EXPERIENCE – What separates Sakkit racks from all others is experience. When I committed to developing our racks in 1994 I was fully aware of the fact that there were no mass-produced racks (Gordon, Blackburn, etc.) available that were designed by an experienced bicycle tourist. Sakkit racks are a reflection of my own extensive experience as a bicycle tourist. They are also the result of more than two decades of my own work in which I have attempted to greatly improve the performance of touring racks and rack/pannier systems. RB

INNOVATION – The foundation of Sakkit touring racks is three elements of design which I had built into my own racks in the 1970’s: integrated, braze-on pannier mounts, strap guides and braze-on fittings for head and taillights. From these simple ideas of mine I began 20 years of work to improve rack design. Today, nearly every element of design of Sakkit racks is the result of our innovation. A star () in our literature indicates design that is a result of our innovation or that is found exclusively in our racks. It also denotes performance advantages over other racks. RB

 THE SAKKIT / RBD SYSTEM – For racks to perform well, they cannot be designed independently from panniers. We do not regard racks and panniers as two separate products. We relate to panniers and racks as two integral halves of the same product: the rack/pannier system. Designing racks and panniers to completely compliment each other is the foundation of the many ways our racks and panniers out-perform all other products by a wide margin.

 INTEGRAL PANNIER MOUNTING: THE PIVOTLOC SYSTEM - The PivotLoc pannier mount is a beautifully simple mechanism that allows RBD panniers (and other panniers modified for our racks) to be locked to Sakkit racks. It consists of two braze-on rack fittings and a small stainless steel pressure plate that function in conjunction with the top, middle pannier hook. Easy-to-use, aesthetically tidy, it’s a rock-solid attachment that is bombproof in terms of dependability. Combined with our rack design that allows very wide pannier hook spacing, it’s the most stable pannier/rack mounting system ever developed. It was also designed for two other very important reasons: the ability to lock panniers to the rack and to allow fore/aft pannier adjustability.

 THE PANNIER LOCK – The PivotLoc system allows individuals to simply lock their panniers to Sakkit racks. A turn of the screws that hold the PivotLoc pressure plate in position and your panniers are locked to the racks to help prevent casual theft. The PivotLoc system is quite easy to use. Panniers can be mounted or dismounted in less than 15 seconds. The PivotLoc system affords a level of security that bicycle tourists or commuters have never experienced.

FORE/AFT PANNIER ADJUSTABILITY – One of the functions of the PivotLoc system is to allow fore/aft pannier adjustability. Very few people are aware of it, but one of the primary causes of frame shimmy in touring bicycles is improper fore/aft adjustment of panniers. Even subtle changes in fore/aft placement of panniers, or the gear inside panniers, can cure occurrences of frame shimmy. The PivotLoc system provides 1.5-in. of pannier adjustment.

REAR RACK ADJUSTABILITY – We build rear racks in three positions to help fine-tune the heel clearance of your panniers in relation to your shoe size and the chain stay length of your bicycle. The three-position design combined with the PivotLoc mounting design provides five inches of fore/aft adjustability.

 LONG, HIGHLY EFFECTIVE RACK PLATFORMS – One quick way to recognize that an experienced bicycle tourist didn’t design your racks is to take a look at how the platforms of the racks are designed. Typically, rack platforms are a mess. Lowriding racks lack a platform. Many racks have platforms that are way too short (like rear Gordon racks) or have raised ends that encourage the unwise practice of placing gear across the top of the rack. Some racks, most notably Gordon racks, leave huge gaps over the wheel (up to eight inches in their rear rack and ten in their front high-mount rack).
      The platforms at the top of Sakkit racks are far more effective than on other products. They are designed to carry gear correctly, in a lengthwise position on top of the racks. The lengths of the rack platforms are 11.5- and 17.5-inches, front and rear, respectively. The effective length of the front rack platform is about 13 inches. The rear rack will easily handle stuff sacks of 24 inches. The platforms have longitudinal tubes and cross tubes to fully support gear strapped to the top of the racks.
      There are very distinct advantages to carrying gear lengthwise on top of racks: gear can be strapped much tighter in a lengthwise position, because attachment straps can be spread a lot wider. There is no difficulty in accessing gear in any place in your panniers. Gear in a lengthwise position will not interfere with putting rain covers on. Gear strapped lengthwise cannot damage your panniers in the way that gear strapped across the rack can.

