Sherpa best rack?

[pondweed]

New pre-owned Sherpa owner here!

Rack has been taken off... could you recommend what I should best get? The cosmetic seconds Thorn steels seem good value but may be overspecced for my needs... and I'm not sure if they are the ones fitted 'standard' from new? I will tour, but it will be wussy 'lite'...
Someone mentioned Tubus as being good to get the panniers lower on the bike.

All thoughts welcomed!

[martinf]

I have both.

Thorn Expedition rear racks on my two Thorn Ravens.

Tubus Cosmo stainless steel rear racks on my old 650B wheeled utility bike, my wife's 650B bike and one of the visitor bikes.

Thorn Expedition and Tubus Cosmo are very good racks, both much more rigid than the Karrimor rack I used for 30 something years (still fitted to the second visitor bike).

Advantages of the Tubus Cosmo - no paint to get scratched. And easily available from my LBS here in France. Thorn is mail order only from SJS cycles

The platform on the Thorn Expedition is, however, much more useful for strapping on stuff-sacks, holdall, tent or whatever. And it seems more solidly built, maybe a tad heavier, but not very significant when adding panniers and the weight of the stuff carried. The system fixing the Thorn rack to the seat stays is cruder - a flat piece of (stainless ?) steel that needs bending and cutting. But I have more confidence in the Thorn system than in the prettier Tubus Cosmo fixing system, which uses an eyebolt that could work loose over time.

My verdict - for looks, the Cosmo, but for practical use I reckon the Thorn has the edge, it will just need the paint touching-up every few years.

The Thorn cosmetic seconds look like a good deal except for one thing - I wouldn't worry about paint defects or blow holes, but a rattle would probably end up annoying me on a bike used for long rides.

[lewis noble]

I have a Tunis Vega I think it is on my Sherpa. Good, but platform too narrow for most rack bags. Otherwise excellent.  Thorn may be a little heavier, but more practical use in a variety of luggage combinations.

[bikerta]

I have Thorn racks for both front and rear. The rear is a brilliant rack as the platform has several fixing points for the luggage, but also it seems to be longer than the Tubus I had on my Dawes. This allows me to carry my tent lengthwise along the rack rather than having to carry it across the rack.

[pondweed]

thanks all. I note a few people online also seem to say the Tubus is meanly sized, so it's looking like the Thorn anyway let alone its 50 quid price tag. I'll ask for a quiet one...

[John Saxby]

One last suggestion, pond:  I've used two Topeak rear racks for the last 15 years or so, one on my derailleur bike, and for the last four seasons, one on my Raven. Both are spacious, with lots of attachment points. They're alloy, so are also quite light.  I've had no problems at all with either one.  A steel rack would be better for very heavy loads in rough conditions, but I've found that moderate-to-heavy loads on tarmac have presented no difficulty.

Chain Reaction Cycles sells this, which I have on my Raven: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ca/en/topeak-super-tourist-dx-rack/rp-prod32817

[martinf]

Personally, I would advise against aluminium alloy racks. They work alright if care is taken, but if overloaded or bent accidentally alloy tends to break, whereas steel tends to bend, and can often be bent back to the right shape. And if steel does break on tour, you can generally get it welded fairly easily (or perhaps brazed if you are lucky).

Example - my Brompton came with an alloy rack. I treated it reasonably carefully, but it broke when a colleague at the office sat on the folded bicycle. If it had been steel it would either have bent, or I could have got it repaired at low cost by a local framebuilder. I can imagine a similar scenario for a full-size bike, damaged by someone else's carelessness while transported on a ferry or left in a youth hostel cycle shed.