Carrera Virtuoso and a rack - pain in the arse!

[sabian92]

Hey,

I've got a virtuoso, and just got a tortec tour rack in black. How in all that is Holy do you fit it? I managed to attach it at the drop outs, but at the top with the silver bars they need to be bent (seems a little strange to me), and on one side the brake cable is in the way and there's no way you can fit it. I've read about one fella who's got the same setup (here) and he had to hack bits off - rather not do that!

I read a review on Evans where I bought it from, somebody with the same bike as me said it was dead easy to fit.

Help, anybody?

Cheers!

 

[sabian92]

Anybody?

 

[Zoiders]

Bending the stays is normal and does them no harm at all.

 

[Adasta]

What they said ^

I have the same bike and rack and it can be done.

 

[Zoiders]

If the rack eyes near the brake bridge are causing the cable routing to foul the rack stay, as can be a problem with more compact rear triangles, another option is to move the rack eye up a few inches to the seat post clamp.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=19012

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

i was given a rack (thanks tubbycyclist) and it has similar top stay arms (i'm looking at photo's on google for that statement), i've got a mono stay at the back (pompino frame) i had to really bend the arms, it was dead easy, they can be bent at angles as well because the blocks swivel. hope that helps.

 

[sabian92]

If the rack eyes near the brake bridge are causing the cable routing to foul the rack stay, as can be a problem with more compact rear triangles, another option is to move the rack eye up a few inches to the seat post clamp.

http://www.chainreac...x?ModelID=19012

I assume the idea is to buy 2, mount them one on top of the other on the seat post and just attach there? I don't have very long legs and I don't have a very high saddle, so that could cause some problems too.

One of the 2 screws on either side are loose on the actual rack where the adjuster bars attach to it, there's a plastic stop thing inside the nut that stops you tightening it past a certain point. Is that normal?

 

[Zoiders]

I assume the idea is to buy 2, mount them one on top of the other on the seat post and just attach there? I don't have very long legs and I don't have a very high saddle, so that could cause some problems too.

One of the 2 screws on either side are loose on the actual rack where the adjuster bars attach to it, there's a plastic stop thing inside the nut that stops you tightening it past a certain point. Is that normal?

No old chap -you buy one as it's a replacement for your seat clamp as well.

It creates two extra rack eyes higher up.

 

[Crackle]

you buy one as it's a replacement for your seat clamp as well.

It creates two extra rack eyes higher up.

I haven't looked at the rack you have but this. ^^

I fitted a rack to my son's 24" bike and I had to buy one of those and not use it as a seat clamp but set it higher on the seatpost but it works really well and would work as rack mount and seatpost clamp on a larger bike.

 

[cyberknight]

I only use one of the seat stay mounts as like you say the one on the nearside fouls the brake , it has not fallen of yet.

 

[sabian92]

Thanks guys, knew I could count on you for the fix!

I'm going to buy one of those seat-eyelet-bracket contraptions, and see how it goes.

 

[smokeysmoo]

I've recently fitted the same rack to my winter bike and I had to drastically shorten and modify the two metal arms that bolt to the underside of the rack as they were far too long. If I hadn't done this, then the rack would have been sloping backwards when the bars were attached to the stays.