Front racks for suspension forks

[Cockney Scot]

Having changed from a hybrid to a MTB I now have to get it kitted out for planned camping trips. I have the rear rack and both front and rear Ortleebs. Only problem I am having is sourcing front racks. I found these on the web , seem to be what I am looking forbut would appreciate feed back.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=14339Before

anyone asks yes I do need front and rear racks.

 

[RedBike]

On a touring bike I found front panniers seemed to slow the front steering down and make the bike feel more stable.

But I had some major handeling problems when I tried loading up a bike with suspension. If the weight was high up (hung from the bars) the center of gravity was just too high and the bike was very unstable in bends. If you lent the bike over even slightly the front wheel would wash out.

When I used a standard touring rack and p-clips the forks would wobble/twist all over the place due to the extra weight. My rack also foulded the re-bound adjuster. With the extra weight the forks started reacting unpredicably to bumps. Either not moving at all or suddenly diving through all their travel.

It's worth asking around how other people get on with panniers and suspension forks. You rarely see anyone MTBing with front panniers, perhaps there is a reason why? It's nearly always just a rear pannier and or a frame bag + rucksack.

 

[Cockney Scot]

what appeals to me about these racks are they are low riders, conect to the frame on the lower suspension fork and the quick release bolt on the wheel. So it would appear that they shouldnt interfere with the travel on the fork and weight should be low down to help stability.

 

[RedBike]

They don't directly interfere with the travel of the fork but they will have an inpact on the way the fork moves. There's suddenly all that additional weight being bounced around.

 

[Mr Pig]

The way I see it, if you're riding on very rough ground you really don't want a lot of extra weight on the front of a bike and if you're not riding on very rough ground you don't need a suspension fork

I suspect that the reason these products are hard to find is because few people want them. And those that do want them probably don't want them for very long.

 

[Cockney Scot]

Reckon the solution might be to lock the suspension forks when using front panniers. This will only be on roads etc so dont realy need the suspension then. When bike is unpacked I will then unlock the suspension for of road. Cant see a problem leaving the empty racks on.

 

[RedBike]

If you can't find anyone whos used this setup to ask then I think you'll just have to bite the bullet and try them. I can't foresee a problem using this sort of setup on the road. All my problems came about when the loads started 'swinging' about while off-road.