 ADJUSTABLE FRONT RACK PLATFORM - One unique and important feature of our mid/high front rack is that the cross tube in the top platform is made of telescoping tubing. This allows the width of the rack to be adjusted to conform to a wide range of forks, and it provides a means for the rack to be screwed directly into the forks.

 FRONT RACK DIRECT-TO-FORK-MOUNTING – An extremely important feature of our mid/high front rack is that it is designed so that the rack can be screwed directly into fork blades. It’s a design unique to our rack. It’s why our front mid/high-mount rack is far more rigid than all other front racks. Our design eliminates flexible spacers (like the 2.75-in. flexible connection /spacer used in Gordon racks) in the rack-to-fork connection.
      On bicycles not fitted with braze-ons for our racks we use a clamp with a rigid, solid aluminum (3/4 x 3/4 x 1/2 - in.) spacer. Although it’s a very rigid connection, we do not recommend using clamps to attach racks. We recommend having braze-ons installed.

 RACK RIGIDITY AND PANNIER SUPPORT – An extremely important element of rack design, and at the same time one that is most often totally meaningless, is rack rigidity. There have been many racks that have been built that are quite rigid. However, the rigidity of most racks is absolutely meaningless because the racks were not designed to make a rigid rack-to-pannier connection, nor are they used with stable panniers.
      Sakkit racks are extremely rigid. But unlike other racks, they are also designed to have an extremely rigid rack-to-pannier connection, which is a function of the very wide side support of the racks and the extremely wide hook spacing of RBD panniers(10.5-in. top hooks, 8.25-in. lower hooks). The area of the side-platform support of Sakkit racks is 165-sq. in., nearly twice the support of a Gordon rack. Even our very large tandem panniers are fully supported by the racks. The wide area of side support of Sakkit racks also allows our panniers to be moved back and forth (fore/aft) on the racks to adjust for heel clearance, or to adjust the panniers to offset frame shimmy without losing full support of the rack.

 FRONT MID / HIGH-MOUNT RACK DESIGN – Our mid/high front rack is the most advanced front rack ever built. It is the most rigid. It has the most rigid rack-to-pannier design. It has many features that very few individuals have ever heard of. Its design incorporates a telescoping, adjustable top platform, our PivotLoc integral mounting system, a specially designed light braze-on, and direct-to-fork mounting in a high-mount design. It is a high-performance rack designed by a highly experienced bicycle tourist for bicycle tourists. No gimmicks, just good sense.
      Because a wealth of touring experience is the foundation of the racks’ design, it is different from other racks. Two of the most striking features that set it apart from others are the highly effective platform at the top of the rack and the dual-position (mid/high) pannier mounts.
      A front rack with a well-designed top platform has very distinct advantages over racks that lack a platform. The platform is extremely useful as an overload space for gear. It is critical in providing space to deal with the ebb and flow of gear that is carried over the course of a tour, or for different types of tours. It adds a great deal of versatility to any rack/pannier system.
      Our mid/high design provides two levels of pannier attachment. The mid-mount position is available for those who wish to move their front panniers to a lower position. The bottom of our panniers in the mid-mount position is about three inches further off the ground than panniers on lowriding racks. It’s an important few inches. Although the panniers are quite low, there is adequate ground clearance to steeply lean a bicycle in cornering without hitting the panniers on the ground. And there is also enough ground clearance to ride deeply rutted roads, or to avoid road curbs- a very distinct advantage over lowriding panniers. The mid-mount is also necessary on many bicycles with smaller frames to provide handlebar clearance.
      The high-mount position provides the greatest ground clearance, and has long been the overwhelming choice of the most serious bicycle tourists. One very nice feature of panniers mounted both in the mid- and high-mount positions is that they can easily be reached, and gear in your front panniers can be accessed while you’re riding.

