Have you ever had a pannier rack fail?

Just fitted a couple of my bikes with racks, and thinking I may stick a front one on one too.

Ive not had much experience of using panniers/carrying loads and was pondering about the limitations/durability of the non-ideal setups I have.

I have one of these on the back of my modern kona aluminium bike.

It claims to have a 25kg weight limit, but it feels well wobbly and I doubt it could be true. Its a flat pack design, so bolted together. The extendable rods that go from the seat stays are at there maximum length, if one was to slip in the clamp it would pop right out. Also, the kona has threaded eyelets of only 4mm for the the rack, I have mudguards on the same bolts. It would be pretty catastrophic if I was riding on a busy road, heavily loaded and it were to all collapse due to a stripped internal thread on the aluminium frame.

Next, I have a 70's coventry eagle. To which I have fitted a steel rack befitting of the period. But it mounts to the brake bolt, so only one point of attachment at the centre. So there is some flex even though the rack itself is very strong. Has anyone ever had one of these setups fail? If the brake bolt snapped for example?

I am thinking of fitting a front rack in a similar way, but it will have an improvised connection from the pannier rack to the fork, probably a reflector holder. Ive seen other people do this, would it be strong enough?

If anyone has any stories of their racks/bikes falling apart when carrying stuff, please share.

Thanks.

brazeons break, metal fatigues, bolts shear off...

so yes racks do sometimes fail

I hate the wobbly feel I get with my fully loaded rear rack, which I've put down to the "flexy" bridge bit from the seatstay to the rack.
The silver part of this rack, not my exact model but the silver bridge part is teh same.

I'm quite seriously considering tubus on my new touring build, particularly to eliminate any flexibility in the rack so it is really stiff and decrease the liklihood of that horrible wobble, and they are well constructed and look lovely as well.

My old man's an engineer and made some really good attachment pieces for my rack. Will post a photo tomorrow, might be of some help/give you some ideas

I find racks with the round mounting stays apposed to the thin metal plate type combined with proper frame braze on's are fairly solid - that one looks a little flimsy due to the ikea construction - you can get sturdy alloy ones for not alot of dollah, fine for everyday use, if your doing extended touring steel's probably a better bet

http://www.tubus.com/