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#1
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
The good quality ali rack which came on my Utopia Kranich sacrificed
itself to protect my bike when it was twice attacked by a carelessly driven Range Rover. Once I managed to straighten it but the second time it was crippled forever. On the principle of buying good gear once rather than cheap gear repeatedly, I ordered what was said to be the best rack, the Tubus Cosmo. This is a stainless steel rack. Mine cost well over a hundred euro landed from the British bike component discounters, Wiggle. The stainless steel is a dull gray, not polished. The rack gets it lightweight spec from being undersized. It is meanly narrow and shortarsed too. It looks like a toy on my balloon-tired bike. The worst thing about dealing with Tubus is that, even after I asked their service department if their rack would fit, and was assured it would, it still wouldn't fit. You have to buy an extra fitting kit for another ten or twelve Euro. Not that the original fitting kit is complete either. In fact, between the original fitting kit and the extended fitting kit, there still were not enough nuts and bolts to fit the rack, so I reused some that were in my old rack. Also, there was an absence of the necessary nuts -- Tubus apparently assumes every frame is tapped at all points. Also totally absent were spring washers. It's just as well that after a year the Tubus rack started creaking, or I would not have discovered all the loose bolts on it. I'd put up with this sort of crap, and go buy my own spring washers, if the rack were actually useful, but it isn't. It is admirably stiff, but the stiffness is achieved by triangulation that makes it very awkard to impossible to use for carrying luggage. For instance, the lower rail on each side angles in under the top rail, so that I can't hang a common Basil pannier basket without mangling the hooks. I cannot recommend the Cosmo. It is a poseur's rack, of little practical use. The makers charge a huge amount of money for it and don't even give you all the necessary fitting parts. It would probably be a good rack if it were bigger, in which case the clumsy angling of the lower rails might not matter, and if it came with enough fitting components and spring washers to keep it on the bike. As it is sold, I am decidedly unimpressed. |
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#2
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
Coolmaine wrote:
The good quality ali rack which came on my Utopia Kranich sacrificed itself to protect my bike when it was twice attacked by a carelessly driven Range Rover. Once I managed to straighten it but the second time it was crippled forever. On the principle of buying good gear once rather than cheap gear repeatedly, I ordered what was said to be the best rack, the Tubus Cosmo. This is a stainless steel rack. Mine cost well over a hundred euro landed from the British bike component discounters, Wiggle. The stainless steel is a dull gray, not polished. The rack gets it lightweight spec from being undersized. It is meanly narrow and shortarsed too. It looks like a toy on my balloon-tired bike. The worst thing about dealing with Tubus is that, even after I asked their service department if their rack would fit, and was assured it would, it still wouldn't fit. You have to buy an extra fitting kit for another ten or twelve Euro. Not that the original fitting kit is complete either. In fact, between the original fitting kit and the extended fitting kit, there still were not enough nuts and bolts to fit the rack, so I reused some that were in my old rack. Also, there was an absence of the necessary nuts -- Tubus apparently assumes every frame is tapped at all points. Also totally absent were spring washers. It's just as well that after a year the Tubus rack started creaking, or I would not have discovered all the loose bolts on it. I'd put up with this sort of crap, and go buy my own spring washers, if the rack were actually useful, but it isn't. It is admirably stiff, but the stiffness is achieved by triangulation that makes it very awkard to impossible to use for carrying luggage. For instance, the lower rail on each side angles in under the top rail, so that I can't hang a common Basil pannier basket without mangling the hooks. I cannot recommend the Cosmo. It is a poseur's rack, of little practical use. The makers charge a huge amount of money for it and don't even give you all the necessary fitting parts. It would probably be a good rack if it were bigger, in which case the clumsy angling of the lower rails might not matter, and if it came with enough fitting components and spring washers to keep it on the bike. As it is sold, I am decidedly unimpressed. I would have thought Tubus Cargo for your bike: http://www.vlerickfietsen.be/bagaget.../cargo_big.jpg Wald #215 is also nice: http://waldsports.com/index.cfm/racks.html among many others -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org/ Open every day since 1 April, 1971 |
