Rear pannier rack for break without the frame eyelets.

I would like to do some touring on my road bike but it has no drilled holes / eyelets for fitting a rear pannier. Does anyone know of a pannier that does not need these to be fixed on? It is a new world to me! Thanks

 

You have several options.

Option 1: You can add eyelets. I think Blackburn and others make these little vinyl coated straps that wrap around the seat stay and give you an eyelet location where a rack can be mounted. This would be my choice. You can also make creative use of heavy duty nylon zip ties to do some attachments. But get the largest size good ones. On my Cannondale mountain bike I attached fenders and a blackburn rack with zip ties. Because it had V-brakes I didn't have a brake bolt attachment point so I simply zip-tied it to the frame at that location and it is very solid and secure. I had eyelets on my drop outs that take most of the rack weight. The zip ties only attach it to the upper seat stays and mainly stabilize the rack rather than bear the weight.

Option 2: Use a seatpost rack with pannier supports. These are racks that attach solely to the seat post and obviously can't take anywhere near the load of a traditional touring rack fastened at 3 points to the frame at the brake and dropouts. And they will give you some sway if your cycling style isn't perfectly stable.

Option 3: Forget about panniers and use a large saddle bag. Quite a few bike tourists who ride racing bikes use seat bags for their gear and just travel light. Carradice Bags from the UK and Berthoud Bags from France both make large saddle bags that use a special rack that only attaches to the saddle rails. You can see them and buy them from Wallingford Online Bike Shop: http://www.wallbike.com/

Option 4: Use a trailer like a Bob trailer and forget about hauling gear on your bike at all. This would be my choice for very long distance touring through rugged terrain.

 

http://www.oldmanmountain.com/rear_rack_page.htm

 

The Old Man Mountain may seem expensive if you're new to touring but it's tough to get any kind of good rear rack for much < than $50, and fixing a broken rack on a ride isn't the most fun thing in the world.

If your frame is designed more for light weight than heavy loads keep an eye out for cracks and stuff for a while if you load her up with 75 lbs of gear. It's even more difficult to get a fancy carbon fiber or titanium (or whatever they're using on good road bikes these days) fixed by Bubba in BFE. Dedicated touring bikes tend to use steel frames.

 

I was not aware of those Old Man Mountain racks when I replied above. But I concur. If your bike has any kind of exotic or lightweight materials in the frame then you most definitely want to go with something like this which takes all the weight off the frame and puts it on the axle. They definitely look to be the most elegant solution for bikes that aren't designed for mounting frames.

On the other hand, if your bike has a sturdy steel frame then you can probably bolt any kind of rack to it with no problem as people have been doing that for decades. As a long-time long distance touring cyclist I can say that I've never had a frame failure but then I've always toured on bikes that were built for it. Wheels, spokes, cranks, chains, clusters, I've broke just about everything else on the bike but not the frame.

The biggest recipe for misery is to tour on wheels that are too lightweight. Leave the racing wheels at home and build up some heavier touring wheels.

 

I recently fitted two racks with seat stay brackets designed for bikes with disc brakes. Check with your LBS for this style of rack.