Category: Hooks

Ironweeds and the VO Campeur Rack

11/3/2013

Ironweed customers 1985 Trek 720 touring bike with VO Campeur rack and a set of gray Elinors.

Last winter I started hearing from folks wondering if our panniers would fit on the Velo Orange Campeur racks. I figured they'd work fine, but I let people know that I hadn't tried this particular rack and without firsthand experience I could not make any guarantees.

After enough people asked, I figured I'd better get one of these racks and test it out with our bags. So I picked up a set of the Campeur racks (front and rear) this past spring and installed them on my Mercian touring bike.

I discovered the distance between where the lower hook and the two upper hooks attach to the rack is only 23-24cm from top to bottom I'll refer to this as the Vertical Attachment Measurement (VAM). The typical touring rack (Surly Nice Racks, Blackburn, etc) have a VAM of around 30cm.

As it turns out, the Campeur's VAM is not great enough to require any stretching of the lower hook bungee. Consequently, there's not really sufficient tension on the upper hooks. This was a pretty disappointing discovery.

My first attempt at a solution was to use zip ties to supplement the attachment of the bags and that worked okay, but made quick on-and-off of the bags impossible.
Nevertheless, I used this method during RAGBRAI 2013 with a full set of Ironweeds attached.

I was not particularly pleased with this solution and therefore, when people asked about using Ironweeds on the VO Campeur rack I would let them know the problem and dissuade them from purchasing our panniers - something I don't really like doing!

After RAGBRAI, an Ironweed customer sent us a picture of her Rivendell with a rear Campeur and Ironweeds, I asked about the method for attachment. Their solution was to shorten the lower long hooks. I thought this was a pretty simple and clever remedy. So, when the next customer that asked about fitting our bags to a Campeur, I offered to shorten a couple of hooks for them. Meanwhile, I shortened some hooks the panniers on my Mercian.

We've all been pleased with this fix. So if you're looking for some handsome bags to go with your gorgeous VO Campeur racks, we can help you out. Just let us know what you need and we'll shorten some hooks at no charge. You can purchase an additional set of the longer hooks just in case you want to use the panniers on a different rack with a longer VAM. The extra hooks are available for $2.50 per hook.

Another Ironweed customer with Rivendell Sam Hillborne fitted with VO Campeur rack and dueling toptubes!

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Product News

10/26/2013

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Couple of things to note related to Ironweed products. First off, all panniers now come with superfine rubber-coated hooks! If you read this blog occasionally, you will remember that we were able to retrofit the hooks with repurposed bike tubes. If you are an Ironweed customer and would like some rubber bits to cover your hooks, just drop us an email and we’ll send them to you at no charge!

In other news, we are now offering Velo Orange front racks and decaleurs for people purchasing our Orpington randonneur bag. We thought it would be nice if customers could get everything they needed to properly affix their Orpington right in our webstore. Also, we now offer shoulder straps. They come with the Orpington, but are available for purchase separately in our webstore for $9.

Unfortunately, we are out of olive and blue Elinor bags. The rivet machine bit the big bodine, so we’ve got blues ready but we cannot attach the hardware for the shockcord. We still have a couple of shop orders that are going out next week. If you are from one of those shops, don’t fret, we’ve got your order covered.

Rubberized and retrofitted hooks on my old camping bags

Velo Orange products now available in our webstore!

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Reuse, Recycle, and Rubberize!

8/18/2013

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We receive quite a bit of email - most of it from happy customers, thankfully. Some of it comes from people asking us when we’re going to start making a [fill-in-the-type-bag-you-want-that-we’re-currently-not-making :-) ]. And we also get suggestions.

This morning I opened the Ironweed email and there was a note from Johan Brox. Johan works at Dapper, a very nice bike shop in Oslo, Norway. He’s an Ironweed fan and Dapper is an Ironweed dealer. He emailed us to let us know that Dapper was sold out of our bags. He also made a suggestion. His suggestion was to cover the upper hooks with rubber to protect racks, especially those with some type of finish. Bottom-line, Johan is a guy that knows his way around bikes and bike gear. So when he makes a suggestion, we listen closely.

