Cycling UK Forum

Hello,

I'm new to cycle touring and want to get a front rack, suitable for panniers, for my Trek Dual sport 3. I've Googled it, but there is too much choice and nothing to say if a rack will specifically fit my bike. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Your bike has suspension forks I think ? For it to fit panniers I would think is limited.
This thread might help viewtopic.php?t=131860

Hi, thanks for the reply. No, they are solid (carbon fibre) forks. I wondered if there was some standard dimensions for front racks?

Welcome

Please could you add some photos of the front end, including the attachment points.

Jonathan

PS: As above this might be difficult. Lots of people, including us, don't use front panniers when touring, including when camping.

Jumpy wrote: ↑28 Apr 2024, 6:54pm Hi, thanks for the reply. No, they are solid (carbon fibre) forks. I wondered if there was some standard dimensions for front racks?

Ah right , have they rack mounts on the fork150mm distance?
You’ll be looking for something like this. These are from Giant.

Jumpy wrote: ↑28 Apr 2024, 9:54am Hello,

I'm new to cycle touring and want to get a front rack, suitable for panniers, for my Trek Dual sport 3. I've Googled it, but there is too much choice and nothing to say if a rack will specifically fit my bike. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Nice choice of bike BTW.

If your forks have three or four evenly-spaced screws on the outside you can use various bags designed for this system. This is the Ortlieb adaptor for their small front panniers: QLS MONTAGE-SET FORK-PACK. Click on Anleitung - Download to see how it works, also in English.

Jumpy wrote: ↑28 Apr 2024, 9:54am
I'm new to cycle touring and want to get a front rack, suitable for panniers, for my Trek Dual sport 3. I've Googled it, but there is too much choice and nothing to say if a rack will specifically fit my bike. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Beyond finding something that fits, as suggested by others there are pros and cons of more luggage space...

The good thing about more luggage space is you can carry more luggage.
The bad thing about more luggage space is you typically end up carrying more luggage than you need.

As with rucksacks for walkers, "essential packing" tends to expand to fill the available space. Given the extra faff and expense of putting a front rack on I'd at least try and see if you can do without it first.

Pete.

One approach to consider is fork mounted bags that attach directly to the forks.
They probably don't have the volume of front panniers, but unless you're heading out across the world, i suspect they would enable you to get enough weight and volume off the back to be useful.
I don't have a personal recommendation, but an example would be these planetx podsacs.
https://www.planetx.co.uk/products/pods ... ck-4-litre
Other more expensive options are certainly available.
I would check through a few bikepacking sites/forums for info on mounting them on suspension forks, but given that pretty much every hardtail used for bikepacking has these, I'm sure it is manageable.

As an aside, I would suggest that any b&b/hostel tour would definitely not require extra storage, and that even camping needn't - I'm just back from a trip where I secured my tent to my seatpost and put some other stuff in a bag under the handlebars. I could probably have got it all on the rear rack/panniers, but wanted to move some weight about.

How much does adding this add to weight, steering and manoeuvrability

Pinhead wrote: ↑30 Apr 2024, 4:18pm How much does adding this add to weight, steering and manoeuvrability

It can be quite disconcerting having panniers on the forks. You have to anticipate a bit of wobble which will increase quite a lot with weight. Not helped if the panniers are not firmly strapped to the front rack so you can imagine how just a bag would wobble about when only strapped to the fork alone with no rack to brace it in place.

The first time I put panniers on the front I loaded them up with heavy stuff --- whoa! -- so I swapped some of the heavy stuff to the rear panniers which made the bike much more bidable.

Pinhead wrote: ↑30 Apr 2024, 4:18pm How much does adding this add to weight, steering and manoeuvrability

Make sure you have enough air in the front tyres, Jan here was running underinflated tyres.
So the panniers dragged going around the turn.

scottg wrote: ↑30 Apr 2024, 6:34pm

Pinhead wrote: ↑30 Apr 2024, 4:18pm How much does adding this add to weight, steering and manoeuvrability

Make sure you have enough air in the front tyres, Jan here was running underinflated tyres.
So the panniers dragged going around the turn.

Mule_corner2_800.jpg

The Giant rack looks like it doesn't triangulate horizontally. I.e. unlike racks with a hoop (Tubus Tara) or racks that use holes on both sides of the fork (Tubus Duo). So there might be some risk that wants to swing around and eventually fatigues the fittings.