Crogthomas,
I have one of those benders, it works ok, though I find the 12mm and up tubing a bit of a struggle.
What did you do to stiffen it up?
I’ve found old pulley wheels to work really well for bending, though you do need a fair few.
I made the first rack using canti brake bridges, I had nothing to get small radius bends, so I made do
it worked really well and looked neat, allowing me to join three different tubes, brazing everything together could have been easier, I think the only way to make racks viable as a bespoke item is to make them rational and simple to build, the key is tubing selection and weight placement.
Stainless is a little bit less elastic than cromo. Maybe it would be easier to find equipment for brazing steel rather than stainless, on tour.
But if a rack is built and designed for what it’s going to do, it won’t fail.
Not done many stainless racks so far, though plenty of stainless frames, they’ve been fine.
All paint comes off in the end, bed liner works well, though not the prettiest.
powder+clear works well.
STATO
rando bags can be diyed, they’re simpler as they’re supported.
I made some klickfix bags in about ten mins with the kit they sell, four holes and a screwdriver and you have a bag for their mount.