Ugh: my rear rack has broken, just above the bolt that attaches it to the bike frame
My trip may have just ended and I might be stuck here? I dig into my bag of bolts to see if there's any way I might be able to make the bike ridable. The weight of my saddlebags is bending the broken rack inward such that it rubs heavily against the rear wheel.
I can't complain about the rack itself and I actually give it applause despite my breakdown here. I've abused this tough Old Man Mountain rack by carrying much more than the recommended weight on rough roads over hundreds and hundreds of miles and it still stood up beautifully (until now).
To my surprise, the great folks at Old Man Mountain bicycle racks replaced my broken rack after the trip even though the damage was my fault from non-stop overloading.
A year ago, while heading up bumpy Gold Valley Road in Death Valley National Park, similarly overloaded with extra water for an overnight stay, the bolt holding the rack to the bike snapped in two, but the rack itself survived fine.
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