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I'm looking for a bike rack to put on my bike so that I can hookup the baby seat with the bike. However, I don't see anywhere on my bike where I can mount the front bracket arms of the rack to it (please see pic.1). There is place to mount the lower arms, though (as shown in pic.2). Pic.3 shows the whole bike.

Do you know which bike rack can go with this bike?

pic1

pic2

pic3

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3 Answers

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Your bike looks like it comes equipped with a full-suspension frame, and the suspension mechanism is located where one would usually attach the rack stays. This will make attaching a rear rack extremely difficult, and almost certainly less secure.

I don't recommend attaching a rear rack to this bike, particularly not one that will be holding a child seat.

Instead, you could look into a child trailer. (For more information on child seats compared to child trailers, have a look at this answer.) Please note that pulling a trailer with any full-suspension bike can cause problems (see the comments).

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Thanks a lot for your quick response, Neil. That really makes sense. – chepukha Sep 5 '11 at 5:07
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Most trailers are also not supposed to be mounted to full-suspension frames. The reason being that the suspension movement is damping the movement over the rear wheel, but the trailer is someway behind the rear wheel. This can cause significant jolting to the trailer. Generally for a rear rack or trailer - particularly to carry a child, you want a bike with no rear suspension. – Sam Meldrum Sep 5 '11 at 8:23
+1. Thanks, Sam. It's a good thing to know. – chepukha Sep 6 '11 at 7:05
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You could use a rack that attaches at the brake bolt. Of course, the rack would get some extra jouncing from the suspension. That appears to be a fairly small wheel, though, so you'd need a rack designed for small wheels (so the front rack strap to the brake bolt wouldn't be excessively long).

Best bet is to find a shop that carries a variety of racks and try them on.

(Of course, anything you find is apt to be less than ideal to support a child seat.)

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Thanks. If it's not secure for the kids, I would rather get another bike, though. – chepukha Sep 6 '11 at 7:06
I think it could be made secure if you could somehow lock the suspension. The back and forth jiggle would be bad otherwise, though -- not really an issue of how secure it is. – Daniel R Hicks Sep 6 '11 at 11:26
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You might have some luck with a seatpost mounted rack. You may need to raise the seat up a bit on your bike to get it to fit since it seems that there isn't much clearance there. However, these seatpost racks are not strong enough to support a child seat, and with a single point of failure I wouldn't even attempt it. But as a rack for your bike for carrying other things, this would work.

As others have said, the fact that you have rear suspension makes it difficult to attach a rack since usually racks require 2 attachment points, which is hard (impossible??) when the back of the frame needs to move due to suspension. As far as baby seats go, you might want to opt for the Kangaroo child seat which has the seat located between you and the handlebars. Again for this, it looks as though you would have to move your seat up a bit.

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You want to put a child seat on a seatpost rack? – Neil Fein Sep 12 '11 at 14:22
Sorry, didn't read the child seat part. It would work good for a rack, but I wouldn't put my child on there. That's why I recommended the Kangaroo seat. I'll edit to clarify – Kibbee Sep 12 '11 at 14:26

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