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Thursday, January 15, 2009

My Commuter (Modified Trek Soho S)


Wide-View, originally uploaded by j.dmitch.

Figured it was about time to post some pics of my ride. If you click through you can see the entire Flickr set, with explanations of the various angles and shots and components.

10 comments:

  1. You sure did make some modifications! I like it!

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  2. Hi, I see that the left rear rack bracket isn't being used, probably because of the location of the brake caliper. I was able to use a bench vice to put a "u" bend in a rear rack bracket to curve it around the caliper. Now I have both of the upper supporting brackets attached to the bike.

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  3. Nice catch, Casey. that's exactly why I'm not using the left stay. I found that, for my uses, the rack is still plenty firm. However, it's always bugged me, and I don't have the tools to put a "proper" bend in the stay.

    Geometry issues is also why I've yet to install a rack on my wife's Specialized Globe Carmel 1.

    However, I recently noticed these Utility Collars from Box Dog Bikes and ultimately bought these Seat Clamp w/ Rack Mounts - 31.8mm from Ben's Cycle. They just came in yesterday, and I'm stoked to get them on and try them out.

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  4. How did the seat clamp w/ rack mounts work out. I am looking to put a ravk on the back of my Soho S and am thinking of doing the same thing.

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  5. Hey Rango,

    Sorry about the delay in noticing this, Blogger wasn't letting me know about comments (that or my spam catcher was snagging them). Anyhow, they worked great on my wife's bike (a specialized vienna which has a goofy orientation of the rack mounts as well)... I've yet to install them on the Soho as it's serviceable as is and we were in the process of moving (and I had lost the second strut). I'll try to get it on this week and give some pics and feedback. If it works half as well as on my wife's bike it'll be twice as good as how I currently have it.

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  6. Josh,

    I bought the utility collars and installed them yesterday. The work great and line up with the top of the rack.

    Thanks for the information.

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  7. Sweet, I'm glad to hear they worked. So, are you saying you didn't have to bend the stays? I didn't with my wifes.

    PS - I can't find my other utility collar in the mounds of stuff I have in my garage now... !doh!

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  8. THat is correct, I did not have to bend the stays, now I need to get a lighter rack, I originally bought a stronger rack as I wanted to transfer all of the weight to the wheel area mount, now that is not an issue I will look for something lighter.

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  9. Hi Josh, I found this post looking for info on how to mount a rear rack on a Globe Caramel. I'm having similar issues with geometry - the stays are too short on most racks I've tried. You ended up using a seat clamp? Did this mean you had to get rid of the quick release seat when you added this?

    The link above to the utility collar at Box Dog doesn't work anymore (and it's not searchable on their site) so I couldn't see that option.

    My local bike stores have been trying to help but so far not successful. Hope your blog isn't too old that you won't see this!

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  10. Yeah, you have to ditch the QR. it wound up working great other than that. The bens cycle link still works. The clamps are made by dimension.

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