Thorn and Tubus rear racks

[bomber castle]

I need to put a rear rack on my Galaxy after getting fed up with the cheap Tortec aluminium rack that was previously attatched to the back.  It'll be used for fully loaded touring with two full 50 litr panniers.
  I'm split between the Tubus Logo steel rear carrier and the Thorn expedition.  Both are about the same price.  I've heard very good things abouth the stiffness of the Thorn rack but not much about the Tubus.  Anyone got any comments that are likely to sway me either way?

[john28july]

I have a Nomad and an Audax from Thorn. I have over many years owned and used many bikes and racks.
I now only use the Thorn racks.
Answered as truthfully as I can, the racks are not that stylish but are very strong and surprisingly light.
John.

www.pbase.com/john28july

[paulhipwood]

I have a Raven Sports Tour, it has a Tubus rack on the back. I have not carried any great load but it seems fairly stiff. I took it off as I was  taking part in my first time trial. When I had got it off I put it back on again as it weighed 400 gms and I could not be bothered to store it anywhere!!!
It has a rather narrow top which may prevent a top bag to be fitted.
Hope this helps.

[ahconway]

The narrowness of the rack is a key point. If you're going to be carrying heavy loads in panniers, you may want teh extra stability of the lower mounting bar on the Tubus racks, but if you want to attach a rack-top bag, stick to Thorn! I have a tubus rack and it's virtually impossible to attach my Altura rack bag without a spider's web of bungees!

[bomber castle]

I don't owm a rack pack, a bar bag is a lot easier to get into []  I think I'll go with the Tubus, I've already decided on a tubus lo-rider for the front anyway.

[vik]

I need to put a rear rack on my Galaxy after getting fed up with the cheap Tortec aluminium rack that was previously attatched to the back.  It'll be used for fully loaded touring with two full 50 litr panniers.
  I'm split between the Tubus Logo steel rear carrier and the Thorn expedition.  Both are about the same price.  I've heard very good things abouth the stiffness of the Thorn rack but not much about the Tubus.  Anyone got any comments that are likely to sway me either way?

I haven't seen/used a Thorn rear rack, but the Tubus racks are stiff and quite light.

[spoon boy]

I had with my sherpa...fitted new thorn expedition racks with the front being a low rider

now a point I've read on one blog is that for true expedition long term riding the roads/rivers may not be best suited to low fronts but a higher front may be better.

So now I'm in a quandry

having just fitted brand new thorn expedition racks with the low rider on the front do I replace it with something like a Old Man Mountain Sherpa Front Rack..same price or a Blackburn MF1 much cheaper so i'm pressuming weaker?

true low riders give you better handling with the lower gravity but as touring isn't a race...

[pastafarian]

I had with my sherpa...fitted new thorn expedition racks with the front being a low rider

now a point I've read on one blog is that for true expedition long term riding the roads/rivers may not be best suited to low fronts but a higher front may be better.

So now I'm in a quandry

having just fitted brand new thorn expedition racks with the low rider on the front do I replace it with something like a Old Man Mountain Sherpa Front Rack..same price or a Blackburn MF1 much cheaper so i'm pressuming weaker?

true low riders give you better handling with the lower gravity but as touring isn't a race...

No one seems to have mentioned the Surly nice rack, even though Vik has some nice pictures of it: http://thelazyrandonneur.blogspot.com/2007/11/surly-nice-front-rack.html
Vik, would you still recommend the nice rack for long distance touring?

The trade-off seems to be the weight, but I really like the idea of a sturdy top platform. My Raven has a Tubus duo on the front, so now I'm looking to complement it with some sort of do-it-yourself steel platform that will mount to the fork crow and mid fork and/or canti. The Duo is great at what it does, but having a front platform could sometimes free valuable space at the back.

[pdamm]

I have a Surly Nice Rack on the front of my Raven Tour.  It has been working well although it doesn’t look as clean and shiny as the photo’s on Vik’s blog.  On a recent tour we did a stretch between two towns of ~200 km over two days on mostly rough dirt roads.  The front panniers were loaded up with lots of water and weighed in at over 25 kg on the rack.  The racks handled it very well, this rack gets my vote.

Peter