Has anyone made their own pannier rack?

[NVTornado]

Are there any welders here that have made a rack to go over the rear wheel?  I'm wondering how difficult it would be or if you could make a custom one strong enough.  I have a friend with a TIG welder who's pretty good that would help me out.  Anyone here ever try it?  Is it even worth looking into?

[Area54]

I made a mini pannier rack to sit on the back of my BOB Ibex, out of some 1/2" alloy tube and ply, for a family trandem (2 adults one child) trip we did years ago.

I think it would be pretty cool to design and fab up a rack for particular requirements.

[juanbendedknee]

I think the crux will be, and key to success is to jig it, or build it in such a way that it is even and square. I've been thinking about doing the same thing!

JC

[mbeardsl]

Look for pictures of the Black Sheep bike Jake Kirkpatrick raced last year.  It had front and rear racks welded to the frame.  May give you some ideas.  They have some pics of other racks on their facebok page but may take awhile to scroll through.

[mTeryk]

Sticking the tubes together is the easy part. Most people braze racks because you don't have to be as accurate with your fittup, ie. you can fill larger gaps with brass than you can with a TIG welder. Brazing is also a bit easier to pick up as a beginner. The hard part of making a rack is making it look good and balanced. There are tools needed and a learning curve to bending and mitering tubes accurately.

Here are a couple good blog posts on how to get started:

http://alexwetmore.org/?cat=298
http://sfcyclotouring.blogspot.com/2010/12/rack-building-tips.html


mTeryk

[NVTornado]

Awesome. There is some good information in those links!

[bmike-vt]

lots of great stuff here, but you'll have to dig a bit:

http://26inchslicks.blogspot.com/2012/04/rackufacture-eberly-tow-bike-rack.html

[Arrowhead32]

The alexwetmore.org blog post has some super in-depth instructions.  It's a long read and has some great pics, but well worth it in the end!

[Longbike]

I made my own front and rear racks using parts from a couple of scrap frames. They are a little on the heavy side, but have been bombproof thus far. I've got details on my blog. http://thelongbike.blogspot.com/2012/03/homebuilt-racks-or-how-to-throw-time.html.

[Rabid Hillbilly]

B.y.o.r(build your own rack): welding will weaken theframe due to the heat,bolt together instead.

[rodar y rodar]

The thread is getting a little dusty, but I don`t hang out here all that often, so I just saw it.

NVT, have you already built your rack, or even still interrested in it?  I`ve built several in a lot of different configurations by brazing and TIG, can help you out if you`d like.  I have a solid 3/8 bender and an OA setup you can use, too- PM or answer in the thread.