Panniers / rack on MTB

Just fitted a set of panniers to my hardtail and have realised a a bit of a snag. The Altura bags on the rack are quite large so hit my heels when pedaling. If I move everything rearwards it looks like it will be putting a lot of weight behind the back wheel. Any sugestions / pics etc?

I had the same problem on my Gary Fisher. On my rack, the length of the chainstay supports are adjustable so I sorted it by making the rear supports a bit longer and angling the rack slightly. It meant the panniers were tilted forward slightly, but worked a treat. Not sure if you can see it in the pic below.

Might be easier to see in this one…. oh and I had to move the saddle forward and fettle the fork a bit as well, otherwise it felt a bit wandery on climbs with the extra weight on the back. I was running a longer stem anyway, but if you’ve currently got a short one, you might want to consider swapping it out.

This rack http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/triathlon-bike/Pannier-Racks-Tortec-Expedition-Rear-Pannier-Rack/TORTRACK250 has a lower rail set slightly further back which helped on my hardtail.

In the end they’ve got to go back until you have room for your feet…

Thanks for the pics. That looks similar to how I imagined it would end up.
With the pannier almost behind the centre line of the rear wheel. Think I will try to tweak
my rack a bit more.
Where were the pics taken sprocket, looks like west coast of scotland?

NCB – You’re in the right area – East coast of S Harris, just off the Golden Road.

You can of course of set the rack going back with skillful packing

despite size 12 feet and walking boots I never had a problem, other than turning the cranks.

I wonder of the bar ends helped?!

Shorter cranks ??

I had the same problem when fitting my Madison rack I bought of CRC on my Kona Kula. A bit of a tweak to the rods that attach to the dropouts and its fine with my bags on.

[/url]SANY0509[/url] by john502011[/url], on Flickr

[/url]SANY0506[/url] by john502011[/url], on Flickr

Cheers john. I have had to alter the front mount as the Ragley I am fitting the rack to has no front / top rack mount. I would preffer not to use one of the seat clamp piggy back monts so have made a bracket to pick up from the 2 cable guide bosses on the seat stays. Just needs a bit more head scratching!

Ok had a bit of a head scratch and looked at the other racks available that move the panniers rearwards. Bought some 8mm ally tube and bent it into shape and got it welded onto the origonal rack. Quite pleased with the result panniers well clear of ankles now.

Bit of welding………….

new bars fitted,………….

quicke coat of paint……….

fitted…………..

Thanks for the picks and info.

Nice work.

Blimey, good work NCB. Any chance of a pic of the bracket you used to mount at the front?

MTB + rack always seems like a good idea. And I’m always disappointed how badly catered for they are.

Front bracket was pretty simple piece of ally “L” section cut to shape with some holes drilled to fit to the cable guide bosses. I will get a pic up soon. 🙂

I’m impressed. Nice bit of work there NCB.

I had a similar issue with Carradice Carradry panniers on the back of a Spesh Rochhopper when doing C2C last year.
Fortunately the mount points on the bags were sufficiently adjustable to make-do with hooks slid fully fwd and mounted at very back of rack.

Also luckily chose a rack with side bars projecting sufficiently rearward to support/stabilise the bags, as per your lower extensions.

I didn’t notice any adverse effects due to CoG moving rearwards TBH.

Hi guys thanks for your response. Here are a couple of pics of the bracket to mount the front of the rack. Because I used tbe rather than solid bar I taped the tube to M6 then ran bolts straight up the tubes from the bracket. Should make sense in the pics….

This is the bracket from the top

Here seen from the front

Looking up from underside, corners cut off L section at an angle to avoid leg injury!