bob trailer or panniers?

[sarahlou]

hello again,
we have used both panniers and bob, seperately and together. My husband always trails the bob and he really like it. Does your bike already have braze-ons for racks? If not, you may want to consider the bob. If it does, panniers are pretty easy to deal with. You could always have somewone weld braze-ons to your frame, but then your paint job gets a bit messed up. Bobs can hold a good amount of gear. If you do go with panniers, you might try to reduce your load so that you only use rear ones as having weight on the front can make for tricky steering at times.

[KnottedYet]

It doesn't look like you can put a rack and panniers front or rear on that bike, so you might be stuck with a B.O.B. as your only option (if the clamp will fit around the shaped stays). With the geometry of that bike, you might have better handling with a B.O.B. than with loaded panniers anyway.

Can aluminum be brazed?

The seatpost attached racks can hold about 15-20 pounds, and you don't need anything but a seatpost for that. They'll also act like a fender if you add a rat-tail, which will help since you'll probably want fenders on your long ride.

There are some nice "razor" fenders for bike without braze-ons or eyelets. MimiTabby has some, and they work pretty well here in Seattle!

[Grog]

I have seen that bike with a rack before, so it can be done I'm sure.

[KnottedYet]

Do you know what rack it was?

My bike doesn't have eyelets or brazeons either, and I don't have enough seatpost for the seatpost racks.

If there's a good rack that will sit on the stays like those razor fenders, I'd love to know about it!

('course, with my big honkin' bar bag I don't need a rack much now... but still )

I'm going by this picture of her bike http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/02/c...del-2RR5T.html which makes it look as nekkid as my bike in the eyelet and braze-on department... (my poor Flossie, nekkid as a jaybird!)

[Grog]

I wondered about the same thing as you but then I saw a pic online of a R500 with a rear rack that was definitely not just a seatpost rack. Wasn't a closeup though so I can't see how it was done.

[roguedog]

If you're considering a BOB then you might also look at the Xtracycle. Thought these were pretty cool and seemed less cumbersome.

Don't know don't have one but it seems to part of the bike more than a trailer..

http://xtracycle.com/sub.php

[sarahlou]

I have an xtracycle and it is super-duper. But it is on my commuting bike not on my road bike. Whilst I think that they can fit most bikes, they seem to work much better with the Surly Karate Monkey (which is what the DH and I both have). Xtracycles are great, but in the price range on $500. They are great for load carrying capacity (up to 200 lbs.) and even have attachments that allow you to cycle along with large items like surfboards, or your spare bike.

As for my brazeon idea...the DH says that you could probably find someone to weld them on (a local framebuilder?) but that panniers wouldn't work so well with the geometry of a road bike. He suggests getting the Topeak rack from REI which uses the rear hub scewer to attach to instead of brazeons. This would definately be the cheaper option than the xtracycle.

The DH says that the BOB is the least intrusive option and would be a nicer ride than carrying weight on the bike. But he adds whilst they are rated to 70lbs., "pack light".