XLC Lowrider LR-F02 Pannier Rack, Black/matt

I give them a top rating because they are exactly what I was looking for and inexpensive. Minimalist design.If they fit out of the box, you have won the lottery. In order to free the quick release and get the correct angle, and not to bend them obscenely, I had to be inventive. So, they are not a good buy for someone who is not ...handy.My solution was to create an extension between the fork eyelet and the bottom fork eyelet by using the u bolt backplates. Moved an inch to the rear, the quick releases are not in jail. I have mid fork eyes so I just bolted there using the spacers. However, that connection seems a little weak, so I reshaped the u bolts via vice and mallet to match my blade profile and have them backing up the mid fork connection point. Additional cost, about $5 of correctly sized M5 and M6 bolts.Simple, yo. Seriously, if you are not into a little fabrication time, skip these.

The holes in this rack are not easy to align with the braze-on holes in the front fork of my Novara Safari. However, it did fit when I moved it up higher (not "Low Rider" for now). This seemed to look good until I realized that the extension of the vertical tube above the top horizontal bar was hitting my frame when turning the wheel. I HACKSAWED the piece off gently and now it works just fine. It worked great for a 130 mile out-and-back weekend with some light bags. I will have to see how it does with more weight soon. As another person has said, I might drill into the rack to bring it down on the fork to a "low rider" position.

I don't usually write reviews but this is ridiculous.I was a bike mechanic for the better part of 25 years. I have installed a LOT of racks. Good racks, bad racks, every kind of bike under the sun. I can almost always make something fit. Given that I thought I was OK to ignore the problems that other people have had. I was wrong.It's pretty clear to me that the person who "designed" this...object...has never seen or used an actual lowrider front rack. It does not fit on the standardized mounts. Even if you want to use the u bolts that come with it it will end up tilted at a horrible angle. Maybe somewhere in the world there is a very strange bike that will fit this rack properly but it's not one of the seven bicycles that I have at home.You have been warned

When I stumbled upon this rack on Amazon I thought it was a great design that would mount on any fork... Well, the idea is good, but there are serious problems with this product.First of all, I want to point out that the way the rack is shown in the picture mounted to the fork would not work on most bikes with quick release front wheels. In fact, the rack is not even intended to be mounted as shown in the picture. There are "L" and "R" indicators on the left and right racks -- the correct mounting is reversed from what's shown in the picture (with the long diagonal tube facing the other direction - if you can visualize that...) This is the only mounting I found to avoid the diagonal tube interfering with the quick release mechanism of the front wheel. Otherwise -- you may mount the rack, but forget easily releasing the wheel.Another issue I had with this rack is the poor quality steel that the mounting hardware is made out of. I didn't even tighten the nut of the "u-bolt" nearly enough to be safe, and the threads started stripping. I can't comment on the quality of the aluminum welding - it seems solid (but who knows what's under the paint...). Trust me about the bolts though -- they are horrible. Definitely replace the bolts with ones of better quality.As the other reviewer commented, the two included long bolts are useless - they won't mount on any fork - they are too long and too wide for the fork eyelets. The other reviewer is also correct that the u-bolt is too long. I have no way to cut the steel, so I'll just put some caps on and live with it - but it does protrude awkwardly.I'm not sure I'd trust this rack for loaded-touring. I would be too scared that it would swing straight into the front spokes -- which could lead to a nasty fall or wheel damage. I give it a three, for low price and good idea. It may work out for some people.I tried to be cheap and got this -- I'll use it on some shorter tours, but I'll be keeping an eye on it... For serious touring when you want to trust your rig, I guess a proper fork with low-rider eyelets and a high quality cromoly steel rack (such as those made by Tubus) is the way to go.Revision 6/2011:As the person in the comments correctly pointed out - I now do realize that the rack is mounted properly in the picture. The racks are marked "L" and "R" for "mechanic's left and right", which is opposite when looking from the rider's side - I can't figure out why the manufacturer would mark the racks this way...However, regarding the issue with quick release wheels and spacers: unless your fork has double braze-ons (one on each side of the dropout), you likely will not be able to mount this rack correctly. The bottom part of the rack will be hitting the dropout and the quick release assembly. If you do have a touring fork (I tested on Jamis Aurora) -- it will work. Then again, if you have a touring fork, you probably have mid-fork eyelets, so look for a Tubus or similar rack, it's worth every penny.Revision 8/2011:Ok -- I mounted the rack, and I completed a 300 mile tour with them -- they worked great. They are not garbage after all. The way I mounted the rack was to buy another item: a Tubus LM-1 adapter ($20). It's the adapter that attaches to a fork without mid-fork eyelets, to give an eyelet. This adapter is great! I than happily threw away the U-bolt that came with the XLC rack, and used the Tubus product instead, in conjunction with the XLC rack. It was then fairly easy to mount the rack. I used the spacers that came with the XLC rack to give more clearance to the quick releases. The quick releases were locked in, but at least I finally had a low-rider rack... (for about $45) It works great, and seems strong enough. I finally have a low rider front rack.

I was concerned this wouldn't mount firmly to the forks and twist around the forks... But they mounted firm. The only downside is the mounting hardware. It comes with a enormous U bolt that is way to long (you will ended up cutting it) and two large screws that were way to large and long to be useful. I happened to have extra bolts, off an old water bottle carrier, that worked perfectly. After finding the bolts and cutting off the U Bolt, the racks were firmly attached to the bike. For the price, I am very happy with these racks.

I mounted mine such that the 'S' shape you see is, well, legible when facing the bike. But I have no idea which way these are actually supposed to face. No documentation included.The u-brackets that are included have have bolts that are so long they effectively block you from actually hanging panniers. Then there are those weird pegs at the top which also interfere with bags. Expect to spend a long time grinding all this stuff down.

I have an older centurion ProTour 15 with brazens on the fork. I can get the holes to line up on the eyelets and brazens but the rack is heavily raked back. The panniers attach fine, but are too laid back for my comfort. I'm going to fab a bracket to correct this. Not too shabby for the price though.