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Cetma recently dropped us a line to show off a new design they’ve been working on. It’s called the HALFrack and made to attach without handlebar hardware—no fittings, no “verts” and it weighs about one pound less than their previous design. Lane from Cetma says, “It’s still strong as hell, and fits almost any bike.”
There’s a “wishbone” piece that attaches at the brake mount and works in conjunction with calipers. It’s perhaps best described with photos, so see the gallery below. An optional light mount is also available.
This design looks much better than their other design. I like how the brake mount might be an extra deterrent for theiving. Now I just wish they would round the back corners like the front. Those corners hurt if you bump your knees on them.
I like it. I have a few constructive thoughts/ideas/questions:
1. Will it work with cantilever brakes (edit: nevermind, I see a photo on the cetma site) or U-brakes (looks questionable)?
2. How about some alternate mounting hardware that will mount to mid-forkleg lowrider braze-ons instead of the brake bolt. A couple of straight struts from the p-clips to the braze-ons should do nicely.
3. P-clips. Are they strong enough? (Perhaps those are used for adjustability.) Some welded tabs might be better. If I were to buy one, my first mod would be to grab the MIG welder & add those. (Thanks for using Cro-Moly!) If not welded tabs, what about using nylock nuts or lockwashers instead?
As I said this looks to be a very nice rack and my comments are offered constructively.
Love it when someone works up a solution to an obvious problem. This is a perfect solution to the old how to safely put a rack on a carbon fork issue; however, I don’t need the wide flat rack, and do need to hang panniers: they should make another with those alterations.
The solution of how to safely put a rack on a carbon fiber fork is to not do it in the first place unless it is specifically designed for it. You know, in my opinion.
This rack is pretty awesome looking, but at first glance I must say that I would miss the back “L” section of the rack that typically attaches to the bars. I find that with big and or heavy items I need to secure them to the back as well as the base of the rack to prevent them from moving around. I regularly carry big boxes of mail or magazines on the rack and need to tie them to the back section. Perhaps lashing them to the bar would work.
And the P-clips? They’re strong enough. No problems here.
CETMA has come a long way. This rack is pretty sweet. Nice work Lane!
it wouldn’t be difficult to add a decaleur for bungee attachments to this rack and still not need the handlebar mount (which was the big downfall of the original CETMA, IMHO)
My only complaint is that I already have an original version and can’t justify buying a new one since the one I have works perfectly well!
yer its nice,maybe an inch high rail going all around and higher at the back,I have always had a bad feeling about bolting anything large/possibly heavy to the main brake bolt(probly a mental thing in my head)bike racks are mostly frowned apon in my neck of the woods,I put a nice blackburn rear rack on my bike and I got called gay and its gay,take it off,imagine if I went to work wid that big sucker on the front,I just tell em to harden up and stop being jealous much