#3
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
On Jun 3, 6:13*pm, Coolmaine wrote:
... there still were not enough nuts and bolts to fit the rack, so I reused some that were in my old rack. Also, there was an absence of the necessary nuts -- Tubus apparently assumes every frame is tapped at all points. Also totally absent were spring washers. It's just as well that after a year the Tubus rack started creaking, or I would not have discovered all the loose bolts on it. I'd put up with this sort of crap, and go buy my own spring washers, if the rack were actually useful, but it isn't. I sympathize. That's a ton of money for a rack. This is beside the point (and won't fix your main problem), but I've long since given up on spring washers for bike attachments. They just don't do as well against vibration as anaerobic thread locking compounds. Loctite or equivalent, and be sure to use the strength that can be undone without heat. That's usually blue, at least in the US. - Frank Krygowski |
#4
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
On Jun 3, 11:35*pm, AMuzi wrote:
Coolmaine wrote: The good quality ali rack which came on my Utopia Kranich sacrificed itself to protect my bike when it was twice attacked by a carelessly driven Range Rover. Once I managed to straighten it but the second time it was crippled forever. On the principle of buying good gear once rather than cheap gear repeatedly, I ordered what was said to be the best rack, the Tubus Cosmo. This is a stainless steel rack. Mine cost well over a hundred euro landed from the British bike component discounters, Wiggle. The stainless steel is a dull gray, not polished. The rack gets it lightweight spec from being undersized. It is meanly narrow and shortarsed too. It looks like a toy on my balloon-tired bike. The worst thing about dealing with Tubus is that, even after I asked their service department if their rack would fit, and was assured it would, it still wouldn't fit. You have to buy an extra fitting kit for another ten or twelve Euro. Not that the original fitting kit is complete either. In fact, between the original fitting kit and the extended fitting kit, there still were not enough nuts and bolts to fit the rack, so I reused some that were in my old rack. Also, there was an absence of the necessary nuts -- Tubus apparently assumes every frame is tapped at all points. Also totally absent were spring washers. It's just as well that after a year the Tubus rack started creaking, or I would not have discovered all the loose bolts on it. I'd put up with this sort of crap, and go buy my own spring washers, if the rack were actually useful, but it isn't. It is admirably stiff, but the stiffness is achieved by triangulation that makes it very awkard to impossible to use for carrying luggage. For instance, the lower rail on each side angles in under the top rail, so that I can't hang a common Basil pannier basket without mangling the hooks. I cannot recommend the Cosmo. It is a poseur's rack, of little practical use. The makers charge a huge amount of money for it and don't even give you all the necessary fitting parts. It would probably be a good rack if it were bigger, in which case the clumsy angling of the lower rails might not matter, and if it came with enough fitting components and spring washers to keep it on the bike. As it is sold, I am decidedly unimpressed. I would have thought Tubus Cargo for your bike:http://www.vlerickfietsen.be/bagaget.../cargo_big.jpg Wald #215 is also nice:http://waldsports.com/index.cfm/racks.html among many others -- Andrew Muzi * www.yellowjersey.org/ * Open every day since 1 April, 1971 The rack that came on my bike was made by SL, who've since been taken over Humpert, an excellent German component supplier (the superb stem and the fine Cane Creek copy -- by Cane Creek - headset on my bike are from them). Utopia then went over to fitting RackIt racks, which are ali racks made by Tubus. I think that, if I buy a new rack, I'll make an effort to find a Madison Summit/Massload stainless rack in stock somewhere. It's less than half the price and can't be worse than the Tubus. Andre Jute Visit Jute on Bicycles at http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLING.html |
#5
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
