specialized awol front rack "pizza rack"

Hey,

I'm just trying to mount one of these on my Straggler and have no idea how to mount it at the fork crown with the extras that came with it. Have you got any pictures, or did you have to do some DIY tweaking?

Just collected one from bikeplus and fitted it up, the bit that goes to the fork crown is shaped a bit wrong but seems to fit ok.

If you are having trouble getting one bikeplus seemed happy to special order it in if cash up front, arrived in a couple of days direct from specialised.

Im currently touring in Asia with a pizza rack with two ortlieb frontrollers and a drybag on top. It looks really cool but I don't like that the weight of the panniers is higher and more forward compared to the tubus lowriders I used before. It's pretty unstable when I'm climbing at low speed and hard not to sway all over the road. Anyone else experienced this?

I haven't done much touring with it but i can imagine it's not as good as lowriders. I mainly use mine for city use but it does sit high and far forward. Planning on going on a tour this summer but will probably switch for lowriders and normal front rack til then.

I've done some heavy loading over shit terrain on mine. Things I've learnt. It prefers much smaller panniers. Outside of custom, most OTP ones will need to be modded a bit. I use some front rollers loaded with soft goods.

Secondly, it's tough, but I really wish they had more contact points. I've had to mod mine to brace it at the bottom and mid fork for peace of mind.

@kjlem Yeah, totally agree. I've had to learn to redistribute the weight of my gear to offset it from the front a bit. Saying that, I've got really slack geo on my bike so not sure how 'bad', 'bad' is.
Also, show and tell? Looks like a great trip, how long you out there for?

^ interesting feedback, I've come close to pulling the trigger on one for my lht a couple of times over the last few months. It's slow and boaty enough as it is so any extra sway would be unwelcome.
Is there a smallish otp front rack for a dry bag/low rider combo that's known to work?
Would rather keep panniers down by the hub where they belong..

Interesting .. have you got any pics of the bottom brace mod — imagining against dropout eyelet?

It's a a bit ghetto for experimenting right now, as i'll make a 2nd neater version. I'll try get a pic up later.

@edmundro

Something like this?

Surly 8pack with some lowriders? This is @Heldring 's so he can give details.

^ that looks baller but unfortunately the older lht fork doesn't have crown eyelets like most other surly offerings. Might shoot surly a message to see if it can mount to the brake hole.
I suspect I'll go with a basic brake stud mounting rack like the £15 sjs offering. Or possibly a handlebar harness instead, shame brp has closed shop for the time being.
No rush as the lht needs a few other bits sorted first.

Can't really help the 'high' bit, but 'forward' surely can be adjusted?

There is the Blackburn Outpost front rack, which has low-rider type position for the front panniers, but people usually are not too keen on the shape / small-ish size of the rack, nothing like the pizza thingy...

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/13182745/

Hmm, very temping actually. Wider top would be nice but not a deal breaker for me.

I can't fit a pizza rack as I've only got brake hole and eyelets at the bottom of the fork - what else in that style will work for me?

The pelago ones?

https://www.pelagobicycles.com/pelago-commuter-front-rack.html

I had to adjust mine to make it work with my cantis, I'll try to post some pics here soon. I'm in Lao at the moment, amazing scenery to cycle through, I quit my job so staying here till I run out of money or get sick of it. Maybe I'll start a thread and share some pictures on here...

That looks lovely, thanks. I don't suppose there is cheaper variant anywhere?

I took some pictures yesterday to show you guys what the pizza rack looks like on my bike and with the luggage. I made the 'fork connection plates' myself because it didn't fit with the standard ones. I think it sits even 1 or 2 cm more forward to make it work with the brakes.

@kjlem

how are those ortlieb bags fixed at the lower end? any detailed pictures?

Yes, I'll try to take some photos today or tomorrow. Also noticed a few days ago that the plastic of the ortlieb was secretly trying to make holes in the aluminium...

@user74608
I was a bit difficult to take clear photos but I think this will do;
You have to put the lower hook of the orlieb almost all the way forward.

Step 1; hold the pannier on an angle and click the aft upper hook on

Step 2; slide the lower hook over the rack on the front side.

Step 3; push that shit down so the lower hook slides to the under side of the rack and the upper forward hook will click on.

Noice. I'll be copying that thank you very much. Where are you now?

I take it from all that take that the Ortlieb hooks are not a good fit on the rails of the Pizzarack?

If you do it like this the Ortliebs fit fine, I used the duct tape to prevent rattling, but the hooks also wear out the aluminium without it. My advise is to use something stronger than duct tape thought.
Im really close to Bangkok. Crossed the border from Lao into Thailand from Vientiane. Then cycled north again to the highest mountain of Thailand close to Chiang Mai and then I went south to Bangkok. I already mis Lao, the scenery was amazing and the roads are pretty quiet so great for cycling.

Don't get why everyone's allergic to rear racks. They're for carrying the most weight, low-riders are small bags for a reason.

Well there are front rollers up front so they are small. The dry bag on top has my sleepingbag in it so that's also not heavy. I was thinking about adding a rear rack and back rollers but that would already be about 2kg extra. Also I weight about 200 lbs so if I put all my luggage on the rear it will put a lot of load on the rear wheel, now its more evenly distributed over the wheels.
I did touring with my fixed gear one time with only a rear rack and I hated the handling, this setup handles way better.

Tl;dr I wanted to be on radavist