I am looking to make my 2016 raleigh tamland 1 into a every day commuter bike. I also want to go bikepacking with it in the future. I have no idea where to start looking for a mid price but strong lightweight rear rack. At the most i probably would only ever be hauling 20-30 lbs. max on it. I have a really old one laying around right now which i have no idea what quality it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I did do some research and looks like the Topeak Explorer comes up as a decent rack. It did mention a couple of times that you have to have a different racks for disk brakes so guessing the one that I have here at the house won't work then. Not sure why though but on Amazon they aren't available until May 28th.
I'm running an ultralight commuter setup that does double duty for bike packing with a Bontrager BackRack Lightweight rack and Arkel Dry-Lites Waterproof Saddle Bags. The whole setup only weighs about 2 lbs and easily carries a small 14" laptop, change of clothes, lunch, tools and more. The bags aren't wider than your bars and have proven to be stable and quiet even over rooty singletrack and washed out forest service roads. Not a bargain solution but about the same price as a quality seat pack or frame bag. I'm very satisfied with the quality and weight for the price.
Zurichman wrote:I am looking to make my 2016 raleigh tamland 1 into a every day commuter bike. I also want to go bikepacking with it in the future. I have no idea where to start looking for a mid price but strong lightweight rear rack. At the most i probably would only ever be hauling 20-30 lbs. max on it. I have a really old one laying around right now which i have no idea what quality it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I use a topeak supertourist rack with the mtx trunk panniers that you can zip up when you don't need them, i got the disc rack on my willier but this is unnecessary as the disc mounts wouldn't infringe on the mounting boss, any way i have the standard rack on my surly so i can swap the mtx between the 2. I ride lots of gravel and rough tracks where i can be left middle of nowhere so have always got a tool kit,spare tube, rain coat in the trunk bag. The only addition i made was to get some split washers to stop the screws coming loose but this set up works well and if i need to i drop down the side pans and have carried about 25lb total with it on gravel.
