Yeah, there are much lighter ones that'll do the job. You might only want a rear rack - unless you do heavily loaded touring. A rear rack is handy though - I recommend one. Even after my bad personal experiences with aluminum ones. I had a really sturdy Blackburn Trail aluminum rack on one of my old bikes. Hauled like a champ. I guess I'm kind of paranoid about breakage now, I can keep the one I have for now.