Rear pannier rack for rear suspension MTB

I am going off road touring with panniers and my full sus bike. I bought a
seat post mount Raleigh pannier rack and rode it to test ( loaded up with
only 7kg ). What a disaster, the rack waggled from side to side (the rubber
pads moved in the clamp ) and the panniers rack rails flexed so much on
hitting a big bump that the pannier mounting brackets touched the rear
wheel. I did take great care to fit it well and to tightly attach.

I cannot believe that a solid rack does not exist, after all think of the
punishment a saddle gets and it is mounted to the frame in a similar manner.

Has anyone had success with any design or is there any helpful advice?

Thanks,
Julian

In article , "Julian Fox"
writes:

I am going off road touring with panniers and my full sus bike. I bought a
seat post mount Raleigh pannier rack and rode it to test ( loaded up with
only 7kg ). What a disaster, the rack waggled from side to side (the rubber
pads moved in the clamp ) and the panniers rack rails flexed so much on
hitting a big bump that the pannier mounting brackets touched the rear
wheel. I did take great care to fit it well and to tightly attach.

I cannot believe that a solid rack does not exist, after all think of the
punishment a saddle gets and it is mounted to the frame in a similar manne

I have seen a normal looking rear rack mounted on a FS bike. The forward
attachment point was at the suspension pivot point with the lower part being on
the dropout eyelets as usual. The rack and it's load were "unsprung." I
didn't have the opportunity to examine the setup in detail.

Tom Gibb

You might look at http://www.oldmanmountain.com/

I have no personal experience with them, I've just been intrigued by
them ever since I came across their web site.

Dave

"Julian Fox" wrote in message
...
I am going off road touring with panniers and my full sus bike. I bought
a
seat post mount Raleigh pannier rack and rode it to test ( loaded up with
only 7kg ). What a disaster, the rack waggled from side to side (the
rubber
pads moved in the clamp ) and the panniers rack rails flexed so much on
hitting a big bump that the pannier mounting brackets touched the rear
wheel. I did take great care to fit it well and to tightly attach.

I cannot believe that a solid rack does not exist, after all think of the
punishment a saddle gets and it is mounted to the frame in a similar
manner.

Has anyone had success with any design or is there any helpful advice?

Been there.

While some vendors offer panniers with seatpost racks, and in at least one
case a seatpost rack with wire loops to support panniers on either side of
the wheel, we strongly advise against it.

The clamp at the seatpost, while adequate for small loads, has way too much
leverage with loaded panniers and makes a mess of the wheel when the bags
or rack catch in the spokes.

As with all things cycling, YMMV. We have a customer who uses such a setup
on a commuting F/S carbon mountain bike . He claims to be able to stop and
readjust the rack when the tire knobbies drag on the panniers. Depends on
your capacity to live with aggravation I guess as it won't actually injure
you to lock up a rear wheel.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

I am going off road touring with panniers and my full sus bike.

Not a particularly good idea. Better tour on road with luggage and then ride
singletrack without. MTB is all about balance and bike handling, and is not
fun with a heavy load.

Per

Handling trouble comes from a non-rigid load, not a heavy load.

Finding a rigid carrier might be a trick for a heavy load though.
The heavier the load, the more rigid the carrier needs to be.

Seat post racks start flexing around ten pounds. I have a combination
Bell seat post rack (plastic removed, just the metal core) and a rigid
aluminum conventional rack, lashed together. The seat post rack
provides side-to-side rigidity and the regular rack up-and-down
rigidity, and it makes loads invisible. However you can't do that
with a rear suspension.
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

The Carradice racks will be fine for compact loads. I need to hold two
proper panniers though.

Well I went and bought a Delta rack and binned the old one. A huge
difference. It clamps directly to the seat post with no rubber. Just did a
30 mile xc ride fully laden and no problems. The side supports wag a bit
and should be reinforced a little more in my view but it is acceptable with
a light pack load of 6kg total. The flex of the main rack beam and of the
clamp is
negligible. So this is the way I will go on my tour. Lets hope it stands
up to a prolonged hammer.

Julian

"Simon Brooke" wrote in message
. uk...
"Julian Fox" writes:

I am going off road touring with panniers and my full sus bike. I
bought a
seat post mount Raleigh pannier rack and rode it to test ( loaded up
with
only 7kg ). What a disaster, the rack waggled from side to side (the
rubber
pads moved in the clamp ) and the panniers rack rails flexed so much on
hitting a big bump that the pannier mounting brackets touched the rear
wheel. I did take great care to fit it well and to tightly attach.

I cannot believe that a solid rack does not exist, after all think of
the
punishment a saddle gets and it is mounted to the frame in a similar
manner.

Carradice do a rack (and also a front rack for suspension forks):
URL: http://www.carradice.co.uk/mountain-biker.html

I believe a US firm called Old Man Moutain do one too. I haven't used
eitehr of these products.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; I'll have a proper rant later, when I get the time.