Is it possible to get a rear rack for this bike?

April 2, 2013 7:51 PM

This is my bike (flickr set); it's a late 1980s Peugeot Cassis (I'm pretty sure.) I live in Victoria, Australia. Is it possible to purchase a rear pannier rack for this bike, I have looked at standard bike shop racks and haven't found one that fits. Where would I purchase one of these racks (I'm in Melbourne until Thursday) and how much am I looking at paying?

I'd like to be able to carry a heavy laptop, diary, lunch and the occasional bundle of marking (I'm a teacher.) I know I'll also need to look at panniers.

Is there a kind of pannier rack that I should be looking for?

Any recommendations on a bike shop in Melbourne (east side suburbs) that would be friendly to older french bikes?

Thanks!

posted by titanium_geek to Travel & Transportation (9 answers total)

You should be able to get a rack that will attach on the bottom where your fender attaches and has some brackets that attach to the front of the rack which will fit around the seat stays (the thin tubes that run from underneath the seat to the rear wheel).

This often requires a fair bit of bending and adjusting in order to fit the brackets directly to your seat stay and keep your rack level. You'll also have to work out a way to attach your fender at the same point near the wheel. This is the sort of kit you want for brackets, but I can't help with Australia. The long bits get bent into shape and attach to a set of the rubber coated loops, which go around the seat stays.

Not all panniers and racks use the same size tubing / clamps, so it is best to purchase both at once to make sure that they fit well together.
posted by ssg at 8:21 PM on April 2, 2013

What is it that prevents standard racks from fitting? Is it the fenders? The wheel size? Something else?
posted by Sara C. at 8:21 PM on April 2, 2013

Sorry- I should have mentioned it's the fender attachment that gets in the way.
posted by titanium_geek at 8:50 PM on April 2, 2013

Is there a reason you're not willing to remove the rear fender? I find that a rear rack basically acts like a fender, and likely even moreso if you're planning to add panniers as well. You may want to choose panniers that are waterproof if you live in a rainy place.
posted by Sara C. at 9:01 PM on April 2, 2013

you don't need a special rack, you can use any normal one. what you need are a few of these rubber-cushioned P-clamp thingies. a bike shop will hopefully have these on hand, in fact i've seen them included sometimes in the hardware kit with a bike rack. or you can probably find them at a good hardware store, or maybe at an auto parts store as they are frequently used for installing fuel lines and such in cars. sorry for the fuzzy picture, but you can see here that i've got the rack mounted to the bike, and the fender strut is connected to a P-clamp that is around the leg of the rack. from your pictures it looks like your fender strut is adjustable for length, which should make aligning everything easy. for the upper rack mounts you just put the P-clamp around the seatstay (frame part) and then bolt the rack arms to the P-clamp.
posted by moss free at 10:24 PM on April 2, 2013

i just saw that ssg's link shows the same kind of P-clamps.
posted by moss free at 10:26 PM on April 2, 2013

Personally I think your bike would look lovely with a Tubus Cosmo stainless steel rack. Yeah, they're expensive, but they're really strong and light, and the Cosmo is made of stainless steel so it will never rust. There are many other styles available in chromoly steel which cost a bit less. I can recommend Commuter Cycles in Brunswick - the staff there will love your classic bike and the fact that you want to commute on it, and they will have all the parts and expertise to make whichever rack you choose fit well, even with fenders in the mix. (They will also love the fact that you ride with fenders!)
posted by embrangled at 3:14 AM on April 3, 2013

(Oh, and since you are a titanium_geek, it may interest you to know that Tubus also makes a titanium rack).
posted by embrangled at 3:18 AM on April 3, 2013

With upright front handlebars, a basket might work just as well as a rack-- you can just toss your existing bag in it and strap it in with a cargo net, rather than buying panniers separately.

But if it's panniers you want, P-clamps to mount the rack to your seatstays are, indeed, the solution. Keep that back fender on, it really ties the bike together in addition to keeping crap from getting sprayed into your gears while you ride in the rain. It works perfectly well to share an eyelet (the little hole you have the fender stay mounted onto) between a fender and a rack, as I have done on a bike I rode across the United States on.

You don't need an expensive rack, by the way. You could probably get a basic (ugly) rack and panniers fitted for under $100. It might take a little more work, but you should be able to find a silver-colored rack that'd look nicer.

If you're really into the vintage French look, Velo-Orange sells racks in that style.

Generally, bike stores selling themselves as "commuter bike stores" are more likely to be friendly to older bikes set up with racks and fenders. A quick skim of Google results indicates those are mostly immediately north of the city center, however, rather than out east. This place, for example, looks promising. The fact that your bike is French shouldn't make it any more difficult to mount a rack than any other bike.
posted by akgerber at 6:16 AM on April 3, 2013