So about 2 hours into my first trip, I was on a trail that was paved but there were trees around. The roots of the tree caused serious bumps and a lot of them in the pavement. As I was going over them from what I could tell (it all happened so fast) it looked like my front rack, a surly 8 pack rack 2.0, failed. The two joints that connect at the crown of the fork came completely out and seized my front wheel. I got pretzeled and thrown over my handlebars. Now I’m not sure if I packed too much weight in the front or if it was just a failure. To be fair I didn’t check the bolts beforehand. As far as what I had on the front was a wald 137 basket with an outer shell bag with 3 pbrs, food (ramen, bag of trail mix, dried mangos), a kryptonite u lock, some basic tools (pump, hex set, tube), a portable charger and strapped to the front was my tent which weighs 4.45lbs. Is this just my own fuck up or was it just the outcome of all three variables of didn’t check bolts, heavy and large bumps?
I still made it! but I do feel pretty terrible.
by Chasedawolf
6 Comments
Edit: the 8 pack rack is rated for 55lbs
Wasn’t there a recall on that rack?
[https://surlybikes.com/blog/surly_8_and_24_pack_rack_update](https://surlybikes.com/blog/surly_8_and_24_pack_rack_update)
Different model and brand, but my front rack failed as well…. Not a nice fall.
Are the wheel and tire ok? do you have a pick of the failure?
is that picture with the tent of the reattached rack ? is it still falling down?
feel better soon.
Glad you’re okay, I see you got scraped on the chin so I’m happy to hear you’re alright, could have been bad.
I have a really nice front rack, even have a custom made bag I like a lot. I’m very mindful of making sure when I install it I clean the bolts and brazeon threads until they’re just bare metal, and I uses generous amount of loctite on the bolts. I also include a heavy duty ziptie on the bolt areas to hopefully support it if it fails.
All that being said though, I’m hunting for a new rack design because I think what happened to you is a possibility with this style of rack almost no matter what you do.
My current rack has one bolt at the crown, and one bolt on each side of the fork near the hub, and each of those bolts is mission critical. I want to find a rack that uses my “3-pack mounts” on my fork, or otherwise attaches in a way where the rack can fail gracefully.
You shouldn’t feel foolish or like you fucked up. It’s possible your bolts weren’t on as securely as they could have been either loose or no loctite or grease. That isn’t exactly your fault though, because it’s a flaw of the design that it can fail this catastrophicly. I think the most secure front carrier is low rider pannier racks
During my last tour the rear rack mount below the seat failed, and it rotated all around to the rear of the bike dragging on the ground while still secured to the axle…I was lucky. Then I realized the front could fail the same way, and would be catastrophic at speed or if downhill…since then I put a strap on the rack holding the front to the handlebar and the rear to my seat, highly recommend it.