn't be able to use a Pilshner type rack on this bike, so your choice is somewhat limited. I note this because Pilshners are what I choose for my lugged steel classic road bikes.

 

[alfeng]

Take a look at the rear triangle on the bike Giant Bicycles - Cypress® DX (Black/Brown) (2009) It looks to me that you would have to put the mount bosses way down on the seat stays to mount the rack. That's why you wouldn't be able to use a Pilshner type rack on this bike, so your choice is somewhat limited. I note this because Pilshners are what I choose for my lugged steel classic road bikes.

You could be right ...

But, looking at the enlarged pic of the bike, it looks like there is a boss [the lighter 'dot' -- if there is a boss on the one side then there is undoubtedly one on the other side, too!?!] midway up on unified portion of the 'B-stay' ... so, a normal rack with four mounting points could be used ...

​

Cypress® DX



AND, there should also be a hole for a fender mount on the 'B-stay', too, to which the two 'tongues' could be attached.

BTW. As someone else pointed out in another thread, the pedals that come with some Hybrid bikes are not very durable, and if the OP/(anyone) wants to use the bike for light touring, she/they should probably get a new pair of pedals.

BTW2. The more robust Racktime Foldit Rack is out of stock. The slightly less robust Performance Basic Rear Rack can handle 44 lbs. which would be a lot of cargo weight, particularly for day tripping.

 

[Gigglebug]

Wow......I really appreciate the responses, comments, and wonderful recommendations for a bike rack that will fit my Cypress. I'm such a newbie, but I was very concerned as well about the location of what I guess must be called seat stays on my bike; the cargo rack that I had been looking at seemed to have brackets or mount bosses (?....trying to use the verbage you guys use!) that go straight across; I didn't know if I could buy some type of adapters/additional brackets or something to make it work.

I had seen a Topeak Explorer bike rack that had great reviews (at least on the site where I was shopping), and that's when I got concerned about whether it would fit. I called the bike shop where I bought my bike yesterday afternoon, and they said they sell a Topeak and one other brand that definitely works on the Cypress, then the man added that they can install almost any bike rack I want on it; just bring it in. I don't know what kind of contraptions they would have to use to make some of the racks fit my bike, but it seems you are seeing what I'm seeing, P38lightning, regarding mounting issues.

I'm going to look at both the racks that have been suggested and again....thank you so much for your time and suggestions. What a great forum! Maybe one day I will gain enough knowledge and/or experience to be able to help someone as you have both helped me!

 

[p38lightning]

Alfeng's observes correctly that if your frame has those mount points mounting the rack will be a "piece of cake"

You are going exactly in the right direction by first getting some info, and then relying on your local bike shop for further advice, parts and help. Haveing a good relationship with your "L.B.S." is priceless.

2 good sources of information:
Park tools a major seller of bike specific tools has a great on line repair manual on their web site: Welcome to Park Tool Company
The great bicycle sage Sheldon Brown, who passed away recently has bequethed his knowledge to all of us on his wonderful web site: Sheldon Brown-Bicycle Technical Information
I also hope that you noticed the Women's Forum on the forum list where you sister cyclists can give you expert advice on women specific issues.

Welcome to the forums Gigglebug!