TopeakExplorer Rack

Great product. Got a chance the first day receiving it to use it. They sent the wrong shoes and I had to take them back to ups. Not having a car toting around a large boxes difficult, but not with this spring! Would buy again 500 times.

I needed to find a good rack to place on a new bike. I have previous experience with this brand for one so I liked this aspect. Also, I really like the use of the rear rack mount that has the basket that locks in place. Also, I liked the look and design of this rack.1. What's in the box? : You receive the rack assembled, plus two brackets and the necessary screws, washers and bolts.2. Installation?: This was a fairly easy install. The information says it must be installed on a bike with the necessary points on the frame and that is technically true, except that most bikes don't have these and you can STILL use this rack. I did have the holes on the read part of the frame and the screws worked correctly. However, without the bracketed stays, the rack isn't going to easily stay in place.I needed up seeing other reviews here and someone mentioned a rubber coated "p-clamp". I found one (and these are under 2 dollars at Home Depot or Lowes) and used this on the seat-post. Doing this made installing the brackets really easy to work.Use?: Once the rack was securely in place, I have tried this out and the rack works well. The large rear basket fits perfectly and securely (and there is no rattling around either).Overall?: This is a nicely done rack, with some modification being needed if your bike doesn't have the holes for the brackets, an extra part may be needed (why the manufacturer doesn't include such a part already is beyond me) but don't despair, this will work and work well.

Use it for overnight bike trips. The cost was a lot cheaper than other brands and the product was just as good a quality.

I love these racks and have three. They are sturdy, and the accessories are great. I love being able to just slide off my bag after a commute and walk to the office. My only complaint is that of all three of my bikes every one of them has required the separate longer arm extension kit. This should just be included, but I guess they make more money off selling it separate. It is disappointing when your rack arrives and then you have to order another part to install it. Even with the extension kit one of the bikes, when using the basket, hits your rear when installed - the extension isn't even long enough. Blame giant if you want, but they need more options and to include the longer arms by default. Other than that it has lasted probably 10 years with no issues and I like that I can easily swap between my wife's, kids, etc bike the accessories.

Everything about this is both easy and obvious. It even comes with adapters for various tail light options. They have thought of everything! Well almost everything. My Kent Trouvaille does not have the mounting bolts for the front arms to be installed but I knew that before I ordered -- that too was obvious. I ordered an adapter which worked very well without any issues. The various options in the order process were clear. In my case, I needed the 29er size and disc brakes. It's unclear whether or not I needed the disc brakes version on my bike but it installed perfectly just the same. They could have made a single version with extensions but that would have been less SOLID. So I'm glad they have various sizes and fits. A great decision on their part even if it costs more to manufacture various versions. Clearly they care about quality over cost of manufacture. This is my second Topeak rack. The first was a soft tail mount rack is it too was well designed and easy to install.

One-Sentence Summary: This bicycle fit my large (18") hybrid bicycle with some adjusting and works well, but the  Axiom Journey Adjustable Cycle Rack, Black  rack I installed on a friend's bicycle offers much better hardware and finish for comparable price.I purchased this cargo rack for my  Schwinn Men's Network 3.0 700C Hybrid Bicycle, White, 18-Inch , and use it to carry my briefcase around a university campus. The rack has served this purpose adequately and I am satisfied in general. However, the rack fit my large (18") bicycle frame rather poorly. The mounting bracket arms provided to attach the front of the rack (side nearest seat) to the threaded holes on the frame's seat stays were slightly too short. Using a shop vise and channellock pliers it took around 45 minutes to bend them to a suitable shape, and they only reached the first of two sets of holes on the rack. Slightly longer mounting bracket arms, which are available separately at an extra cost, would have made this process much faster and easier. Furthermore, this rack, like most, requires that your frame have threaded holes on the seat post or chain stay to accommodate the brackets. Many lower end and midrange bicycles lack these holes, and I would not recommend a novice drill and tap holes into their frame. Beside this, the rack came with all hardware necessary for installation, including for mounting a rear light to the rack. Instructions included large figures and were easy to follow.The finish on this rack appears to be a durable epoxy-based black paint. Through six months of use largely on paved streets, the finish has held up well, and shows fewer scratches and nicks than the paint on my bicycle frame. In my use I have carried loads of up to 25 pounds on the rack without issues, and it inspires confidence for most routine tasks. Square or rectangular items or boxes fit easiest on the rack, and I haven't had issues with things falling off. I have not had occasion to use the proprietary MTX panniers and bags, but the rack offers plenty of points to attach bungee cords or other similar tiedowns. With that said, you will need to have either a pannier or tiedown cord to use this rack. The advertised "spring" mechanism is present, but does not appear to be very useful in holding anything down without the proprietary MTX accessories.Although I am satisfied with this rack, I would not recommend it or purchase again. A friend of mine purchased an  Axiom Journey Adjustable Cycle Rack, Black  rack that had roughly the same price but was much nicer. The Axiom rack has unique "versalock" mounting brackets for attaching to the seat stay. These would have eliminated the issues I had installing the Topeak rack, and are much easier to adjust and tighten than the ones that came with this rack. The Axiom rack also appears to be made of a thicker aluminum tubing, but is lighter. It also looks like it has a powder-coated finished, in lieu of the epoxy paint on this one, and has better-quality welds. Overall, I feel that for the nominal price difference the Axiom is a better rack.

Very good rack, suits my needs very nicely. The arrangement of the struts make it easy to fit my bags onto it.It would have been easy to fit had I red the product details and noticed it was designed for bikes with pre drilled pannier holes. Mine does not have this luxury. Instead I reused the P-Clamps from my old broken pannier and spent 2 hours trying to fit them to the pannier, didn't work. Next I bought some new, cheap, P-Clamps and that worked very nicely in 10 minutes of work.

I bought this so i could commute more on my bike. It fits my specialised crosstrail with discs very well. You may need to think a little carefully about fitting as a bit of imagination is required to get things lined up and straight as all bikes are different but i had no real problems. It gave me an excuse to potter in the garage for 30 minutes. In use the rack is really sturdy and i also bought this companies bag to slide and lock onto the top rail. This is really simple and has enhanced my ride to work ask I don't arrive with a rucksack induced sweat. several months of use and its held up really well. I also find the rear light fitting on the back good although I suspect it may not take every light especially older ones. On balance, great rack and would buy again.

This is a good sturdy rack but where it attaches to the screw holes at the dropouts, it is a big square block. Had to trim a bit off of it on both sides with a dermal as it was catching on the bottom of the seat stats at both sides. If Topeak made this mount a bit smaller and round, they wouldn’t have this problem.

Great rack

Fitted to a Cube Attention 29er. Easy job to fit, all bits there to complete job. Does the job, and my Ortleibs fit on it a treat, as does my Topeak rack pannier.