Front rack suggestions

I was looking at one of those the other day. I think its cheapest here:

http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/tubus-lowrider-tara-26-28-black-37271

Have you seen it cheaper?

Nope...and I can only find them in black it seems...Pannier had them in silver.

Thanks for the post about Pelago racks.
They need either a mount or a front fork that has some sort of horizontal sweep.
Velorution (Gt Portland St) stock them if you are interested.

Azor is another option, the rack is attached to the downtube using either 'sockets' or their own adapter. Quite common in Holland apparently, have fun getting them..

My recommendation follows...

Brick Lane Bikes also do them for a very reasonable £35, the so-called 'takeaway tray'

http://www.bricklanebikes.co.uk/blb-take-away-tray-black

The lovely chaps at Fitzrovia also stock them.

Very easy to fit, no mounts required.

There is a spacer if your front brake doesn't have the clearance and the attachment to the front wheel hub is a doddle.

But that involves giving money to BLB....

Sorry to Hi-Jack, but I to am after a decent front rack.. Does anywhere do one that bolts midway down the fork into the eyelets? instead of going down to the wheel axle?

Blackburn do a Lowrider (FL1), mine broke after about 3,000 miles. HAd a Tubus Ergo ever since, and it's brilliant. There is another Tubus option as well: the Duo, which doesn't have the bar over the wheel.

[Surly's Nice Rack] It's exactly as it name implied, but extremely heavy, would only recommend if you're intending to go round the worlds.

Recently I've been considering the Surly Nice Rack, because my Soma Porteur Rack is used almost exclusively with panniers.

I looked up the weights of both for comparison and was surprised to see only 180g difference.

• Surly Nice Rack: 1382g
  
• Soma Porteur Rack: 1202g (without optional fence/rails)
  
  

The Nice Rack looks like it'd handle better than the Soma for panniers, but unlike a standard lowrider it can still carry the occasional box/pizza.

Any thoughts?

getting an "expedition-worthy" rack for carrying small panniers and occasional pizzas seems crazy to me. could use this chance to get a lighter porteur which will still carry all you need. but you know my touring tendencies...

I would agree, but when the expedition-worthy rack weighs little more than the one I'm already hauling around it doesn't seem so crazy.

The Surly isn't the commuter any more, and will be rackless for most of the time, but for the occasional trip where rack/panniers is required, seems like the Nice Rack would be better suited.

Alternatively, low riders and a separate, lighter porteur rack for pizza runs could be a good shout.

^^ just spend your money on more pizza to justify the current rack?

Plan was:

1. Sell current rack
   
2. Buy nice rack
   
3. Eat pizza
   

But you'll lose money selling old and buying Nice rack... how do you pizza with negative ££?

I had a Soma rack, now I've got Nitto M18+Wald basket on pub/commuter and a Tubus Tara that I sometimes bolt on the Straggler. The Nitto is a bit shit for things like pizza but just do-able with a basket on top. Might eventually replace that with something a bit more robust, but probably not for more than £5-10 at a cyclejumble or something...

The Tubus is ok, fitting to the Straggler+Spyres+PDW guards needed a little bit of filing but works ok when needed.

This way I usually go, total weight for me is around 700g (Tubus low rider and Nitto front rack).

Weighted mine, they're 858g combine.

This combo is noticeably more comfortable as it doesn't dramatically stiffen the fork to the point that it almost feel like a heavy alu fork.

For general info, the Nitto will most likely need a set of longer struts too if you want to mount on Straggler/Disc Trucker forks using the mid blade eyelets rather than with p-clips

Where can you get a set of longer struts from? I have the nitto with p clips currently as it won't reach on the LHT forks.

Ended up getting them from Ben's Cycle, thankfully had someone in the US who brought them over, wouldn't have bothered if it involved international shipping and customs/handling fees.

Other option I considered - http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tubus-roundstay-l-prod21528/ in 350mm lenght. The diameter is quoted as 7.6mm, Nitto measures a little smaller - about 7.0-7.2mm if I remember right. Should be easy enough sand them down a to fit. Assume they'll be strong enough as they're Tubus...

Any opinions on the Surly Nice rack? I read a complaint about it flexing sideways when loaded because of the non-tubular steel mounting hardware.

Cross post from the cargo bike thread:

So I'm looking at plans for a cargo-ish bike for my photography kit. Basically I'm sick of carrying up to 15kg on my back in a rucksack. Only problem is that when I had a cetma rack (which mounts to front hub axle and handlebars), the vibrations from the road killed my kit, and it was a fairly expensive repair to get some of my lenses fixed.

So, I'm thinking I have a small/med front rack about A3 size, that mounts to my frame. If I was to get fat tires - say 1.75 - and some front suspension forks, do you think this would work?

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it's a nice rack, but quite hefty and huge for the size.

1.75 tyres will make a big difference already as long you don't go silly-o-pressure going over 40psi.

What are the current options for a (cheap) front rack for 20" wheels?

Cross posting from FBNPNA as it's probably more relevant here

New front racks from Surly next year... http://surlybikes.com/blog/post/something_wicked_this_way_comes