Quote Originally Posted by colorisnt View Post
Well, I will be bike commuting all summer and currently have a sturdy basket that I love, I will need some more space when I start my PhD program this fall. I have been looking into getting a rear rack and some panniers for my bike so that I can take it to/from work and on errands around town.

The only problem is that my bike is really, really tiny and I don't know if that will affect the ability to get a rack for it. It has 24'' tires and is a 1977 Columbia Blaze road bike.
First question: Does your bike have braze-ons (little sockets on the rear triangle) where you can bolt on a rack? If it doesn't, that's not a show-stopper, since you can get these little P-clamps at the hardware store that will clamp onto your seat post and seat stays to get you a place to bolt on the rack.

Most racks are adjustable so that it will fit from around a 24" wheel up to 700C, so the main question will be mounting it to the bike. Once you have that solved, panniers are fairly standard in the way they mount onto the rack; though you may have to tweak a little the way the lower connector clips onto the bottom of the rack to keep the bag from flopping around and getting into your spokes.

A good LBS should be able to get you fitted out...

Tom