Page 1 of 1

Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 2 Nov 2011, 10:35pm
by nallen132
Hi all, been reading this forum for a while, decided join as I have question i cant find answers too.

recently bought myself a 1992 Claude Butler Dalesman, it has single eyelets at the bottom of the fork and mudguards attached to them and a single mounting bolt about 1/3 of the way down. I cant work out what front rack to get for it. Most racks seem to have the upper mounting that requires a bolt on both sides of the fork.

hope this makes sense and any advice welcome..

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 2 Nov 2011, 11:36pm
by Malaconotus
nallen132 wrote:Hi all, been reading this forum for a while, decided join as I have question i cant find answers too.

recently bought myself a 1992 Claude Butler Dalesman, it has single eyelets at the bottom of the fork and mudguards attached to them and a single mounting bolt about 1/3 of the way down. I cant work out what front rack to get for it. Most racks seem to have the upper mounting that requires a bolt on both sides of the fork.

hope this makes sense and any advice welcome..


If the fork eyelet is on the outside only it is essential to have a rack with a brace over the wheel to prevent the extremely nasty scenario of having the rack or pannier foul the front wheel. This is a good price on an excellent rack which fits the bill... http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... b38s79p156 I am not aware of cheaper alternatives other than the Blackburn low rider which requires adaptation (drilling bits out) to use modern pannier mounting systems.

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 3 Nov 2011, 8:39am
by The Mechanic
+1 for the Tubus Tara. I have one for my tourer. I do not have lowrider braise ons so use the Tubus fittings kit for the upper mount. You only need one lower mount each side as the Tara has separate eyes for you to attached your mudguards to. The only hitch is that this means that, if you ride your bike with and without the front rack, you need two sets of front mudguard stays as they are different lengths. Do not make the mistake of leaving the stays end long so you have a huge amount sticking out of the back of the mudguard. It is only a matter of time before one sticks into your shin. Don't ask me how I know this! And BTW, this will still happen even if you put the rubber caps on the stays.

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 3 Nov 2011, 9:02am
by thirdcrank
Before low riders were invented, anybody wanting to fit front panniers would have used a front rack similar to a three point rear rack ie legs fitting the fork-end mudguard eyes (with long bolts and tubes to clear the front fork blades) or with an extra set of threaded eyes on top of the front fork-end. The top was then secured with a metal strip between the rack and the brake bolt in the fork crown.

I had one until a couple of years ago when I passed it on to another forum member. They must come up on ebay etc from time to time.

While I was looking for a pic to illustrate what I''m trying to describe, I found the Carradice Sherpa which claims to fit any bike, but it's £80 so even more pricey than the Tubus. You might easily end up with a front rack costing more than the bike, especially if you had to buy and extra adaptors.

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 3 Nov 2011, 10:09am
by gaz
Malaconotus wrote:I am not aware of cheaper alternatives other than the Blackburn low rider which requires adaptation (drilling bits out) to use modern pannier mounting systems.


The Blackburn will fit the frame. You leave off the U bolts that clamp around the fork and attach direct to your single sided braze-on on each fork blade. Like the one in my Avatar.

You'll see from the pic that there is a long alloy strip about 1 inch wide running along the top of the low rider. This is the part that gets in the way with many modern pannier fixings.

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 3 Nov 2011, 2:11pm
by PW
I used to cut down a cheap alloy non lowrider Blackburn copy, they were 2 a penny not long ago. I had to on my old 531C because lowriders made it shimmy. The front of the rack also provided a mounting point for lights away from front panniers, barbag or cape and low enough to light up pothole edges at speed.

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 3 Nov 2011, 3:10pm
by tooley92
PW wrote:I used to cut down a cheap alloy non lowrider Blackburn copy, they were 2 a penny not long ago. I had to on my old 531C because lowriders made it shimmy. The front of the rack also provided a mounting point for lights away from front panniers, barbag or cape and low enough to light up pothole edges at speed.


Like this one http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... b0s79p2187

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 3 Nov 2011, 3:14pm
by PW
That's the boy.

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 3 Nov 2011, 3:20pm
by thirdcrank
That's what I was trying to describe above, I didn't realise they were still available. Well done, Spa.

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 3 Nov 2011, 9:09pm
by nallen132
thanks for the nuggets of knowledge, The TUBUS tara is very appealing,just got to find one at the right price... SPA seem to be the lowest, may hold out for 2nd hand one for a little while,, do SPA have new year sales?

Re: Front Pannier rack advice

Posted: 5 Nov 2011, 11:45pm
by djoptix
Or there's this. Has fixings for the fork mounts too.