Touring racks

[coppershark]

Since Christie Cycles closed in Melbourne a year ago where is the best place to go for front low rider racks?

Mike

 

[Alan Hutchison]

coppershark wrote:
> Since Christie Cycles closed in Melbourne a year ago where is the best
> place to go for front low rider racks?
>
> Mike
>
>
Go to http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mbtc/ and post your query on
the discussion forum. You will find the answer there.

Alan.

 

[Mike]

coppershark wrote:
> Since Christie Cycles closed in Melbourne a year ago where is the best
> place to go for front low rider racks?

Conventional or suspension forks? hard to find here.
You could mail-order from the US etc. I got mine from aebike.com .

 

[mfhor]

coppershark wrote:
> Since Christie Cycles closed in Melbourne a year ago where is the best
> place to go for front low rider racks?

Conventional or suspension forks? hard to find here.
You could mail-order from the US etc. I got mine from aebike.com .

Any half-decent bike shop can get hold of them for you. Blackburn are still the pick, maybe Tubus, but they are a bit pricey.

If you are going to do a lot of touring, get some mounting eyelets brazed to your *steel* front forks to mount a low rider rack (don't bother with the other type until you want to carry a 'round the world' load) (IMHO, alloy forks are not what you need on a fully loaded touring bike).

Suspension forks with panniers? Only if you absolutely have to! It's a great way to find your possessions strewn along the average rutted track, and your panniers tangled in your front wheel!

M "retro-fart" H

 

[suzyj]

Mfhor wrote:

> Blackburn are still the pick, maybe Tubus, but they are a bit pricey.

One of my workmates has Tubus racks, and they're utterly gorgeous. The aluminium Blackburn ones look like junk in comparison. Don't know any local places you could buy them tho.

Regards,

Suzy

 

[flyingdutch]

Since Christie Cycles closed in Melbourne a year ago where is the best place to go for front low rider racks?

Mike

Peter Moore Cycles (tucked in under Richmond railway Stn, Swan St) bought out all of Chrisities stock and seems to be continuing the touring tradition.

 

[Poiter]

Mfhor wrote:

> Blackburn are still the pick, maybe Tubus, but they are a bit pricey.

One of my workmates has Tubus racks, and they're utterly gorgeous. The aluminium Blackburn ones look like junk in comparison. Don't know any local places you could buy them tho.

Regards,

Suzy

Cheeky Monkey in Sidonee are an agent for Tubus racks and they make racks for front and rear suspended bikes.

www.cheekymonkey.com.au

Pete

 

[Peter Signorini]

"suzyj" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Mfhor wrote:
>
> > Blackburn are still the pick, maybe Tubus, but they are a bit pricey.
>
>
> One of my workmates has Tubus racks, and they're utterly gorgeous. The
> aluminium Blackburn ones look like junk in comparison. Don't know any
> local places you could buy them tho.

Yes, I have Tubus front and rear and they are great racks. Super strong and
rigid made of tubular Cromoly, but lighter than an equivalent aluminium
rack. I intend to keep using them for at least 10 years so the price becomes
less of a barrier.

In Melbourne you'll find them at St Kilda Cycles
http://www.stkildacycles.com.au/

or Peter Moore's Abbotsford Cycles http://www.onecer.net/abbotsfordcycles/

Cheers
Peter

 

[till]

coppershark <[email protected]> wrote:

> Since Christie Cycles closed in Melbourne a year ago where is the best
> place to go for front low rider racks?

St kilda Cycles supplied me with tubus racks awhile ago. They rock, try
em.

till

 

[Mike]

mfhor wrote:

>>You could mail-order from the US etc. I got mine from aebike.com .
>
> Any half-decent bike shop can get hold of them for you.

I figure if they need to be ordered in, I might as well do it myself
and save some money.

> Suspension forks with panniers? Only if you absolutely have to! It's a
> great way to find your possessions strewn along the average rutted
> track, and your panniers tangled in your front wheel!

Well, I like to leave the panniers at the campground/hotel before
barrelling down the mountain tracks. And its the MTB low-riders I found
hard to get.

Mountain bikes can be quite good for touring, especially in hilly areas.
I've used both. And you try buying a decent mountain bike these days
without suspension forks! Or hybrid, for that matter.

 

[suzyj]

Mike wrote:

> I figure if they need to be ordered in, I might as well do it myself
> and save some money.

I'm thinking of doing this myself, with a design based loosely on the Tubus Fly, in stainless tube. I'll just bend the tube to shape, solder in some plugs in the end, then file them square and cross-drill, to fit the frame accurately. That way I dispense with the adjustable bits, so there's less to break (lighter too).

Regards,

Suzy

 

[Marty Wallace]

"suzyj" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Mike wrote:
>
> > I figure if they need to be ordered in, I might as well do it myself
> > and save some money.
>
> I'm thinking of doing this myself, with a design based loosely on the
> Tubus Fly, in stainless tube. I'll just bend the tube to shape, solder
> in some plugs in the end, then file them square and cross-drill, to fit
> the frame accurately. That way I dispense with the adjustable bits, so
> there's less to break (lighter too).
>
> Regards,
>
> Suzy
>
>
> --
> suzyj
>

Hmm..
I'd steer clear of stainless steel on racks. Vibration will cause fatigue
with time. What about chrome-moly steel?

