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the rack that jack built

jack the rack

as the tour continues on its squiffy and crash-laden route to paris, it's perhaps worthy of a timely reminder that bicycles were not originally built for sporting purposes. it has been said that any human endeavour featuring one or more wheels is bound to be raced at some point in its career, but there will be oh, so many more which never achieve escape velocity, but occupy that arguably more humdrum existence of moving people from a to be and back again. this can be as simple as yours truly riding from bowmore to bruichladdich every second friday to deliver a box of newspapers, to the more intrepid individuals who laugh in the face of danger and pack their velocipedes with literally everything apart from the kitchen sink, before traipsing off across the world, simply for the hell of it.

jack the rack

and so much more prevalent have long-distance, self-supporting events become, allied to those who take time out from mundane life to travel the world, and those who believe the websites and purchase bicycles that pretend to do likewise, that where such demand exists, there will be manufacturers keen to service that demand. thus, in recent years, there has been a notable upsurge in all shapes and sizes of bikebags, eager and willing to be festooned about the personage of the average and not so average, gravel bike. i don't doubt that there are still many ingrained in the world of cotton-duck, for whom low-rider racks and panniers are the centre of their very existence, but trendsetters and their acolytes apparently have alternative and perfectly valid solutions to pursue.

jack the rack

but suppose the machinery in the bike shed is capable of travelling further than debbie's café, but lacks the necessary braze-ons and wherewithal to even bikepack to ardbeg distillery? if the spirit is willing, would not it be of some succour to the thus disadvantaged to participate when the desire takes hold? i cannot deny that, similar to occasional desires to own a wholly unnecessary and overly-complex digital slr camera, i have no real need of bikepacking accessories. yet, i may have, squished into forgotten nooks and crannies, some form of luggage-related capacity that would allow even the briefest of cargo-carrying jaunts. the spirit is willing, but the racks are missing.

jack the rack

and even if the racks were not missing, how to fit them to a road bike with fag-packet clearance under the fork crown and nothing about its seatsatys that would appear to welcome boltage? and that is precisely where jack comes into the picture. why the name jack, i couldn't possibly relate, for information about jack's existence appeared from miles and luke. but jack is essentially a front rack that affixes to the front of your bicycle a la porteur style, offering a tested 5kg of carriage, without so much as need for bolts or brazing.

jack the rack

according to miles gibbons, "JACK's a product that we're putting up on Kickstarter this summer. The general idea is to start creating a set of products that add utility to any bike (old or new, big or small) without the need for any technical help or experience. Democratising the bicycle even more, with fewer stupid standards and 'over-integration'."

admirable intentions indeed, but just exactly how does jack work? "JACK fits to your bike by effectively hooking over the handlebars, either side of the stem where it clamps to your handlebar. A load bearing strap fits to JACK just behind your handlebar, routes under your stem, then hooks back onto JACK. A retaining strap then fits from JACK to your steerer tube. There are two versions of spacers to make sure you have a protective and correctly sized interface between JACK and your handlebar. There are three versions of the Load strap sized to different types of stems and stem angles.
"Damn easy."

jack the rack

as miles alluded to above, jack will be the subject of a kickstarter campaign in august of this year, with first deliveries expected towards the end of the year, just when you'll be planning your next major expedition. however, word is that jack will head to production whether the kickstarter campaign is successful or not.

i think it highly unlikely you'll see even lachlan morton with one of these attached to his cannondale at next year's tour down under, but with more and more machinery depending on compatible products, it's nice to see a bit of velocipedinal enterprise that appears to demonstrate no particular favouritism. take a tour over to the website (link below) and sign up to hear when the kickstarter campaign goes live around mid-august.

jack the bike rack

wednesday 30 june 2021

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................