Tubus Cosmo mounting holes

[jiberjaber]

I have a Tubus Cosmo fitted to my Croix de Fer (2015 version), presently using the higher of the two rear axel mounting locations and I am considering lowering the rack on to the lower mounting location.

I think I can achieve about 65mm lowering which will put the rack nicely just above my mud guard, to do this I will have to be creative with the mud guard stay.

The rack has two holes on the mount, a lower one and another above it which I would use to achieve this lower position...

The hole is the right dia, but all the diagrams / instructions don't indicate that the hole could be used.

Has anyone used this higher rack hole for mounting, I don't think it will cause any issues, but has any issues encountered?

Rack drawing:
http://www.tubus.com/documents/1323681314_Cosmo_BM.pdf
Rack Instructions:
http://www.tubus.com/documents/1321270003_Cosmo.pdf

Present mounting:

[CREPELLO]

The upper holes are secondary mudguard mounting points, if you only have one set of eye lets. In your case, a better arrangement would be to mount the rack on the mudguard eye lets and then use the the upper set of holes on the rack to mount the mudguard stays. You may need a spacer or two to get a good fit.

I often choose a 26" wheel version of a rack if it's available for 700c bikes. The 700 version is only really necessary on a bike with huge mudguard clearances.

[Brucey]

the Croix de Fer has high mounting points on the dropouts anyway (where you have the rack mounted presently is really for the mudguards I think, and vice-versa), the rack is incredibly tall and the bike has rather short chainstays (IIRC it has toe overlap too once you fit mudguards, all in the name of being 'a sporty touring bike' or something...).

A question; do you think that your panniers are going to clear you heels in any event?

If not, I'd suggest making up some 'L' shaped plates in (say) 4 or 5mm thickness aluminium, each with three holes in, and using both holes in the rack to mount these and the third hole to mount the plates to the frame.

This way you can have the rack a bit further back (for heel clearance) and as low down as you want, more or less.

Dare I suggest that this problem has occurred because the parts have been bought sight unseen, with an assumption that they will fit OK?

cheers

[jiberjaber]

Thanks for the info, I'll have a play later on today with various combinations to see how it fits together, its certainly going to need some packing off to use the second hole on the rack for the mud guards - I've got plenty of M5 washers to try with.

Yes, toe overlap is a problem unfortunately.... but I just need to remember to have my foot in the right place or use short clipped in pedal movements to counteract on tight turns.

[hamish]

I have a Tour de Fer which has the same dropouts but longer chain stays and no toe overlap. It came with a rack but I tried to fit my Cosmo to it. The original rack is very short and fits very well but is not of the same quality as a tubus. The Cosmo, however, sat far to high and was not a good fit. I considered fitting it on the lower holes but it didn't seem to fit particularly well there either and if I remember correctly, still needed padding out. I don't like using spacers on the rack because I think it creates a weaker fixing - but I also have had to on my Troll where the rack is currently installed.

In terms of which hole is which... Genesis fit the mudguard to the lower/rear hole and the rack to the upper one. Whilst I think the Tour de Fer is a good frame, the drop outs are not that easy to work with- at least with currently available racks. The steerer was also cut far to short.

[jiberjaber]

So I fettled today, the stay of the mud guard conflicts with the rear stay of the rack too much, so I came up with the following



Essentially, the upper mounting hole on the rack is used with the lowest boss on the bike and the mud guard stay is inside the dropouts on the upper boss. Result is the rack is now considerably lower. Plenty of clearance to the disc and the cassette on the inside. All bolts are locktite'd. only risk is something becoming trapped in between the rear mud guard & tyre and causing the guard stay QR to detach and enter the spokes.... low likelihood though not impossible.