Homebuilt porteur rack v1.0

Drunk? Me? Not at all, occifer...

...so will not act like health and safety inspector anymore!

Says the man doing metalwork in his slippers! ;p

Right, the next bit was designing the base and support for the alu plating, which is using the 3/4" channel.

I'll show it all in detail when its actually in place, but suffice it to say, it was a good couple of hrs of measuring, cutting, and filing, which has left me with plasters on a thumb and two fingers. >_<

I highly recommend others to use a vice, or at least a couple of clamps, I slipping and cursed a hell of a lot this afternoon.

You'll notice I've cut a couple of 100mm lengths of the flat bar, these will end up as the axle mounts from which the tubing will be bolted to support the rack.

2 Attachments

Says the man doing metalwork in his slippers! ;p

I know what I'm doing, I can't guarantee anyone else does though.

Besides, my kitchen, my slippers, my rules! ;P

Have finally got round to ordering the nuts, washers, bolts, self drilling screws, rivets, and rivet gun I need to finish this, now just waiting till they arrive to carry on.

From much tinkering with nuts, bolts, washers etc, it far easier just to go to your local ironmongers than order that sort of stuff. You'll probably drop one and need a replacement anyway.

In writing this I realise that you've already ordered it and probably live in the middle of nowhere anyway. Loving the project, makes me want to replace my heavier-than-the-moon steel front rack.

I had a very specific list of bits I wanted at a certain level of quality (A4 stainless steel), and as this is a prototype that I hope will get a lot of use (and a fair amount of abuse), I wasn't going to scrimp too much.
I did get plenty of different spares to try different things with, as this is not just an experiment with design, but also the best/safest fixings to use too.
But it was still cheaper getting it from these guys - www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk

The fastenings have just arrived, so can start working on the placing the rack part together before starting work on the supports fixings to the bike.

You'll notice I got a fair selection of different washers, bolt lengths, as well as some self drilling screws and P-clamps to try fixing to upper fork legs.

1 Attachment

I've finished building the tray base for the rack and will start on the struts when I next have some spare time.

I ended up not using the self drilling screws much at all, as by the time they had drilled through 2-3mm they started threading, which as they still need to drill another 2-3mm caused the heads to sheer off.

But as I had it mostly worked out, the rivets worked well anyway, so not a total loss!

I've shown most of the tools I used, but would recommend that anyone else giving this a go to get a proper vice, cause it was a serious pain in the arse without one.

I also spent time making sure the support channel underneath all slotted together the maximise strength, but might do it slightly differently in the future, I suppose thats what prototypes are for though, to find out what could be done better.

I apologise for crappy photos.

6 Attachments

Rack finished.... for now.

I can definitely see room for improvement - its heavy, so 2mm thick plate instead of 3mm, 5/8" 16 swg box section instead of the 3/4" channel, it needs to be narrower and possibly longer with a shorter back plate to work in-between drops (or bulls in this case), I think it also needs to be brought forwards so the back plate is level with the stem, and lets face it, a bro pro is not the best suited bike out there for it, but the main points are all there and it works.

Surprisingly strong, but does flex from side to side, a fix is in the works for that though.

Pics below for further details.

5 Attachments

Bull bars rather defeat the point of it no? Also did you get make or buy the fixings that attach it to the axles?

bull bars make perfect sense, the ultimate rackmaster himself, aka the rackdaddy - theodorescoble would use the rack itself as a drop bar position

Bull bars rather defeat the point of it no? Also did you get make or buy the fixings that attach it to the axles?

You can still use the bars (almost) fine and as long as whatever is on the rack is secured with bungee cords, it should be fine, but do know what you mean, bulls aren't ideal, I was more intending it for use with wider set of drops (Ergonovas 46cm in the post) for possible longer distance riding or with risers, if I could find a riser bar I could get on with.

I fabricated the axle mounts out of 5mm x 30mm alu flat bar, it worked surprisingly well.

bull bars make perfect sense, the ultimate rackmaster himself, aka the rackdaddy - theodorescoble would use the rack itself as a drop bar position

Mr. Scobles?! He wouldn't be able to reach! ;P

Project Porteur Rack v1.1!

PPR v1.0 had much to big a platform, and got in the way of the bars, or even went out past the width of some bars and it was also far to heavy and effected steering even unladen.

So with PPR v1.1 I chopped about 60mm off the width, and simplified the channel supports under the rack so that it only ran around the outside edges of the 5 bar plate further cutting weight.

Even though I still need to cut out holes and channels in the plate to provide lots of places for bungee cords, which will reduce weight to around 50% of PPR v1.0, its noticeably lighter and easier steering already, so pretty encouraged by this.

I have used the existing materials I already had, but to be honest the rack platform does not need to be overly strong at all, its the supports that need to be strong and stiff, so any future versions of the platform will be made out of thiner wall channel/box-section and 5 bar plate (remember I started out with OTT materials) making it much more practical.

9 Attachments

Project Porteur Rack v1.1!

PPR v1.0 had much to big a platform, and got in the way of the bars, or even went out past the width of some bars and it was also far to heavy and effected steering even unladen.

So with PPR v1.1 I chopped about 60mm off the width, and simplified the channel supports under the rack so that it only ran around the outside edges of the 5 bar plate further cutting weight.

Even though I still need to cut out holes and channels in the plate to provide lots of places for bungee cords, which will reduce weight to around 50% of PPR v1.0, its noticeably lighter and easier steering already, so pretty encouraged by this.

I have used the existing materials I already had, but to be honest the rack platform does not need to be overly strong at all, its the supports that need to be strong and stiff, so any future versions of the platform will be made out of thiner wall channel/box-section and 5 bar plate (remember I started out with OTT materials) making it much more practical.

WHY has this thread just died?!?! This is pure gold! Summer approaches and I fear another year of sweaty back syndrome! I don't have the luxury of owning two bikes so have to make do with my one and only. This is fantastic dude. Where did you source materials? Also, can you spare some info on fastening specs?

+1

Same thoughts on this and the above linked thread, must be more people making porteurs out there..?

+1

Same thoughts on this and the above linked thread, must be more people making porteurs out there..?

I havent gotten around to it. Made a shabby one with a chunk of old skateboard. came out pretty well, but I want something more durable. I'd really like to hear more about this, including the parts list. I hate how expensive store bought stuff is. Either that or its massive and bulky.