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My wife brought a second hand CoPilot Limo seat for her bike which came with a Blackburn EX1 rack.

Blackburn EX1 rack

I have just tried to fit this but came accross a hopefully minor problem. Her bike is a Giant Revel 3 - this has two rear dropout eyelets for the bottom part of the rack but no eyelets underneath the seat to bolt the silver rods onto. We live in Brussels and I went to a local bike shop to see if they could help, but the guy just shrugged his shoulders and said that there was no solution other than to buy another bike seat that clips onto the metal frame.

I've been reading about using p-clips instead but just read on another website that they can slip. I need too obviously find the safest solution.

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  • To be clear, how does the seat attach? Does the seat attach entirely to the rack and you're trying to find a solution for properly bolting the rack to the bike so that the child is held securely in the seat?
    – freiheit
    Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 18:44
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    P-clips shouldn't slip in this case (at least not enough to worry about). P-clips are a problem when used to anchor the bottom eyelets.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 19:30

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I've never heard of a problem with P-clips. They are the standard way to mount a rack when the bike doesn't have upper rack braze-ons.

I don't see how the P-clips can slip. The rack you're using is solid, not hinged, so if you only mounted it to the fender eyelets, it could only rotate forward/backward around that point. As soon as you locate it with P-clips as well, there's nowhere for it to slip.

It might be possible for the nuts and bolts you use to affix the P-clips to come loose. You can use nuts with nylock inserts, or just retighten them as needed.

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  • Cheers Adam, are p clips standard or do i need to try and get a specific model for my wifes bike? Also where do you get them from?? Like i say i'm a bit clueless when it comes to these things!
    – Steve
    Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 15:15
  • The P-clips do work fine, however, they do come in different sizes with some racks (e.g. Tortec in the UK) and you do want to consider putting some tape on the frame to keep the paint tidy. A good bike shop should have a drawer full of them in the workshop. Washers are handy too when fitting them.
    – ʍǝɥʇɐɯ
    Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 15:17
  • Also when you say upper rack braze-ons do you mean the eyelets...
    – Steve
    Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 15:18
  • okay, would somewhere like decathalon sell them or do i need to go somewhere more specialised? Can i do this job by myself or should i pay someone to do it?
    – Steve
    Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 15:22
  • P-clips are very common and pretty standard. I suppose that there are different sizes to accommodate different tube diameters. They're usually covered in rubbery plastic—if not, you should wrap them in something to protect the paint, as mathew says. Installation is very simple. And yes, by braze-on I mean eyelet. If your bike shop doesn't have them, ask where to get them. I've also seen them in some hardware stores.
    – Adam Rice
    Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 16:56
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[Oops -- never mind. On re-reading I see you're trying to mount a seat, not the rack. I'm not quite envisioning how the seat interferes with the rack.]

(More or less what I said before:)

The straps do not carry much weight (though more with a child seat, I guess) and only need to be anchored well enough that they won't pull loose -- the bottom eyelets carry 95% of the weight.

The straps can be bent as required (within reason) to fit.

They can be anchored to the seat post clamp or to another clamp fitted around the seat post.

If there is a central brake bolt on the bike, they can be anchored to that somehow (though a slightly different rack works better because a single strap can be mounted in the center).

P-clamps on the seat stays would also work, I suppose.

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  • I did a little looking around, and I believe the seat and rack are bought as a unit. The seat clicks into the rack somehow, and the questioner is having problems mounting the rack on a bicycle that only has eyelets near the hub not near the brakes.
    – freiheit
    Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 18:46
  • In that case, I shouldn't have deleted my post, I suppose.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 19:25

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