My Pugsley with two rear OMM Cold Springs racks
Fitting racks to a Surly Pugsley can be a pain. The uber wide 135mm front fork and offset drivetrain make fitting normal front and rear racks a challenge, but there are ways to get around this. I figured I’d post a few possible options in one place for easy reference.
Option 1: Old Man Mountain
- OMM racks are very versatile and great racks. These are the racks I use on most of my bikes so it’s no surprise I put them on my Pugsley.
- I used two OMM Cold Springs rear racks. I had to flip around the silver adapter parts [bottom of rack legs] and reattach them to centre the racks correctly. I also had to use a few small washers to get clearance for the lower mounting bolts.
- Have a look at the close up rack photos on my Pugsley Flickr page for mounting details as well as this post about Kurt’s upgrades to my OMM racks.
- You can also see this post about how Doug [MN Bike Commuter Blog] mounted two OMM racks to his Pugsley.
Pigeonfarmboy's Pug with a Front/Rear Surly Nice Racks Mounted.
Option 2: Front/Rear Surly Nice Racks
- check out my post on my Bow Cycle Blog discussing mounting front & rear Surly Nice racks on a Pugsley
Martin's Pug with a modified Surly Nice rear rack mounted up front.
Option 3: Two Surly Nice Rear Racks
- with a bit of modification you can mount a Surly Nice rear rack on the front of your Pug.
- this reduces weight and makes fitting on the Pugsley fork easier than a front rack.
- check out this post on my Bow Cycle blog for details.
Kurt's Pug with a Filzer Rear Rack attached.
Option 4: Filzer Disc Brake Rear Rack
- Filzer makes a rear rack that is extra wide to clear disc brakes. We picked one up at MEC and mounted it on Kurt’s Pugsley.
- It mounts up reasonably well.
- The rack is decent for a $30 unit, but the way the lower portion of the rack mounts is flawed.
- If you look at the picture below you’ll see how the rack is attached with adapters to get around the disc calipers. This weakens the rack and makes it unsuitable for carrying heavy loads on rough terrain.
- If you only need to carry lighter loads [change of clothes, lunch, etc…] on smooth roads it could be a decent solution for you.
- Kurt is removing this rack and buying two OMM Sherpa rear racks from Bow Cycle for our up coming GDR tour.
Filzer disc brake rear rack adapter.
The Lazy Rando Blog... 
Tubus Duo should work nicely on the front. There’s no connection between the two sides so the wide fork is not a factor. Unfortunately I don’t have a Pugsley or access to one to verify the details.
I put an axiom rear rack on the front of my pugsley. I had to cut the rack stays very short and used some spacer washers to clear fork parts (similar to the OMM).
The Tubus Due needs braze-ons on both sides of the fork to work. So I don’t think it will work on the Pugsley and it won’t work on a Surly Long Haul Trucker. The only bikes I’ve had that will take a Duo are my Thorns.
http://www.thetouringstore.com/TUBUS/Duo/DUO%20PAGE.htm
Tubus Duo works great on LHT, it’s what I have on mine. I am not sure if the front-fork braze-ons for the pug are the correct distance apart, however. It is a duo-style 2 piece rack on the canning stock route blog. But not a duo.
The Canning Stock Route site shows what looks like an OMM QR low rider front rack with the loop between the racks removed.
http://www.oldmanmountain.com/Pages/RackPages/FrontRacks.html
You have a Tubus Duo on your LHT? Interesting I thought only the Tara would work on the LHT. Do you have any pics of your LHT online? I’d like to see how you mounted the rack.
Thanks for the tip.
I found an online picture of my LHT: http://tinyurl.com/lovso6 it’s not zoomed in but there’s nothing special, the duo pieces bolt into the mid-fork braze-on and the eyelet at the dropout.
I hadn’t thought that Jakub’s front rack had been hacked, he calls it a CROSSO, the company that made his panniers:
http://www.wildworks.co.nz/csr/bike_ext.php
but I could believe that CROSSO hacked an OMM rack for him.
Thanks for the picture….good to know the Duo works on the LHT – that’s news to me.
The rack on Jakub’s Pug may not be an OMM rack, but it does look like one.
Not to give a whole dissertation on LHT forks, but anyway here’s a cellphone picture blown up showing the upper connection of the duo to the LHT fork:
http://tinyurl.com/mqw3pq
I just installed a Zefal “discovery” rack that was sold on Ebay by Bikewagon. It fits without modification. I had to fiddle with it a bit, like mount on the inside of the braze-on on one side and on the outside of the other, in order to compensate for the offset, but it looks like it is going to work front and back. They are very low cost, <$25. They look beefy but have no idea if they will fall apart after one ride.
Good find – send me some pics and let us know how they work out for you.
I have looked for a long time, thinking the OMM rack was too steep in price. Turns out that Topeak makes a child seat rack that’s just what the doctor ordered.
http://bettysbabystuff.com/featured/topeak-babyseat-child-bike-seat-rack-with-sliding-lock-28266
I monted this using the “upper” mounts on a 2011 Pugsley on the “inside” on the R side, and on the “outside” on the L side. On the L side I used a 1/4″ spacer, and a 30mm stainless screw. The L side is the stronger, and should be able to take the additional twisting from using a short spacer.
By cutting the rack and drilling a new hole this rack could easily be lowered an inch or more should that be desired.
Will be buying a Pugsley on Saturday… my solution to the rack issue will be to build them custom and will integrate them into the frame before I re-paint the bike.
Is there a link to the Bow Cycle Blog that gives details of the modifications to the rear rack so that it will fit on the front of a Pugsley? The link in the above article no longer works.
@Tom – Bow Cycle deleted that blog sorry. If you google it you’ll find what you are looking for.
We are in the process of designing and building custom front and rear racks for the Pugsley, this idea was spawned by my own desire to have a better set of racks for my own Pug.
The custom option should be comparable to the OMM or Surly Nice price wise and the options with a custom rack can be nearly limitless.