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If there is a part of the fork which is both circular in section and a standard (plumbing) diameter then munsen rings might be a more engineered solution than P clips? I've used them to hold rigid panniers to a 1950s moped rack, and a frame for a lead acid battery to handlebars, and been satisfied with their load carrying ability.
Much of the fitting hardware for the Soma Porteur is to allow a single design of rack to fit a variety of bikes - if you're making a custom rack for a specific bike then many of the adjustment options shouldn't be necessary - the long slot in the rear bracket can be replaced with a single accurately placed hole (or short slot to accommodate errors in measurement) and a single bolt rather than the two or three needed on the Soma to compensate for the lack of contact area under the bolt head. You could even be brave (confident that no adjustment will ever be needed) and braze the tang directly to the rack.
An eyelet in the form of a short metal strip with a hole to receive a nut and bolt should be straightforward, provided the end of the strip is accurately filed to match the tube section.
I suspect the Soma has some sort of captive nuts on the underside of the middle section: this is more challenging unless you've got use of a lathe. Just brazing a nut to the outside of the tube doesn't give much usable thread - I'd be tempted to cross drill the middle section where you want the bracket to fit and braze in an insert made from (say) 8mm bar, bored and threaded M6.I suspect a drawing would be better than text - I'll sort something in the morning and see if I can photograph something meaningful in the garage...
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MrE
I appreciate the input, thanks.
Just ordered the steel and the rods/flux.
I'm wondering how exactly I'll attach it to the bike. At the bottom I can do p-clips (easiest) or work out some method to attach it using the QR - any suggestions?
At the top I'm thinking a bent strip of steel that bolts in behind the front brake, but how to attach that to the rack? The Soma Porteur uses bolts and eyelets within the frame to allow the metal bracket to slide, allowing for variation. Are eyelets easy to braze in?