BIRIABike Rear Rack, Aluminum 3 Leg Rear Bike Rack with Spring,Black, Reflector Included

This inexpensive, well built rear rack is listed on Steven Scharf's rear rack page and has many features of the better racks found there: three-strut construction, long horizontal dogleg, welded and recessed reflector/taillight mount, even pegs for a frame pump (tips 232mm apart). It has a Pletscher-style mousetrap hold-down that is easily removed if you have no use for it.Mounting flexibility is where it loses stars. The photo shows that this rack's seatstay braces are made from round tube, just as in the better racks on Scharf's list. But on those other racks, the round-tube braces mount in clamps that give four-way adjustment: reach, drop, width, and seatstay angle. On this rack, they don't--a point that Scharf missed when he reviewed the rack from a photo.On this rack, the braces are just flattened and drilled at both ends, and can bolt to the rack in your choice of 5 positions fore-and-aft, which gives you some adjustment for reach and drop (but not independently), and nothing for width or stay angle.The lower mounts at the dropouts are height-adjustable, but only in 3 fixed positions marked 24", 26", and 28", referring apparently to nominal tire diameter. The 2 inch diameter increments should make the height marks 1 inch apart, but they're really 3/4 inch apart. It doesn't make sense, so just pick what fits. :)The lower mounts come straight vertically down. If you have, say, an aluminum frame with fat seatstays that end at skinny dropouts, this rack won't work and you will need a rack whose lower mounts come in at an angle from the rear. You could spread this rack and mount it with thick spacers, or fabricate new lower mounts, but you'd have to refigure the load capacity and, really, there are other racks that will work without mods.This is a great rack at a great price if you have a steel frame with tapered seatstays and all the dimensions happen to match the available choices. If not, another rack may work better. These measurements should help you decide before you buy. They're all taken by me, by hand, don't sue me if they're not exact:Vertical, dropout hole center to underside of platform: 348mm (24" position), 369mm (26" position), 389mm (28" position).Horizontal, front of platform to projected dropout hole center: 194mmFront of platform to seatstay brace hole centers: 12mm, 32mm, 47mm, 62mm, 77mm (yes, the first jump is bigger)Seatstay brace length: 165mm (the braces are bent, but this is the straight-line length between hole centers).Platform length overall, while we're at it: 375mm

Was quite disappointed when the product I received was not the one in the main photo. It turns out that that photo is a customer-submitted image and is not the Bira bike rack being sold here.The top is flat--it lacks the curved cross braces and the upturned tail seen in the photo. Also, the included reflector is rather more mundane looking than the snazzy two-color one shown. The loop at the front is also much smaller than shown--too small for the strap buckle on my panniers to fit through, so I cannot attach them properly. Furthermore, the brackets for the strut extensions are much shorter, and the extension bars are held to the rack by only one bolt each instead of two.The item I received mostly matches the one in the images of the bike with the gray fenders (er, grey mudguards, for those outside of the US), except the seat stays on mine are nickleplated, not black powdercoated.Installation was a bit rough. It didn't seem to have enough hardware to hold itself together, much less install onto my bike. None of the included screws even fit the mount holes on my 1990s Trek mountain bike. So it was a trip to the hardware store to find the correct stainless steel hex-key bolts. And then another trip when the ones I first got were too long.The rack width at the hub was too narrow, but that was pretty easily fixed by putting slight double bends in each of the strut extensions. (I should have done it in a bench vise, but hammering them over the corner of a concrete block did the trick anyway.) I then had to flatten the retention dimples slightly in order to slide them back into the bracket channels, but that should not present any structural issues.I imagine that not many people will find the frame pump mounts useful, as I haven't noticed anyone even selling that style of pump in maybe 20 years. I might just cut them off so they don't keep snagging on things.The rack seems pretty sturdy. I have been using it for over a month and nothing on it has broken or shaken loose yet.

Once I finally got this installed, it has been great! Unfortunately my Schwinn Cruiser seems to be built a little differently than other people who have reviewed the item, because it took me 5 days (I never had too much time at once to spend on installing this item) and 3 trips to the hardware store, and about $15 extra dollars to install this item. Perhaps if I had been more handy in general I would have figured it out quicker, and maybe already had the necessary tools, but I'm not and I didn't. I had to get screws, nuts, washers, and wrenches in order to install it. Not all of the included screws did not seem to work for me. I was very surprised that an allen wrench was not even included. I would prefer the seller raise the price a little and include the allen wrench. I think the directions could have been a bit more clear as well. Perhaps the directions could have included what size wrenches I would need. I finally figured it out though, and it has worked quite well. Perhaps the best purchase I have made for my bicycle thus far (other than the lights/reflectors.)