I wholly agree that VO Constructeur racks are difficult to mount. I wouldn't want to attempted to bend stainless steel tangs without a bench vice. I also only have rear facing fender bosses on my San Marcos fork. I mounted my front constructeur rack twice, once with a Grand Comp 610 CP brake and VO Zeppelin fenders, then with a Paul's CP brake and VO Hammered fenders. I bent the tang so many times and also angled it at the weld that I began to be concerned about weakening the weld. I'm happy to report that it has held up well over the last several years. It currently has a basket zip-tied to it and carries anywhere from 10 - 16 lbs.
<https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Qg2gppqUQM4/VocPjdjFXcI/AAAAAAAAAnE/fW3vBFrqb00/s1600/Soma%2Bfork.jpg> On Thursday, December 31, 2015 at 11:06:45 AM UTC-5, Michael Hechmer wrote: > > I bought shiny new fenders and this rack as upgrades for my Ram. I > confess I am a victim of "shiny things syndrome." But I have just about > come to the conclusion that this rack cannot be mounted on this bike, at > least not with my Paul's Racer M brakes and maybe not any CP brake. If you > have succeeded let me know how. > > I started by trying to mount the fender and rack simultaneously, since > they need to integrate with one another. This proved impossible. I also > found that a heavy pair of pliers and small vice grip were insufficient to > bend the rack tang to a needed position. I went to plan B. I installed > the front fender, which proved remarkably easy, and then went to the > hardware store and spent $22 on a large, flat vice grip designed for metal > work. Then I removed the fenders and began again on the rack, first trying > to mount it to the daruma I had added for the fenders. > > It proved very difficult to mount the tang and the dropouts > simultaneously. I concluded that there was no way I could bend the tang to > clear the brakes and get the rack level at the same time. I started over, > this time intending to come over the top of the brake and bolt it into the > hole in the fork crown. After a great deal of struggle, including drilling > an extra hole in the tang and adjusting the bend a dozen times, I finally > got it all put together, only to discover two new problems. In order to > get the rack level I was so close to the front of the brake that it was > almost impossible to get the brake between the rack and the now horseshoe > shaped tang; and the tang pinched against the front of the headset. Even > if more meticulous bending solved that problem without knocking the rack > out of level, there was precious little room to fit the 15 mm wrench and > the allen wrench necessary to adjust Paul's brakes. Probably canti brakes > or thinner CPs, like the Mafac would fit easier. > > Looking again at the picture on the VO website I saw something I had > suspected from the beginning. The rack is designed to mount to an upper, > forward facing dropout not the rear downward facing style which the Ram > has. The rear position makes it much harder to get the rack level and > forward of the CP brake. > > Unless someone has some reasonable solution I am about ready to reinstall > the Mark's Mini rack. That requires P clamps, which I don't like and > doesn't offer an attachment point for the front of the fender. However I > ran Honjos like this for seven years without a problem, so wouldn't expect > one with this fender either. > > Would then consider selling this rack to someone who has a bike with > cantis and front dropout. > > Michael > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
