Wednesday, May 13, 2009

New Rack for the Root Beer Bike

Here is a pic that I took today of one of my Raleighs that I refer to as the Root Beer Bike, due to its' somewhat metallic brown paint job. It is a Raleigh Sport that is a mid 70s vintage, I think.

I have had this bike for 5-6 years and it gets ridden just about every day.

The funny thing is that even though it is ridden regularly, it has never had a rack, so I recently placed an order with Bike Tires Direct for a Planet Bike rack that they had for $19.99.

I received the rack yesterday. This old frame has only a mudguard eyelet and there was not enough room in the rack height department to allow it to clear the mudguard. A trip to the local hardware store was in order.

I found some plumber strapping material and purchased a few more bolts and nuts. When I returned home, I cut a bit of the plumber strapping material and installed it with the bolts that attach the mudguards to the frame eyelets.

I used the strapping to extend the reach of the rack, by attaching the rack to the strapping material. See the photo detail below:
I then used the included hardware to attach the rack to the seat stays. The rack seems very solid, more so than the above picture may indicate.

I grabbed an old trunk bag that I had laying around, and this bike is ready for a long haul- this time without a backpack!

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