On Jun 4, 3:43*am, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Jun 3, 6:13*pm, Coolmaine wrote: ... there still were not enough nuts and bolts to fit the rack, so I reused some that were in my old rack. Also, there was an absence of the necessary nuts -- Tubus apparently assumes every frame is tapped at all points. Also totally absent were spring washers. It's just as well that after a year the Tubus rack started creaking, or I would not have discovered all the loose bolts on it. I'd put up with this sort of crap, and go buy my own spring washers, if the rack were actually useful, but it isn't. I sympathize. *That's a ton of money for a rack. This is beside the point (and won't fix your main problem), but I've long since given up on spring washers for bike attachments. *They just don't do as well against vibration as anaerobic thread locking compounds. *Loctite or equivalent, and be sure to use the strength that can be undone without heat. *That's usually blue, at least in the US. - Frank Krygowski I don't mind about the money, Frank, as long as I get value for it. I don't keep a car, so it is irrelevant that my bike cost as much as a pre-loved BMW -- the upkeep is virtually zero, and I'm very likely alive because I cycle, so any likely and unlikely expenditure on the bike or accessories for it is a trivial consideration. But I'm a Calvinist, so I dislike being ripped. Thanks for the tip on threadlock; I'll get a tube tomorrow. It would be really nice of Tubus put the threadlock on their threads. Rohloff, to cite just one instance, puts blue Loctite on the replacement closure stud for their gearbox that comes with the annual service kit, which is much appreciated and commented on. Once a manufacturer gets into this price bracket, his goodies had better be perfect because his customers are likely to be both impatient with failure and articulate. Andre Jute Visit Andre's books http://coolmainpress.com/andrejute.html |
#6
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
On 6/3/2011 3:13 PM, Coolmaine wrote:
snip I cannot recommend the Cosmo. It is a poseur's rack, of little practical use. The makers charge a huge amount of money for it and don't even give you all the necessary fitting parts. It would probably be a good rack if it were bigger, in which case the clumsy angling of the lower rails might not matter, and if it came with enough fitting components and spring washers to keep it on the bike. As it is sold, I am decidedly unimpressed. The Cosmo is a very short rack (29cm), not really intended for carrying luggage, especially if you have big feet since you can't have the panniers far enough to the rear. The rack design I really like is the Massload CL-476 http://web.archive.org/web/20041108130532/http://www.cl-massload.com.tw/products.php?pid=78 which is very hard to find (gone from the manufacturer web site). In the U.S. it's sold by (gulp) Landrider http://www.landriderbikes.com/accessories_1.asp for . Here's an account of someone that bought one: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/696989-LandRider-Rear-Rack-(Massload-CL-476)-Review. To me it's rather incredible that there are so many poorly designed racks on the market and amazing that a company that sells such a junky bicycle is the only U.S. source for a rack as good as the Massload CL-476. Personally, I would use thread lock compound on rack bolts. |
#7
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
On Jun 4, 7:42*am, SMS wrote:
On 6/3/2011 3:13 PM, Coolmaine wrote: snip I cannot recommend the Cosmo. It is a poseur's rack, of little practical use. The makers charge a huge amount of money for it and don't even give you all the necessary fitting parts. It would probably be a good rack if it were bigger, in which case the clumsy angling of the lower rails might not matter, and if it came with enough fitting components and spring washers to keep it on the bike. As it is sold, I am decidedly unimpressed. The Cosmo is a very short rack (29cm), not really intended for carrying luggage, especially if you have big feet since you can't have the panniers far enough to the rear. The rack design I really like is the Massload CL-476 http://web.archive.org/web/20041108130532/http://www.cl-massload.com.... which is very hard to find (gone from the manufacturer web site). In the U.S. it's sold by (gulp) Landrider http://www.landriderbikes.com/accessories_1.asp for . Here's an account of someone that bought one: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/696989-LandRider-Rear-Rack-(.... To me it's rather incredible that there are so many poorly designed racks on the market and amazing that a company that sells such a junky bicycle is the only U.S. source for a rack as good as the Massload CL-476.. Personally, I would use thread lock compound on rack bolts. Thanks, Steven. I believe the Massload rack you mention is the Madison Summit stainless rack. I tried to find either for sale in Europe and failed, which why I bought the Cosmo. Now I've tracked down a supplier in England in case I decide to replace the Cosmo. I got the notion about the Massload/Madison from you in the first instance, most likely. -- Andre Jute |
