Alistair’s Rack Jig and the start of another rack
Alistair showed me photos of his rack jig a couple of months ago and I finally got around to building one myself. The core piece is some sort of holder that we got at “Science, Art and More”, a fun science oriented store in Seattle. It consists of two tube clamps with a center pivot that can be rotated 360 degrees. Alistair added two other tube clamps on stalks, one for the frame or fork and one for the rack top. Using this you can position the rack top while you braze in the stays that will hold it in place on the bike. Click the image for more photos.
After building the jig I added the fork crown mount to one of my rack tops. I like how this one came out:
The bolt that goes through the fork crown is just a standard steel M6 bolt bought from my local hardware store. I cut off the head and brazed it to some 1/4″ tubing. Finally I put a 5/16″ sleeve around the bolt to provide something for the nut to compress against.
Nothing groundbreaking, but it is a little smoother looking than the similar design on a Nitto M12.