Marty

 

[suzyj]

Marty Wallace wrote:

> Hmm..
> I'd steer clear of stainless steel on racks. Vibration will cause fatigue
> with time. What about chrome-moly steel?

I was thinking CrMo would be bad because of rust. Attachments are bound to vibrate, and wear through paint to the metal underneath. With stainless, this isn't an issue because there is no paint.

Having said that though, I have practically zero touring/rack experience.

Regards,

Suzy

 

[Peter Signorini]

"suzyj" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Marty Wallace wrote:
>
> > Hmm..
> > I'd steer clear of stainless steel on racks. Vibration will cause
> fatigue
> > with time. What about chrome-moly steel?
>
> I was thinking CrMo would be bad because of rust. Attachments are
> bound to vibrate, and wear through paint to the metal underneath. With
> stainless, this isn't an issue because there is no paint.

CrMo is stronger than stainless steel for the same weight of rack, and there
is still enough chrome in it to make it very rust resistant. Have a close
look at someone's scraped CrMo frame (like mine). The scratches are barely
rusted. I think stainless has 11% chrome while CrMo as about 4-5%. But then
I'm no metalurgist.

Cheers
Peter

 

[mfhor]

"suzyj" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Marty Wallace wrote:
>
> > Hmm..
> > I'd steer clear of stainless steel on racks. Vibration will cause
> fatigue
> > with time. What about chrome-moly steel?
>
> I was thinking CrMo would be bad because of rust. Attachments are
> bound to vibrate, and wear through paint to the metal underneath. With
> stainless, this isn't an issue because there is no paint.

CrMo is stronger than stainless steel for the same weight of rack, and there
is still enough chrome in it to make it very rust resistant. Have a close
look at someone's scraped CrMo frame (like mine). The scratches are barely
rusted. I think stainless has 11% chrome while CrMo as about 4-5%. But then
I'm no metalurgist.

Cheers
Peter

Depends on the exact composition of the tube. Tubes to be bent miss out on the high level of embrittling (anti-rust) elements in the steel formation, as this can cause them to crack when bent. Cro-mo bending tube is still fairly rust resistant, but not as stiff as d/butted straight tube. BTW, I'd steer well clear of just drilling a hole straight through the diameter for mounting screws, without reinforcing the hole in some way (sleeve and edge-weld the hole, or slap a big washer-type eyelet on). There's a few places in Moorabbin that supply small dia. tube to ultralight builders, I'll have to go and investigate that . . .

What about powdercoat? All racks get chipped and scratched to the s@#$house eventually anyway, but powdercoat might delay the inevitable.

Next w/shop purchase is a bending jig and mandrel set, got the DC TIG welder, drill press, cutoff saw already - now what else do I need? Oh yes, some better welding skills keeping them electrodes clean . . .

M "wannabe touroubermeister" H

 

[suzyj]

mfhor wrote:

> BTW, I'd steer well clear of just drilling a hole straight through
> the diameter for mounting screws, without reinforcing the hole
> in some way (sleeve and edge-weld the hole, or slap a big
> washer-type eyelet on).

I was thinking of machining solid stainless plugs maybe 2cm long, and a slip fit into the tube, silver soldering them in to the end of the tube (see the pics at the end of http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~sjackson/frame/addendum.html for an example of the sort of technique - though with a plug-style dropout) and then cross drilling a 5mm hole through that. Plenty strong, methinks.

Regards,

Suzy

 

[mfhor]

mfhor wrote:

> BTW, I'd steer well clear of just drilling a hole straight through
> the diameter for mounting screws, without reinforcing the hole
> in some way (sleeve and edge-weld the hole, or slap a big
> washer-type eyelet on).

I was thinking of machining solid stainless plugs maybe 2cm long, and a slip fit into the tube, silver soldering them in to the end of the tube (see the pics at the end of http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~sjackson/frame/addendum.html for an example of the sort of technique - though with a plug-style dropout) and then cross drilling a 5mm hole through that. Plenty strong, methinks.

Regards,

Suzy

Yes, should be - but it sort of limits where you can put the mounting points on a front rack . . .

I was just going to TIG (sorry, GTAW!) some perforated strip under the top inside horizontals of my ersatz Tubus copy, then either directly attach it to the front fork (front rack), or via a custom length short tube with squashed and welded-shut ends for the rear so I can swap it to a few different bikes if need be, and locate it on the bottom with a single drilled tag attached to the fork dropout eyelet. I've still got to work out the details, and be able to afford some cro-moly filler rod . . .

MH

 

[Phil]

Ivanhoe cycles are quite good for touring stuff

> coppershark wrote:
> > Since Christie Cycles closed in Melbourne a year ago where is the best
> > place to go for front low rider racks?
>