Low Rider Rack Boss Options?

[Tymncycle]

Hey gang!

I built a touring frame at UBI some years ago, and the one regret I had when finished was that I had run out of time before getting a chance to braze low rider mounts for a front rack.  I now find myself with the time to do it, and a trip to a powder coater for another bike in my near future, so I figured I should do it now.  I've read a fair number of posts about positioning and all that, so I'm not so worried about that.  My question is rather about what style of mount folks recommend, based on the fact that this will be my first time doing this particular job, and with the fork already built up.  What are the options and what are the pros and cons?  From bikes I've seen, it seems that some use something like the Henry James units that slip through the fork through drilled holes, while others use what appears to be a bottle boss in a drilled hole on the outside only, while still others opt for something more like a typical rear rack "hour glass" or "barrel" braze on on the front of the fork.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Cautions?

Thanks!

Tim Fricker

Vienna, VA USA

[M-gineering]

Get the rack first, it could determine which method works best.
Hourglass braze ons give you more options in the horizontal to get the
rack level, a single bottle boss won't work with a three point rack. And
drilling through a light weight fork is riskier than adding a boss to
the outside

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mvg

Marten Gerritsen
Kiel Windeweer
Netherlands

[Andrew R Stewart]

Tim- I agree with Marten. You really need the rack (even though you didn’t ask about that) as the location varies with rack, rake, head angle and your whims. Besides a horizontal pannier hook rail I like the panniers to be fairly parallel to each other. Many older racks (Eclipse and Black Burn) would have the rear of the panniers closer together then their front if the the rack/blade mounts were flush with the blades (as in a water bottle boss). So long ago I decided to use stay hour glass bosses acting as a stand off. No hole in the blade is needed and the half dozen I’ve done this way have been no problems with durability. The through shaft/tube type was originally designed for the racks that had no over the tire loop stabilizer. As this type of rack had a cleaner look and was the “new thing” many production bikes went with this boss mount.

 

Lastly to comment on Marten’s worry about drilling a light weight blade. I hope a touring bike doesn’t have a light weight fork to begin with. Andy.

 

Andrew R Stewart
Rochester, NY USA

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[James Nachlin]

One advantage of the hour glass style or the kind that pierce the blade fully is that if you strip the threads (the latter may not have threads) you can still use the boss.  I have stripped a water bottle boss in the past, when using it as a front rack mount point.

[Alex Wetmore]

The water bottle boss approach looks nice when the rack isn't mounted.  I typically use the barrel boss brazeon for my porteur racks (because my standard boss position is based on old Rivendell forks and they used the barrel boss), but I use a waterbottle boss for the lowrider because 95% of the time the rack isn't mounted and it looks nicer.  I pick the waterbottle boss out of my pile that is deepest and has the best cut threads.  I've never had one strip, but agree that it would be annoying if one did.

On bikes where I expect to carry heavier loads I'll use an M6 sized (instead of the standard M5 sized) boss.  Nova sells these for CX front derailleur pulleys, or they aren't too hard to make on a lathe.

The through tube that Henry James sells is really for "hoopless" lowrider racks like the old Blackburn CL-1.  You can use it for other racks, but you end up with a long bolt through the fork and an annoying nut on the backside.

alex

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From: frameb...@googlegroups.com <frameb...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of James Nachlin <j...@nachlin.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 7:11 PM
To: Andrew R Stewart
Cc: Tymncycle; framebuilders
Subject: Re: [Frame] Low Rider Rack Boss Options?

 

[John Wilson]

My '84 Schwinn Voyageur SP uses the blind M6 boss for the front lowrider rack. What I'm looking for is a M6 to M5 adapter like the M5 to M5 cantilever brake to rack studs. Anybody make these?

Thanks,

John Wilson

Greensburg, PA

USA

[M-gineering]

On 2/27/2015 2:00 PM, Alex Wetmore wrote:
but you end up with a long bolt through the fork and an annoying
> nut on the backside.

For your average cyclist, trying to put his bike together at an airport
after a long flight this annoying nut suddenly starts to make sense.
The nut is a lot less easier to mess up than a threaded fastener on the
inside of the forkleg and a carrier which never quite lines up

[Alex Wetmore]

From: M-gineering <in...@m-gineering.nl>

> The nut is a lot less easier to mess up than a threaded fastener on the
> inside of the forkleg and a carrier which never quite lines up

Only hoopless racks use a threaded boss on the inside of the fork leg. The front racks that I normally use (the circa-2000 Tubus Tara or Bruce Gordon Lowriders are my favorites) just use bolts from the outside. If I were using hoopless racks I'd probably use the through tube.

Having been that tired traveler at the airport many times I personally prefer solutions that don't require working with two tools in awkward spaces (like the inside of the fork blade). It works for me, but I understand why others might have different choices.

I have had trouble with folding bikes (really old Bike Friday tandem) that had bosses with too few threads (I think there were 2) that stripped out easily. When that bike went back for some modifications I had them put on better bosses.

[Tymncycle]

Thanks to all for the advice on rack bosses!  I went with the "hour glass" style on the front of the fork, positioned to match my Tubus rack.  Now I'm waiting to get it back from the powder coater.

Tim