So this is an update on a thread I started a while ago. I built a rack. It’s awesome. Here’s how I did it.
I got the basic idea from this guy’s instructable. The idea was good but the execution was poor. Astute tarckers will notice that the same may be said of the original rack-maker’s bike which has a mis-matched fork, a $130 front brake and what appears to be a singlespeed freehub conversion.
To make mine, I got one lenght (10ft?) of 1/2" square tubing, 16 x 1.5" #8 stainless bolts and nuts, 4 x 2" #10 stainless bolts and nuts and 2 electrical conduit hangers. Total cost was under 30$.
After getting supplies, the next step was figuring out a basic blueprint for what this was going to look like. I decided on making my “platform” 11" long by 10" wide and making the vertical part 10" tall. (It’s important to make sure you have enough tubing at this point) At first I had planned on making the trusses out of an old fork, but after cutting the steerer tube, the forged crown proved difficult to drill with my shitty 12v cordless thing. Instead, I decided to use a pair of seat stays (brake bridge and dropouts still attached) but you could use pretty much anything.
Next step was cutting all the pieces to length with a hacksaw and then filing down the rough edges. After this was the most annoying part: drilling holes. Again this was done with a shitty cordless drill. A drill press would be a huge improvement on what I did and would not only make the whole thing straighter (mine’s kind of a parallelogram ) but will also cut a few hours off the whole process.
After that, you just put the screws in the holes and do it up. Locktite comes in handy here (or lock bolts). Also, the bolts I used stick out a bit and should probably get dremmeled-off next time I’m bored. This could be avoided however by getting 1 1/4" bolts if you’re able to find them in stainless.
Anyways, the dropouts go over your bike’s dropouts and the vertical part hooks-up with your handlebars with the conduit hangers. This puts the rack (and whatever you’re carrying) right up against the bar (and your knuckles) and could probably be improved.
Cetma racks http://www.cetmaracks.com/ are great. I’ve installed the 3 rail on this bike for our community bikes project. I’ve got 2 more of the 3-rails on order, and 2 5-rails. One of the 5-rails is for me the rest are for the community bikes project.
Any rear rack should hold up to better-than-average abuse, but front racks are always a little thinner and usually designed for holding saddle bags and not much else. CETMA racks are burley as hell and should last forever, but no one’s mentioned Wald yet. They make some great stuff right here in the USA, and it costs a fraction of the cost of a CETMA or the like.
Wald stuff is available through any LBS with a catalog, or you can buy it online for dirt cheap.
Thick Bikes (www.thickbikes.com) in Pittsburgh makes a rack thats alot like the Cetma, but its tubular aluminum instead of steel so it weighs like 3-5 pounds less.
So far they seem just as strong as the cetma’s and not having to carry around an extra 5 pounds of metal on your front end makes a huge difference.
if i didnt already have a cetma i got for free i would totally buy one.
[quote=“death is certain”]Thick Bikes (http://www.thickbikes.com) in Pittsburgh makes a rack thats alot like the Cetma, but its tubular aluminum instead of steel so it weighs like 3-5 pounds less.
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The cetma 5-rail is made from tubular chromoly, and weighs 2.1 pounds and the 7-rail weighs 2.5. They’d have to make it out of hydrogen to make it 3-5 pounds less
You’re probably thinking of the older Cetmas which I think did weigh about 5 pounds.
cetma style racks are way easy to diy with either scavenged metal (free), or angle iron from the home despot (~$20)
the cetma racks are poorly mounted to the handlebars & the axle. the actual construction of the rack body is great, just wish they’d do a better job at making mounts and/or a little more r&d on better mounting systems.
some monkeeying around in my basement has yielded a better system than cetma.
[quote=“biekridder”]cetma style racks are way easy to diy with either scavenged metal (free), or angle iron from the home despot (~$20)
the cetma racks are poorly mounted to the handlebars & the axle. the actual construction of the rack body is great, just wish they’d do a better job at making mounts and/or a little more r&d on better mounting systems.
some monkeeying around in my basement has yielded a better system than cetma.[/quote]
