Pickenflick for commuting & bikepacking

Hello,
With the current sale at planet-X I decided to treat myself a Titanium disc-brake frame !
It should arrive next week, I hope.
For budget reasons I will build it up using some used SRAM force/red parts/X9 (2 x 10 sp) I have laying around. I got myself some BB7 mechanical discbrakes to work with the shifters I already have.
Since I plan to use it for cycle touring (both roads as well as gravel) in the alps and Pyrenees, I'll try to use only reasonably light components.

For this build I am looking for some advice on:

• wheelset that is light but solid enough for bikepacking tires from 28mm / 42mm
  (me: 192 cm / 83 kg or 6ft3/ 183lb ).
  
• solutions for a rack (either front or back)
  
  

Thanks for advice, I'll keep you updated with the build-process.

Good price for titanium. I'd invest in some framebags instead of panniers since it doesn't have any type of rack mounts.

The frame has arrived!
In the mean time I have selected a solid nice wheelset; 32sp / DTswiss 350 hubs / DT 511d rims.
Here's for now a picture with some old non-disc wheels....

I refuse to accept there is no solution for a front rack/low rider on a carbon fork.
somehow there should be a solution!
I have found 1 person on instagram that mounted a rack to the pickenflick fork, but could not find any explanation of how this was done. Here's a picture of that bike:

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Hi! That's my bike!
With the Pickenflick fork, it's not possible to fit a rack.... So, after searching on internet for a while, I bought a carbon Kinesis fork (with alu steerer) and this rack: https://www.lecyclo.com/velo/transport/porte-bagage/avant/porte-bagage-avant-26-ou-28-pouces-noir.html

It worked well! I went 2 weeks in Iceland with this setup. With washboard gravel roads, etc!

It may be a steel fork. Why anyone would risk it anyways, carbon fork with panniers?
Edit: Still thinking it's a bad idea, put all load in the weakest point

With my setup, it was fine, the weight was on the crown (alu steerer) and on the axle, not on the carbon blades!

Otherwise, I changed the original fork for Selcof with 12mm TA. Huge improvement!

And this bike is really nice for bikepacking!

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What a coincidence that you are on this forum, Alex! Cool picture with the ax on the bike.
O.k. so it was not the pickenflick fork with the rack :-(
With such a rack, I'd think most of the load is on the axis.

Still I'd really like to mount a tubus Tara on this fork;
if clamping is halfway the fork is risky, maybe glueing or otherwise playing with carbon could work? Or if I make something to distribute the clamping force over a much larger surface.....
I found on the internet "gorilla cages" which are mounted on carbon forks, that seems similar

Cost of a carbon fork with rack mounts < cost of a) new front teeth b) facial reconstruction c) new forks, etc...

Sell fork, buy something fit for purpose.

Talbot tried retrofitting rack mounts to carbon forks a couple of times I think with little success, and basically concluded its not worth the time, effort or cost. @coldharbour might be able to explain a little better

Waste of time, don't bother. Rodeo spork has many mounts now, so can just run that...

ok. I start to consider getting a CroMo or Alloy fork. It's hard to find a fork with disc-brake mount, 400mm length, 45mm tire clearance, rake of 50mm and rackmounts. I am open to suggestions! I looked at the Rodeo, but it is quite pricey!
I did find the Soma Wolverine fork:

Unfortunately I can't find any info on its weight.

Can a 1 1/8 fork be fitted to the tapered Pickenflick frame, will mud not get directly into the bearing, in that case?
Please advice, Thanks!

Cane Creek and Chris King makes reducer crown race

But, I'm running the rodeo spork on my ti warbird with a nitto / swift-industries ozette situation. Much pricey, such functionality

Another fork option.
https://www.cnc-bike.de/product_info.php?cPath=50_44_1062&products_id=16615

disk trucker fork in classifieds?

It seems I've found myself a nice fork!

now I am looking for nice bottle cages and found some Titanium ones on ali-express: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/Titainium-Bicycle-Holder-Water-Bottle-Cages/32801247528.html?spm=a2g0s.8937460.0.0.eaE23Z
Anyone experience with these, is it really Titanium? (The weight looks good, if it is accurate)
They look really identical to the stainless steel ones of planetX, which seems strange, but the ss are heavier. https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/BOPXSTS/planet-x-stainless-steel-bottle-cage

That design is sold by a bunch of companies and shops. I bought the titanium version through eBay from China (no idea if same manufacturer).

They hold bottles firm but not so much that you can’t get them out quickly. I think weight was as claimed.
Only thing I didn’t like was that one of the cages had the upper bolt hole drilled very slightly off centre so the inserted bottle does not quite align with the down tube. Its not that noticeable though and doesn’t bother me.

I need some advice....
I am ordering a wheel set and to make exchangable between the quick release (100x5) fork that comes standard with the Pickenflick and a 15 TA fork, so if I order a TA hub (100x15) I can use an adapter for the QR (100x5) fork.
Now i have 2 options:

• An aluminum " tube" and 9 mm Thru bolt
  
• 2 small end-plugs that can be combined with my titanium skewers
  
  

I leaning towards the lightweight solution (option2) or is the other solution much more rigid?

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Pretty much all Hubs use a variation on option 2.

I've got a London road which I could transplant all the parts across from and I've found a pickenflick frame used for a good price.. trying to find any reason to save myself the money, but I can't find any, everyone seems to love this bike.

Finally all parts have arrived! I ve been busy all afternoon tweaking the settings of the the BB7 brakes. 50/34 - 11/34 gears. XT rotors, which turn out not to clear the bb7 without mod of the pads

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Update with new tires and Ti bottle cages!
(and commuting pedals)

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