~3 hours of work
Admittedly it’s 3 hours of work spread out over 3 days, but it’s still only 3 hours of work (and 45 minutes of that was building jigs to hold various bits together. The next rack is going to be a rando rack for a fatbike, so I’m gonna need to sit down before I start working and assemble a somewhat more sturdy jig, but I suspect there’s only about 3 hours of work that I need to do on that rack as well.
Gotta set up an e-commerce website so I can start a bags & racks business!
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I’ve not done nearly enough brazing to be comfortable modifying fork crowns, because the failure case includes becoming a lawn dart. I’ve built racks for machines with crown shoulder mountpoints (Russell’s Kogswell, a Rick James custom, and a Surly Crosscheck) and I take full advantage of them if they’re available. My fork leg stays are pretty stout (I think because of the braces I glue onto them) so a brake-bolt mounted rack (when everything is bolted down tightly) stays in place, even when – in the case of the GT – I’ve wildly overloaded it.
I have no doubt they’re strong racks! The way you shop they’d absolutely have to be!
I’ve developed a strong association with trying to get the fender support and the rack bit both on the just-long-enough bolt with a possible excess of washers and the gods-be-feathered nylock, and it’s not a good association, is all. Things get crowded.
What I do when I have to piggyback a rack + fender stays is to run the bolt out from the fork and do a dropout/rack stay/nut/fender stay/washer/nylock – this keeps the fender load close to the dropout, plus uses the nut/fender stay/washer/nylock as a lock nut.
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That looks very spiffy!
When I had to get a replacement fork due to car, I asked for the top of the fork crown to have rivnuts. This makes putting the four-strut Rivendell “Mark’s Rack” style front rack on much, much better than trying to attach to the middle of the fork crown. I don’t know if you’re in a position to modify forks, or if many of the forks have the flat crown top of tradition, but it might be something to look into for these custom racks.