CUSTOM REAR RACK – The strongest, most rigid and cosmetically clean method of attaching tubular steel rear racks is to custom-fit the rear rack by extending the top platform of the rack to meet seat stay attachment points. It’s the method we choose to fit Sakkit racks to Sakkit frames. If you send us your frame, we’ll be happy to custom-fit our racks to your bike, and to install braze-ons.

 THE PIVOTMOUNT REAR RACK ATTACHMENT - Few bicycles these days have seat stay eyelets that are level with the top of any rear racks. To achieve the most rigid, precise, and cosmetically attractive (non-custom) rack-to-bike mount we developed a simple mechanism that allows the front of our racks to pivot to be connected to seat stay eyelets at any level: The PivoMount System. Conceived in 1993, it consists of a gold-anodized pivot barrel (made in a dozen configurations to fit a full range of seat stay eyelet widths) and two polished stainless steel tubes that slide through the barrel to make the rack-to-rack connection. Rigid and attractive, it’s in sharp contrast to the bogus steel straps that are most often used as rack attachments.

CHROME-MOLY TUBING – Chrome-moly steel tubing has long been the choice of material for quality racks. It’s much stronger, rigid and lighter than aluminum rod. We use a combination of two tubing diameters and three thicknesses of tubing walls in Sakkit racks. Our racks are extremely strong and reliable. Unlike aluminum racks, in the extremely rare event that a tubular steel rack should break, it can be repaired easily, anywhere.

 FRONT AND REAR LIGHT BRAZE-ONS – A lighting system is an essential component for touring, or any time you ride at night. The ends of racks are an excellent place to mount lights, especially if you use a handlebar pack, which interferes with lights mounted on handlebars. We designed a braze-on for Sakkit racks to mount front and rear lights, which we find indispensable. The taillight mount is three inches below the top of the rack, so that anything you carry on top of the rack will not obscure the visibility of your taillight. We also include braze-ons for lighting wires on the racks that we build for Sakkit touring bicycles.

 BRAZE-ON STRAP GUIDES – An old idea of ours from more than 20 years ago. Designed for 3/4 -in. straps, strap guides help hold your straps in place while you secure gear to the top of our racks in a lengthwise position. They are very handy, and after you use them for a while, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them.

FENDER BRAZE-ONS – Not an idea of ours, but a very good one. Fender braze-ons provide a means to attach fenders so that the fender stays are much shorter (which makes your fenders considerably more rigid) and so that they don’t interfere with rack-to-frame mounts.

MODIFYING PANNIERS TO MOUNT TO SAKKIT RACKS – Sakkit racks will perform much better with RBD panniers than with other brands of panniers, but if you care to use your old panniers with our racks, we can modify your panniers to work with our PivotLoc system. Using our PivotLoc system with your panniers will enhance their stability considerably. We charge $25 for the modification. To ensure the highest standards of performance, we sell our racks as a rack/pannier system with RBD panniers, or to individuals that have us modify their own panniers at the time they purchase Sakkit racks.

VALUE – Like all of our products, Sakkit racks perform to a higher standard than other racks. They are more refined and far more elaborately detailed. A lot more experience and thought has gone into them. If you compare them to other chrome-moly racks by counting tubing cuts, miters, welds and brazing points, as well as the cost of materials, you’ll find what we already know: we sell them at about half the price of their true relative value.

FEATURES OF SAKKIT TOURING RACKS

* Constructed of 4130 chrome-moly
* 17.5-in. rear rack platform
* 11.5-in. front rack top platform
* 165-sq. in. of side platform support
* 10.5-in. top hook spacing (maximum)
* 8.25-in. bottom hook spacing (maximum)
* 5.0-in. rear rack/pannier adjustability
* 2.25-in. front rack/pannier adjustability
* PivotLoc pannier mounting braze-ons
* Fender braze-ons
* Front and rear light braze-ons
* Braze-on strap guides
* Machine mitered
* Hand brazed and TIG welded
* Custom-fit mounting (Sakkit Bicycles)
* PivotMount rear rack adjustable mount * Tubular rack-to-frame mounting
* Durable powdercoat finish