Monday, May 27, 2013

Front Racks for Our Ralieghs

"Crap!  Our front racks aren't going to fit!  But these were the ones everyone recommended...."

This happened about two weeks ago.  I was attempting to make my back fender stop squeaking (mission accomplished with the help of a old bike tube, scissors, and needle nose pliers) and to put my front rack on so I could start riding with some weight up front.


Jeremy went to the bike shop the next day to figure out what we needed to do.  Of course they felt really bad because they forgot to mention that with disc brakes there are only a few types of front racks that work (the internet failed to tell us this as well...woops!) and the most common and recommended type unfortunately does not fit around our disc brake.  Bummer.

So we ended up with a heavy duty rack made by Surly.  It comes with a TON of hardware, but no instructions, however a wonderful friend and bike mechanic found some online, hooray! (installing a Surly front rack).  The directions are pretty simple, however it still took some finagling: long bolts, tons of washers, and try not to let the rack rub on our brake caliper without pulling the rack too far off center.  But we made it work!

Happy riding!

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