#8
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
Coolmaine wrote:
Once a manufacturer gets into this price bracket, his goodies had better be perfect because his customers are likely to be both impatient with failure and articulate. I'm sorry but that's just a ridiculous expectation on your part. Not every purchase one makes "works out" - sometimes something that's worth the price to most people isn't worth it to you, and that's just life. Find a rack that you like or, if money is truly no object, go get yourself a custom-made model that'll be what you want. Maybe you need to go to a bike shop next time and pay for installation - they'll have all the necessary hardware to make it work and they won't whine about it. -S- |
#9
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
On Jun 3, 3:35 pm, AMuzi wrote:
Coolmaine wrote: The good quality ali rack which came on my Utopia Kranich sacrificed itself to protect my bike when it was twice attacked by a carelessly driven Range Rover. Once I managed to straighten it but the second time it was crippled forever. On the principle of buying good gear once rather than cheap gear repeatedly, I ordered what was said to be the best rack, the Tubus Cosmo. This is a stainless steel rack. Mine cost well over a hundred euro landed from the British bike component discounters, Wiggle. The stainless steel is a dull gray, not polished. The rack gets it lightweight spec from being undersized. It is meanly narrow and shortarsed too. It looks like a toy on my balloon-tired bike. The worst thing about dealing with Tubus is that, even after I asked their service department if their rack would fit, and was assured it would, it still wouldn't fit. You have to buy an extra fitting kit for another ten or twelve Euro. Not that the original fitting kit is complete either. In fact, between the original fitting kit and the extended fitting kit, there still were not enough nuts and bolts to fit the rack, so I reused some that were in my old rack. Also, there was an absence of the necessary nuts -- Tubus apparently assumes every frame is tapped at all points. Also totally absent were spring washers. It's just as well that after a year the Tubus rack started creaking, or I would not have discovered all the loose bolts on it. I'd put up with this sort of crap, and go buy my own spring washers, if the rack were actually useful, but it isn't. It is admirably stiff, but the stiffness is achieved by triangulation that makes it very awkard to impossible to use for carrying luggage. For instance, the lower rail on each side angles in under the top rail, so that I can't hang a common Basil pannier basket without mangling the hooks. I cannot recommend the Cosmo. It is a poseur's rack, of little practical use. The makers charge a huge amount of money for it and don't even give you all the necessary fitting parts. It would probably be a good rack if it were bigger, in which case the clumsy angling of the lower rails might not matter, and if it came with enough fitting components and spring washers to keep it on the bike. As it is sold, I am decidedly unimpressed. I would have thought Tubus Cargo for your bike:http://www.vlerickfietsen.be/bagaget.../cargo_big.jpg That's the one I use - extremely satisfactory. http://i54.tinypic.com/348slys.jpg Wald #215 is also nice:http://waldsports.com/index.cfm/racks.html among many others |
#10
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Tubus Cosmo Rack = Expensive Crap for Posers
On 6/4/2011 7:56 AM, Steve Freides wrote:
Coolmaine wrote: Once a manufacturer gets into this price bracket, his goodies had better be perfect because his customers are likely to be both impatient with failure and articulate. I'm sorry but that's just a ridiculous expectation on your part. Not every purchase one makes "works out" - sometimes something that's worth the price to most people isn't worth it to you, and that's just life. Find a rack that you like or, if money is truly no object, go get yourself a custom-made model that'll be what you want. Maybe you need to go to a bike shop next time and pay for installation - they'll have all the necessary hardware to make it work and they won't whine about it. The chance of finding a bicycle shop that actually sells good rear racks is extremely slim, but I suppose that some shops would be able to properly install the rack with lock washers and thread-lock. |
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