Nice rack

I need (read want) a front rack

Either for a steal 700c frame/fork with no braze ons and nothing to mount the rack to besides a brake hole that is being used by a brake and the front (bolt up) axle.

Or a 700c aluminum fork with braze ons behind the tips, mounts half way up the fork and a empty brake hole (running v brakes)

If its for the former its got to be sexy and slim. If its for the later it can be any old clunker. Not looking to spend a huge amount of money.

So let your wisdom rain down on me.

Cheers.

Fe: Difficult. You’d have to use P-Clamps and the brake hole, ok, but not for significant loads. Otherwise you could use a rack with axle supports, which will either be cheap and nasty (Wald, not that nasty, but I don’t think you can get them in Oz?), or heavy duty and pricey (Paul Flatbed)

Al: Brazeons behind the axle are for fenders, the fork blades will interfere with the rack legs unless you do some judicious spacing/bending. But you have mounts on the legs so you could mount a lowrider rack? Abbotsford also have a nice little Minoura rack that mounts on the brake bosses and comes in black/white/red/blue. It’s designed to work with cantis, but may work with Vees.

Sexy racks: ANT, Tubus, Jim Blackburn, Cetma, Ahearne

Unsexy: K-Mart.

Keep in mind that high trail = bad loaded handling. I try not to put too much on my front rack, it really throws the handling out. (Especially when I put a spring-loaded collapsible basket on the LHS and loaded it up asymmetrically!)

I scored an old Al Jim Blackburn front rack that mounts on brazeons & brake hole from Human Powered, but you have to be quick, they get snapped up in a flash.

Edit:
Linklove:

Paul Flatbed: 63xc.com--Reviews | Paul Flatbed
http://www.paulcomp.com/frmbasket.html
I’m wrong, it doesn’t use the axle, it uses brazeons, but comes with spacers to work with the ones behind the dropouts.

http://www.ahearnecycles.com/pages/racksgallery.html (Best detail/craftmanship IMHO. Check out the Pizza Rack!)

http://www.cetmaracks.com/ (Cr-Mo, Solid handlebar and axle mounts, removable railing, good value)

If you have some tubing and a MAPP torch you could probably homebrew your own copy of a CETMA.

Shifter Dan made a cool front rack bike, im not sure how it mounted though.

anyone remember this? I think it fitter a slab perfectly on the front.

I’ve got a chunky old club racer out the back with an old sturmy archer 3spd on it. This thread gets me keen to turn it into a rack bike with a nice paint job, some chrome components and sushi bars. Racks rock.

i have one a bit like this http://www.workcycles.com/workbike/bicycles/accessories/pickup-frame-mounted-front-carrier.html
except mine bolts to the headtube with U bolts. the advantage being that there’s no weight on the steering of the bike. i don’t have a bike to use it on, because you can’t run front rim brakes on most frames.

there’s a pic of shifter dan’s “slabberdan” rack here - http://shifterbikes.homestead.com/Slabberdan.JPG
don’t know if it ever made it into production or not but i’m sure dan himself could tell you

these ones are very similar to dan’s http://www.cetmaracks.com/

how about the surly “Nice Rack”?