Tubus Logo Classic

 Last night I brought home the Tubus Logo Classic from Ritabrata. I had to spend a mini fortune on it. Rs 13,000 plus. Abroad it costs $100. But I cannot ask a friend to bring a pannier rack for me. That's asking for too much. So got it from Happy Earth through Ritabrata's Stay Tuned. By far, this is my most expensive piece of cycling accessory.  

The rack looks very simple. It indeed is very simple. I wonder why we cannot make such stuff here in India. Perhaps the demand is too low. But the beauty of this rack is that although it weighs like a feather, it can be loaded up to 40 kg. Question is am I ever going to load my bike with 40 kg luggage? It's not about that. It's about the strength of the rack. A touring bike, or indeed any bike for that matter, can take a tumble and fall down. Its chance of surviving a big tumble without any fracture is that much more than a Rs 750 Btwin rack (that I also have). 

The beauty of precision German engineering is written all over the rack. It's silk smooth to the touch and the lines are very clean. The welded joints could be cleaner but that's fine. It might look very unimpressive for its price. But the appeal of the accessory is in its strength vis-a-vis weight. 

I am yet to install it. The instruction manual and the hardware to attach it is in the small tubular thing that came attached to the rack. The manual seemed straight forward and useful. It might not be a piece of junk that most of these manuals generally are. It seemed to have follow-able instructions. I will report on its ease of installation after I actually do it. I plan on creating a video out of it. There is nothing on youtube.

June 7th, 2019

This evening I installed the rack on the bike. It wasn't such a major problem except tightening of a pair of nuts which are in a very difficult to reach position. I hope the nuts are properly tightened. Essentially eight bolts in all. Not too complicated. The trick is not to tighten them all from the beginning Keep them loose. Once the whole thing is more or less installed, tighten them up thoroughly one by one. I used a spirit level to ensure that it is perfectly level. I did it by putting it up on the home trainer. The bike now looks like a proper touring bike.

There are two nuts that are a little tricky to tighten if done after installation because there is very little leeway for the spanner to move. But you cannot preinstall them either. So after the installation I took off the two front bolts and loosened the two bottom bolts. This helped me to push the rack back a bit giving me adequate space to tighten the nut. Once done I put the bolts back on. Now I wonder whether I should have put a drop of Loctite on those nuts.

The installed rack - final view

Medium Term View

I started using the rack to hang a pannier and go to work every day. I hanged it, only one and not two on either side, from the lower tube for a few days but now I use the top tube. The rack's powder coated colour discoloured at the contact points of both the tubes. So the powder coating is fairly thin. I hope the primer underneath is stronger. I have half a mind to wrap an electrical tape there. Otherwise the rack is very solid. I lost one of the two rubber end caps that were attached to the end of the arms that attach the rack to the seat stays. Must have fallen off. I am sure I can get a replacement but it will be something local. Not the German original :-)