Thule Pack n Pedal Tour Rack
I spotted my friend with the Thule Pack n Pedal Tour Rack, and he kindly lent it to me to test the fitting on my Silvio. I thought this would be useful for the Cruzbike community.
In summary, the Thule Rack would work with a minor cutting modification to make the deck smaller.
Not obvious in the the Thule product photos online, but the Thule Pack n Pedal rack is VERY adjustable. It comes with struts of three different lengths and the clamp point can slide up and down. This means the angle is infinitely adjustable so you can get the deck perfectly flat. It can certainly accommodate the angle of the Silvio 2 stays. Here you can see me holding the rack in the approximate position it would be mounted with the deck horizontal. Due to Silvio's disc brake mounts, the Thule rack would have to be positioned above them, thus higher and closer to the frame. Due to these factors, you can't mount the rack out of the box because the deck would hit the frame around where the titanium leaf bolts to the frame. Note I am NOT holding it directly over the rear wheel because I would not be able to position in horizontally to show you what it would look like.
In this next side picture you can see clearly that a few cm of interference is present. The difficulty with Silvio 2 is not the angle of the stays (the Thule can accommodate this) but how low and close the frame is to the rear wheel. You can see in the side picture, that it would require some modification, then the rear 2/3 of the deck would be usable. My Crud RoadRacer II fenders do not get in the way and could remain. My underseat water bottle mounts would not be able to be used. It would be either my large Topeak saddle bag OR another back on the rack if the rack were to be installed.
So what modifications would be required? I think trimming the plastic deck would do. Remember, I borrowed this rack just to test for curiosity and report to you folks. I have not done this myself. If I did modify the rack I would probably cut it like this:
The rear 2/3 of the deck would then be usable, and panniers could be hung from the rails. I would probably slide those rails back a few cm so there is more clearance. Note that Thule also sells rails with the side bars to prevent panniers from hitting the wheel. This looks nice, but you could probably achieve the a similar function with some strong bungee cords, and may not even need it depending on how stiff your panniers are.
Also note that the width of the clamping points are for the rear stays of bike, assuming hub widths of 130-135mm, so for our Silvio one would have to squeeze the frame a little. Not a problem, but taking it on and off would be a little fiddly. If I really needed a rack now for existing panniers and a small bag on top, I think this would work nicely - plus it can be removed and used on other bikes. However, if I were buying bags from scratch I think seat mounted bags/panniers would eliminate the need for a rack altogether if your loads were not large.
Thus, I think Cruzbike's previously discussed official Silvio rack is still needed for moderate to large loads. Something hung from the frame in place of the stock headrest would be interchangeable and a great accessory. Images above can be opened in a new window to view higher resolution. Hope this helpful!
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Ortlieb : 
