BIKE ATTACHMENTS

Racks – Old Man Mountain Sherpa Front and Rear    Front OMM rack worked really well, nothing came loose or cracked.   The only modifications to the front rack were drilling the brackets out for the bottle cages and wrapping strips of rubber between the clamps and the fork.

The rear rack was another story.  From the first mounting trials in February 07, I started having trouble with the stabilizer bracket frame attachments.  Since the 5.5 is full suspension and doesn’t have rim brake bosses, you have to attach the forward stabilizer brackets to the back chainstays.  This presents a problem for OMM, as back chainstays can be round, oval, kind of oval, square, etc depending on the manufacturer.   To further complicate the situation, the Intense chain stay graduates in diameter the closer it gets to the seat stay.   Regardless, I tried a few unsuccessful fixes and mounting configurations in the months leading up to the trip.  One setup failed dramatically on a remote, full gear training ride near Breckenridge weeks before departure, causing the rear rack to rotate all the way back to the ground, shearing off/mangling the rear derailleur, breaking spokes, and destroying a tubeless rim strip.  I had to convert to a single speed and it took me close to five hours to limp into town with my rear rack gear in my backpack.  

I thought I had fixed the mounting points issue before leaving for the trip, and my setup lasted through Canada to about Red Meadow Lake north of Whitefish.  I was able to band-aid the problem with some big and thick zip ties and get into Whitefish, where Mike at Glacier Cyclery and I came up with another bracket design that I later MacGyvered even further (with a few trips to hardware store and about four hours work) into an effective solution.  This setup fortunately lasted the remainder of the trip without a hitch…but I dared not disassemble it.  

I also experienced some problems with the OMM rear skewers.  I had to replace the original rear skewer weeks before the trip when it bent while pulling the setup out.  I had the same problem on the trip and trued it up as best I could, but suspect many of my ‘mystery’ rear brake rotor dragging problems were a direct result of the skewer not wanting to seat correctly in the frame mounts.  I was worried about the bent skewer shredding the rear hub, cassette, or both but it never happened.  I would take a burlier skewer that was heavier over a wobbled out high dollar hub any day.      The bottom line on the OMM racks is this:  they worked, they are about as light as racks can come, I worked on them a lot to get the 95% solution, and it got me through the trip.  But it seemed I was always just one crash away from destroying them.

Bike Attached Accessories

- Jandd Handlepac 1    Worked great, no zipper or mounting point issues.  Solid and reliable design.

- Profile Design LG Stem Bag backwards on seat tube stay (no it doesn’t rub my legs)  Jandd makes a similar stem bag.  

       -Six Salsa Sidewrap bottle cages

    - two front rack mount, two rear rack mount, two on the frame

 **This guy makes custom bags and packs specifically for bikes.  Jay Petervay, GDR 2007 winner and current record holder for the GDR (15 days!) used his packs.  I'd say he is a true pioneer, custom building the next generation of ultralight touring packs.  I discovered his setup too late to change mine in time enough to validate prior to my trip.  My next tours will be with his stuff or something similar.  Worth checking out.

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