Fitting Pannier Rack

Folks,

I have a rear pannier rack - bought cheaply on ebay (Massload ! which is not made anymore) and have fitted it to a mountain bike with attachments. Trouble is and I thought I was being clever by buying cheap bolts from a hardware store the head is too large on the chainwheel side and is crunching on the chain. Basically it needs to be a much smaller bolt head so that it won't catch but I can't find anything online at any of the obvious places - wiggle etc who only sell parts for blackburn racks.

any helpful thoughts ?

thanks

N

Jabba, Thanks but it is actually the head of the bolt that is catching on the chain when I'm in the smallest cog and I can't put the nut on the chain side as that would be worse.

go to aforementioned hardware store and buy bolts with smaller head?...

That would be the obvious plan but they only had ones with big heads !

Serves me right for trying to be cheap/clever or even competent. Thanks for replies - no doubt will recant this post when I've had some sleep

Clamp it in a vice with some wood to protect the threads and file the top down.

Sounds like your bolt is the wrong way around. The eye that takes the rack should be threaded. You'll need a bolt that fits that thread. You should be able to have a bolt that's short enough to go through only the rack and the eylet on the frame, and stop there. If you are worried about it coming undone without a nut on the end, use thread glue. There shouldn't really be any need to have anything sticking inwards near the cog or cogs.

You could tap a thread in the hole in the frame and use a slightly over-sized bolt, short enough not to protrude on the chain side.