A few posts ago, I promised to give further details about the equipment that turns my mountain bike into a commuter bike.

Well here I am to fulfill that promise! In this post, I review Delta’s Mega Rack for Disc Brakes.

Disc brakes present a problem when installing conventional rear racks. The disc brake hardware is located just above the hub, and inconveniently in the way of the pre-drilled screw holes that racks normally use to attach to the bike frame. Already some manufacturers have come out with solutions, and one of those is Delta.

Delta gets around this problem by attaching the bottom legs of the rack to the seatstays with clamps. Further, the bottom legs of the rack swivel to accommodate different bike frame geometries.

I think this is an ingenious solution, but in my application the rack has some fatal flaws.

Here’s what the rack looks like installed on my bike:

One of the rack’s problems is that the rack’s leg competes for space with the brake cable. The brake cable has to go around the rack leg at an awkward place – right where the cable leaves the brake assembly. Which means a sharp bend in the cable, causing the brake to go just a bit out of adjustment. Here’s a shot of the brake cable going behind the rack leg:

Another problem is getting the rack as far back and/or high enough to prevent my heels from banging into my panniers (actually Nashbar Townie baskets). The panniers are baskets or bags that hang over the sides of the rack and provide storage for clothes, lunch, and whatever else I need for my commute. Right now the rack is as high and far back as its hardware will allow, and my heels have just barely enough clearance. I wear a size 10 shoe, and I think if my feet were any larger I’d simply be out of luck.

A bigger problem with using the Nashbar baskets is their instability on this rack. Because the rack only has the single leg going down the side to the wheel hub, the baskets have a tendency to wobble back and forth, causing the bike to feel extremely unstable going over bumps and turns. For that reason, I’ve been using a backpack instead, which essentially negates the reason for having the rack in the first place. I’d really like to get that weight off my back while I’m riding!

This problem of instability could probably be solved with some creative duct tape or other attachment devices, but that would negate the convenience of being able to remove the baskets when not in use.

Adding to the instability of this rack are the methods that Delta uses to attach the rack to the bike. As I said before, most racks’ legs bolt directly to screwholes in the bike frame. The Delta rack attaches with clamps to the frame’s seatstays. Here is a picture:

That smudge you see on the white seatstay is actually an indentation in the frame. And unfortunately this anomaly of the frame’s shape causes the clamp to slide just a tad, no matter how tight I clamp it down. Delta provides two sizes of clamps, which is nice, but unfortunately the smaller is too small and the larger is just a tad too large.

Another source of instability is the swiveling leg, pictured here:

The picture shows where the leg attaches at the top of the rack. The leg is able to swivel back and forth where it attaches, which facilitates installation of the rack on various frame sizes. However, once installed, I think there should be some type of locking mechanism to keep it from swiveling under load. Every time I run over a bump with the rack loaded with any kind of weight, I’m afraid the rack will collapse onto the rear tire. While that may not be likely, the swiveling leg can be noisy when going over bumps as the rack jostles against the leg joint; furthermore, the rack moves slightly side to side over the swivel joint. While each of these points may not be huge on their own, they all add up to extremely poor bike handling when the rack carries a load.

Another feature of this rack is the telescoping ability of its legs. Each leg has a telescoping piece that is secured with a hexagonal screw. This is a pretty good idea too, except in my case these screws have to line up perfectly with the leg’s pieces or they’re impossible to screw in. Given that you’re working through the rear wheel’s spokes, this can be a frustrating process.

I don’t think it’s a terrible rack, especially for the price. It installs easily and accommodates just about every frame size. It would probably work fine with a load secured on top of it with a cargo net or bungee cords, and probably with better quality panniers.

But in my application with the Nashbar Townie baskets, it just doesn’t work. I had hoped to get a rack and pannier system for commuting for under $50, but instead I learned once again that you get what you pay for.

My new year’s resolution for 2008 was to bike to work, at least part way. This week I accomplished said feat. I reduced my car’s commute from 27 miles each way to about 17 and added a 13 mile commute by bicycle.

Each day that I commute by bike, I save about 2/3 of a gallon of gas and I log 26 miles in the saddle. At that rate, I should be able to log 5000 miles quite handily in 2008.

Today was the 2nd day that I biked in. On my first ride, the universe decided to challenge my resolve by upgrading the weather forecasters’ “slight chance of rain” to a near downpour for a good portion of the ride in to work. Add to that a very unstable rear rack/pannier system and I was not a very happy cyclist. But I survived and I learned what does and does not work in my setup. I will comment on that later. Today, however, was a beautiful, crisp, clear day, perfect for cycling.

Perhaps the next step is to bike the entire commute. I believe I’ve found a suitable route, but it’s a little over 30 miles on city streets with lots of traffic signals, which translates to about 2 hours of riding plus time stopped at the signals.