Now I’ve heard this suggestion a few times before and I completely agree. However, there’s a reason we didn’t rubberize our hooks. It may not be a great reason, but there is a reason. Before we started making bags, we made a commitment to keep the price as affordable as possible. To do that we gave up a few upgrades. (You might be surprised to know how much of the cost of our panniers come from the hardware.) Anyway, we decided not to rubberize the hooks.

Fortunately, there is a simple and extremely low-cost fix for this issue. It even makes use of those pesky ruined inner tubes that many of us have sought alternative uses for. Start with the narrowest of tubes – the 18mm-23mm tubes are probably the best. Then cut the tube into bands that are about 4 cm or 1-5/8”. Then just slide the pieces of tube onto the hooks and voila! It works so well that we might start sliding bands onto our hooks before we ship them out to customers.

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The Book on the Hooks

10/28/2012

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Ironweed hooks fit perfectly on the 13mm tubing of the lovely Bobbin Birdie

Someone contacted me recently from Holland about using Ironweeds on the rear carrier of their Dutch bicycle. They were concerned the tubing on the carrier would be too large to accommodate the Ironweed top hooks.

I knew our hooks fit on the Pashley Roadster racks because customers have sent me photos. Today I borrowed a beautiful Bobbin Birdie from the Bike Library Director and they fit perfectly. However, the tubing on the Pashley and the Bobbin, while fat, is 13mm. That's 3mm thinner than the really fat Dutch racks that are 16mm. So I dug up a 16mm tube rack to test out the hooks.

I found the hooks did, in fact, go onto the super-fatty tube carrier. The hooks work because the opening is wider than the top of the arch. At the top of the hook arch the inner diameter is about 14mm. So the hooks drop onto the fatter rack just fine but there is a small gap between the carrier and the top of the hook. So I guess the take away here is that, yes, Ironweeds will work on fat tube Dutch racks.

Our hooks resting on a super-fat 16mm tube Dutch-style rear carrier

Thanks Audrey for letting me use your Bobbin!

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Big Feet, Small Bags, and Long Racks!

3/31/2012

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One of the annoying things about putting panniers on your bike is that sometimes, particularly if you have big feet, big panniers and short chainstays, your heel may touch, or strike, the pannier as your foot rotates on the pedal stroke. Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate this annoyance and I’ve compiled a few observations that might help you avoid the strike.

Simple Fix
I’ll start with a very simple solution. Move your foot forward on the pedal. This, of course, only works if the strike is not too severe and if you’re not using toeclips or clipless pedals; in which case you don’t have the option of moving your foot forward on the pedal. Or, if you’re like me, there is a sweet spot in the foot/pedal connection and you’re not going to be comfortable moving your foot too far off of that position.

Pannier Size
Of course the size and shape of the bag is a factor in heel strike. It’s the reason that we made the Elinor a wedge shape. Panniers like the Gilles Berthoud 799, in addition to being a beautiful bag, offer good clearance by virtue of their diminutive size. I don’t think much more needs to be said on the matter.

Racks
Another solution is moving the bag back away from the rider. There are two factors (maybe more, I can only think of two right now) that come into play here. First is the set back of your rack. The longer the rack or more setback it has, the farther you can move the panniers away from rider toward the aft of the bicycle. Many newer racks have a longer top surface area and allow you more pannier placement options. By contrast, the constructeur type racks come straight up vertically off the rear axle and have a small top surface area.

Hooks and Straps
The other factor is the placement of the hooks or straps. Hooks and straps that are placed closer together on the bag or are adjustable like Rixen and Kaul, will generally permit the rider more placement options. Our pannier hooks are not adjustable but are placed close enough together to both fit on the small surface area of a VO constructeur rack and allow the rider to move the bag quite far on a rack with a more substantial setback.