Artificing by Mechanarchy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.mechanarchy.com.au.
The pannier hanger system installed on this rack came from Ron D Swan, but we can manufacture and fit any hanger system of your choice, just supply us with the dimensions, and we'll do the rest.
Or, if you'd prefer, just follow our step by step 'artifice your own rear pannier rack' instructions, and you'll have a pannier rack at a fraction of the cost you'd pay in the stores. All we ask is that you let people know where you came across the idea and, if you wish, and can afford to, please donate a small amount to Mechanarchy so that we can keep the new ideas coming. After all, 'Equity can only come about in our Society through Shared, freely available Knowledge and Creativity'
We need to cut this frame where the Seat Post joins the Bottom Bracket, where the Top Tube joins the Seat Tube, and also at the Rear Dropouts. In the picture to the right, I've already cut the frame at these points, but placed them back together to highlight the frame part we need. The cuts can be made with an angle grinder cutting disc and take less than a few minutes to do. You should end up with a piece of frame for your rack, that looks like the picture below. (Important, don't throw out the other piece of frame. It will come in use elsewhere!)
We then fit the rack over the top Lugs on the bike frame and put a bolt through to check if it aligns. The holes in the rack Lugs may need to be drilled out if they have threads in them, otherwise screwing through them and into the bike Lug threads will cause your bolt to lock up, with the result that the rack will not tighten against the bike frame.
On the other end, we can attach some standard rack brackets to the seat post tightening bolt, mark our rack and drill it for the connecting bolt or simply weld the brackets to the rack tube. Or, if our rack is the exact same size as our bike frame, we can do the following.......
This holds nice and firm but can always be drilled with a self tapper put through into the seat tube. Not all bikes will take to this modification primarily because of seat tube angle differences, but if you can find a scrap frame with the right angle for your bikes seat tube, it saves an awful lot of fixing headaches.
Next, I place my rack into a special jig that I made so that I can find the precise center point of the rack tube to attach the pannier hangers to. This jig is not essential, but it helps. This rack is being fitted with a pair of Ron D Swan Panniers, which have their own unique hanger system.
You can see the four holes drilled in readiness for the hangers. These will be attached to the tube with fairly substantial pop rivets.
At this stage, I also drill the hole at the seat post attaching point.
All holes are de-burred, and the rack is now ready for some sandpaper and a clean up with either meths or thinners so that it can be painted.
Make sure that when you bolt the Gear Set side of your rack to the bike, that the bolt doesn't go too far through the bike Lug, otherwise it will damage your chain and possibly your gear set.
The hole in the end of the rack (where the old seat post used to fit) can easily be turned into a reflector fixing point.
Simply get an old seat tube, cut off about 50 mm's, fit it in and clamp it with a bolt, put a plastic plug in the end and finally, fit the type of reflector you commonly see on seat tubes.
