Rack Test 2 (Anticipation)
I was wondering how much weight you could put in a milk crate on the DIY rack featured here:
http://sweetnourishingbikes.blogspot.com/2006/08/rack.html
This is too much:
The rack didn't fail. But the bike was so unstable I was white-knuckled all the way home fighting the thing. The weight wasn't necessarily the issue - it was the wobbling. I think the rack needs more lateral rigidity or something, because the only way to keep the front wheel from trying to kick out to the side was to keep my own center of gravity as low as possible, eliminating any stand-up pedaling. But the uphill grind home paled in comparison to the urge to reach back and drink the center of gravity down...
http://sweetnourishingbikes.blogspot.com/2006/08/rack.html
This is too much:
The rack didn't fail. But the bike was so unstable I was white-knuckled all the way home fighting the thing. The weight wasn't necessarily the issue - it was the wobbling. I think the rack needs more lateral rigidity or something, because the only way to keep the front wheel from trying to kick out to the side was to keep my own center of gravity as low as possible, eliminating any stand-up pedaling. But the uphill grind home paled in comparison to the urge to reach back and drink the center of gravity down...
posted by bw at 8:33 PM
3 Comments:
Howdy. Sounds like you need some diagonal braces between those cross pieces to stop the wobbliness. They'd probably help the JB Weld joints a lot too, by changing the peel stresses, which glue joints are bad at, into comparatively harmless shear and compression.
reminds me of my three speed rigged for delivering papers
wish I had some pictures of that
I bet it was a train wreck
the rack more than likely was rattling loosed every third day
while the bungee cords were certainly always popping free
I have an identical bicycle with pretty much the same set up, but without the rack. I love the blue paint.
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