So I went to put my venerable Blackburn MTN rack on it's third bike (very durable) and ran into a problem. The front arms interfere with the Tektro R539 brake on my Soma Stanyan. I tried running them inside and outside the braze-on but no dice.
Has anybody else run into this? Any suggestions for a new rack that will work better?
I have mounted racks in the same situation by using a spacer and a longer screw. Those useless nuts that come with tubes actually make good spacers. You may have to put a slight bend in the rack stays. I have started using tubulas racks or their less expensive brand (rack time?) as they allow the stays to move in or out as needed.
Can you mount the rack on the inside of the stays? Maybe with the screws from the inside out.. Or you can run a screw through the mount hole. Install the rack on the inside of the stays and secure it with a nut.
Possibly a longer screw on the outside of the mount, using 1/4" spacers (or a lot of washers), to get the rack arms outside of the brake cable arm. You can bend the rack arms around the brake.
Extra spacers might work in my situation, probably more likely on the inside. Part of the problem is the flat shape of the rack arms - I think a round one might clear.
Extra spacers to push the arm in or out is a good and easy first step. Presta nuts work well as a spacer.
If that doesn't work some serious bending and or drilling might be in order. Rack stays can be contorted in all sorts of ways. A vice and a pair o pliers work wonders. You can always change where the stay makes a half twist so you can then bow the stay to get around the brake.
You could also skip the normal mounting points and mount to something like this seatpost collar that has rack mounts. I use something similar on my touring bike to deal with some issues with making the stays work from a Tubus rack.
I have the same issue on my Salsa Casseroll. What I did was connect the one arm that fits without issues, and then the second arm I used a p-clip with, mounting it higher up on the seat stay such that it did not interfere with the caliper. Works great for carrying a trunk bag or moderately loaded panniers. IMO I'm more worried about the stress on my rear wheel with heavy loads than I am about the rack's stability.
So I went to put my venerable Blackburn MTN rack on it's third bike (very durable) and ran into a problem. The front arms interfere with the Tektro R539 brake on my Soma Stanyan. I tried running them inside and outside the braze-on but no dice.
Has anybody else run into this? Any suggestions for a new rack that will work better?
I had the same problem on my 2010 Casseroll. This was my solution for a Topeak rack, but I imagine it would work for most other racks as well. Been using this for over 6 years.
Just take off the caliper, and attach this behind it, re-install the caliper. Easy and cheap.
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