I'm looking for a pannier rack and bags that will fit both my road and mountain bikes for commuting and the occasional touring. Does anyone have any recommendation's?
Thanks in advance
Budget? the best I have used / seen are tubus
Does your MTB have disk brakes? You may not need a specialist pannier rack to take account of these, depends on your disc and rack mounts but you'll probably get away with a regular pannier spaced out but if its not much more expensive might be worth getting one that works with disks.
Fascists will tell you that Tubus are the only ones to rely on, however Tortec are quite good. I really like the Ultralite one and its survived a 9 day tor with full equipment taking in all the off-road sections of the C2C
I think blackburn are fine. Always done me proud...
I have broken two tortec racks and one blackbourne one carrying camping kit offroad ( plus a couple of others). the cost of them was more than the cost of the tubus that replaced them eventually
I'm quite liking Tortec one i've been using. Cheap and adjustable. Been nice getting weight off my ruined back(thats a whole other thread :()
I do need to get some proper panniers. I had a look at the Ortleib ones in Evans and they looked excellent.
For cheap, heavy, and strong:
[url= http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/topeak-topeak-super-tourist-dx-for-rear-rack-for-bikes-with-disc-brakes-prod14818 ]Topeak Super Tourer DX[/url]
£26 on that link.
I've carried such heavy front and rear loads with them that I could feel the bike (Surly) bending in the middle!
I got a Topeak Super Tourist disc and some classic Ortlieb panniers for my Genisis CDF for my daily 14 mile commute.
I've been very pleased with them so far 4 months now. I do the shopping on my way home some days and I've had some serious weight in there on bumpy country roads with no problems. tough work up hills and feels really odd when you try and climb out of the saddle with the weight but normal commuting kit and it's almost unnoticeable
HTH