Mark's Mini Rack & Fenders

[Michael Hechmer]

Has anyone attached this rack to a front fender?  Mine sits very high and would take some reshaping to bring it near my front fender.  Since I'm considering reinstalling the fenders, it would be nice to create an additional attachment.

Michael

[William]

The Nitto Mini front is threaded so you can drill your fender and bolt it to the rack.  The Nitto Mark's rack does not have that threaded hole.  At least my two copies of the Mark's rack do not.  What's your idea?

[Minh]

Michael, not sure how fancy you want to get, but a simple spacer will close the distance, at least on mine I could not shape the fender to that extreme to make it work.

Also not sure if you have a marks front or the nitto mini (what's a marks mini?) but if you don't have a boss to bolt into there are some creative ways to attach it as well, I use a left over daruma, spacer, and zip tie to secure to my nitto big front rack.

[Michael Hechmer]

On my Ram, I have this rack:

http://www.rivbike.com/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=R1&PhotoNumber=2

with Paul's Racer Ms.  The Nitto mini rack is designed for canti brakes, which I have and like on other bikes.  

Mark's Rack is designed around center or side pulls, but sits pretty high.

Michael

[Minh]

Michael, so are you trying to figure out a way to bolt to the spare hole in the diving board? I solved this problem by looping a zip-tie around the cross-bar on the rack with various adaptors bolted to the fender.

[Chris]

I did it on my wife's Betty.  Here's a picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21531208@N00/6670533223/in/set-72157628802524201/ 

I switched to a longer bolt and filled the gap with a spacer.  

It'd be nice if Riv still supplies the longer version of diving board as shown in the default picture.  Then we can use the opening at the tip of the board to secure fender. It's really a much more ideal spot as it's much closer to the fender.  

Chris

[Michael Hechmer]

Yup, that's about what I had in mind.  Apparently you didn't attempt to bring the rack any lower.  The spacer looks pretty wide, what did you use?  I'm thinking wine cork.

Michael

[robert peterson]

I used a wine cork as a spacer on my Saluki with a Mark's rack but
they can be tricky to cut and drill accurately. If the hole doesn't go
through the cork nice and straight it will want to pull the fender to
one side a bit. I had to do it several time to get it close enough.
Material cost however is zero. I think a metal spacer might be better.
This seems to be pretty normal practice with the French cyclotouriste
bikes. This brace on the front and squirting clear silicone caulk
between the clamp and fender on the rear really quieted my initially
rattle prone Honjos. I would be wary of stressing the fender too much
though.
Robert

[Chris]

Sorry for the late reply.

I used an unthreaded metric spacers from McMaster.  Use M5 screw size and 10mm OD (outer diameter).  The length is dependent on your setup.

I never considered lowering the rack.  The gap is simply too big.  The front plate of the rack (which can be used to mount headlight or platrack) will hit the fender before the gap is closed off.  

The spot used to secure front fender, as shown in the Flickr picture, isn't really ideal.  I really wish Rivendell would modify the design of the Mark's Rack, either adding a fender boss like the Mini-Front or re-issuing the longer version of front dive board.