Blackburn Lowriders

[Jugular]

Last minute bike building is not good for the stress levels...

I've just found out that the Blackburn Lowriders (recommended by everyone under the sun, the ones with the hooped bit over the front wheel) won't fit on my ancient Galaxy. Does anyone know of a good set of front pannier racks that will fit on a Galaxy that aren't the proprietary ones?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

They ought to fit, I have a set on my ancient Galaxy. Although I have a feeling that I used the 'U' clips that came with the rack, rather than the lugs on the bike. Not elegant, but secure.
Sorry, that's not much help, is it?

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

I have blackburn front racks on my galaxy...I think they are called low riders but they dont have the bar over the front wheel you describe. They look like this:

 

[Yorkshireman]

Jugular, why can't you fit them as Rhythm Thief describes? Are you short of fitting points on the forks, or is something missing from the fitting kit? I've got some Blackburn lookalikes (can't remember the make - they've been on for about 9 years) fitted and the fitting kit seemed to cover any type of fork. I decided not to use the u-bolt and 'P' clip fitting as I had suitable mounting points on the fork.

 

[mickle]

There are two types of Blackburn Lowrider. One (Bigfattallbloke's image above) fits dedicated bosses on the fork, the other, (Yorkshireman's image above with the loop over the front wheel) should fit any regular steel fork. Have you got the right one? If so I'd be interested to know why it doesn't fit. If you are unable to fit the correct Lowrider it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to fit any of the Lowrider clones.

 

[Jugular]

Hi guys, thanks for the rapid responses. You've highlighted the problem pretty quickly. My galaxy has dedicated bosses for fitting the lowriders but I was told that the lowriders with the loop would fit. They don't, as the u-clips are too deep and won't grip the fork and unlike Yorkshireman's case my bosses aren't spaced nicely to put a bolt through one of the appertures.
The solution: I'm going to take the racks back and buy the "custom" lowriders if they have them, and hope they fit the bike, otherwise I'm a bit stumped.
If not, where are Dawes based maybe they'll let me buy some of their custom lowriders?

 

[mickle]

The U clips aren't too deep, you've assembled them wrong, but if you've got the bosses on the frame you may as well go for Custom Lowriders, they look neater if nothing else.

 

[Jugular]

As far as I could tell (I don't have it in front of me) the thread doesn't extend all the way down the U clip, by tightening the bolt as far down the clip as possible (exactly as it showed in the diagram) the clip gained no purchase on the fork, there were certainly no alternative methods mentioned on the instructions but perhaps I missed a workaround.

 

[Yorkshireman]

As far as I could tell (I don't have it in front of me) the thread doesn't extend all the way down the U clip, by tightening the bolt as far down the clip as possible (exactly as it showed in the diagram) the clip gained no purchase on the fork, there were certainly no alternative methods mentioned on the instructions but perhaps I missed a workaround.

That rings a bell. I've just been to look at the u-bolts that came with mine (as usual I kept them ... just in case). They are rather wide and when tightened up didn't inspire me with confidence (and there seems to be a lot of bolt showing as well) plus they looked ugly. As the forks had mounts I used them, though I think that I wanted to use the mounting points for something else (might have been for a light ).

 

[Jugular]

I got the custom's and they fit perfectly.

 

[andrew_s]

From fairly vague memory of my standard Blackburn lowriders with hoop, the U-bolts went on the fork blade, then you put a flat plate on the u-bolt and tightened 2 nuts over it to clamp the u-bolt onto the fork blade, leaving 2 threaded ends of the u-bolt sticking out. You then screw another 2 nuts part way onto the threaded ends, fit over the backplate of the lowrider itself, then another pair of nuts. You then tighten the second pair of nuts outwards and the 3rd pair inwards so that the lowrider backplate is clamped between them, but is away from contact with the fork blade itself.

That does require that the u-bolt has long threads though, and perhaps current versions are different. Are there tubular spacers (4 needed) that you could fit between the flat clamping plate and the back plate of the rack, thus allowing the outer nuts to do all the work?