Topeak QR Beam Rack EX - Quick Release Bike Rack for Mountain & Road Bicycles - Perfect for Commuting, Touring & Outdoor Adventures

Works fine until the wind blows your bike over and the plastic bag holder snaps off.This is my second Beam Rack. The first one had a catastrophic failure due to metal fatigue on the screw of the clamp. Why is this dummy giving 5 stars? The original lasted longer than the first bike to which is was attached (over 5 years and thousands of rough commuting miles). I was happy enough with the product that I gladly repurchased it. Maybe it's the mechanical engineer in me, but material fatigue happens. Take that paper clip and bend it back and forth a bunch of times and the metal fails. Well, thousands of miles of bumps and cracks and curbs are like doing the same thing to the rack. And truth be told, I probably well-exceeded the rack's weight limit many more times than not.This particular purchase does NOT include the bag, but when paired with the bag, the combo is nearly unbeatable. The is a small drawer embedded in the rack that fits a few allen wrenches, a spare tube, a couple of dollars, etc. which I find very useful. The easy on/off design of the rack is good for when my bike doubles as a training machine instead of my preferred transportation. The ease of sliding the bag on/off this rack allows me to secure or detach the bag in about 2 seconds.This rack was good enough that I happily bought it not once, but twice.I am not a hard core mountain biker, but I like to get out every once in a while and hit the trails. I use my bike more to get a little excersize by riding into work a few times a week. This rack is perfect for that kind of thing. I can strap on a little bag with my laptop and bike lock in it. The included bungee isn't enough to hold it, but with another small bungee it can be secured pretty well. The rack attaches very well, and there is no wobble or slipage on my seat post. It fit my seat post without one of the shims though, so I don't know if that makes a difference. The shims are basically a thin piece of rubber in case the seat post is too small, and they seem like they would not cause any issues when I inspected them. I am going to buy the laptop bag by topeak at some point as well, as then it won't require any bungee at all, but the bag is still about $90, so that will wait for a bit.All in all, a great rack for a small load, which you can remove in about 5 seconds when you don't want it. And a great price too.I was a little disappointed when it arrived as they forgot to include the seat post shims that were supposed to be "included". My seat post is 1cm smaller than the rack attachment, so there is lots of play and I cannot get a tight fit to the post as-is. I reached out to Topeak support provider "Todson" and they will send me the shim kit at no charge. Anyway it looks reasonably strong and matches well with the slide-on Topeak bag. The plastic tray may not survive a hard fall, but at that price point one should not expect more. I would say that this is more of a "light use" item and not meant for charging down mountainous / rocky trails on a regular basis.I searched all over looking for a good but cheap rack, you cannot beat this product for the price and how well it's built. It has a little hidden tray for a wallet or something, comes with reflector and you can remove it and it's ready to recieve blinking lights,clip ons. Perfect for running to the store, comes with two adjustable rubber straps. Had it on in minutes, comes with different size rubber shims to fit seat post size if you need them and best of all it doubles as a fender and keeps the water from shooting on me. I have 26 inch wheels and I finished it off by getting the little extended fender that Topeak makes for it. (MTX DeFender Bicycle Fender-$5.00) The threaded holes are already in the rack and with the 2 screws that came with the fender, had it on. It sticks out past the rack another 5 inches and total length, Rack and fender from the center of the seat post is 23 1/4 inches. I am very happy with it and it really looks good.When I first installed the rack on my seat post, the inside of my left thigh would rub against the clamp latch pretty frequently. Fortunately I was able to mount the rack on the bike frame instead. It BARELY fit in the open space between the seat and the tire, but now that it's in place it's perfect for me. If you're going to mount it on a seat post it will help to have more than 6 inches available below the seat.*** Update - I mounted a tail light on the "secret drawer" and on almost every ride the drawer comes open (slightly). There is an elastic band that keeps the drawer from opening all the way, but I would be very hesitant about keeping anything valuable in the drawer.I love the concept of this bike rack since it allows one click fastening of Topeak bike bags. However, the plastic bar that the bag clicks onto broke after a couple months of regular use. Customer service sent me the replacement plastic piece immediately. The other racks in collection have metal fastening bars that will not crack like my plastic one did. They are more expensive, but you don't to risk failure of the part of the rack keeps your valuables from spilling on the road, don't buy this rack.Note: The plastic bar did break while installing the bag, not riding. But I don't want to have to worry about it breaking while riding on rough terrain. Normally, I would not buy any bar rack, but had no choice since I have rear suspension.Topeak makes great racks. This is not one of them.I have a Topeak Explorer rack on my road bike, but decided to get a detachable rack in case the bike was in the shop and I needed to travel on my single speed. With the included shims, this rack fits the seatpost on my Schwinn Racer just fine, snug and secure. The best part? My MTX bag works just fine on both racks, which is a real time-saver for commuting/hauling. I would definitely not recommend weighting this puppy down with a full week's worth of groceries or anything (make note of the plastic beam that catches on the quick release system, as a previous review did), but I'm sure for a few goods and some basic tools and necessities this rack will do just fine. I'm very satisfied with this purchase; hopefully I'll travel with it a bit for an update soon.Muy bien... aunque caro. Me interesaba para una aplicacion muy concreta en mi bici. Y acabo sorprendiendome muy gratamente por sus materiales, su cuidado diseño y su buena factura. Recomendable. Es importante elegir bien el tipo (hay tres)Einfache und schnelle Montage. Meine Frau war begeistert, als sie sah, dass keine zusätzlichen Halterungen nötig sind.Bleibt noch zu sehen wie es sich in Extremsituationen verhält, d.h. bei grösseren Gewichten und zackigen Richtungsänderungen.Ich verwende den Träger in Kombination mit der Topeak MTX Trunkbag. Die Montage ist spielend leicht und die Verarbeitung sehr hochwertig.Das kleine Fach hinten unter dem Träger ist perfekt für Werkzeug oder andere Kleinigkeiten...den zügig gelieferten gepäckträger kann ich leider nicht an meinem mtb'bike montieren weil die eigentlich dazu gehörigen distanzgummis nicht mitgeliefert wurden,ansonsten tolle optik+funktion,vielleicht findet sich noch eine lösung?daher ,nur' 4 sterneReally this product should be minus one star rating, but Amazon in its zeal for making money won't give us this option and I've spent thousands with/through them over many years.Great looking product. All the figures available via Topeak site. Weight of carrier and most importantly maximum load. Good price superficially as well.Not as easy to fit as they suggest with rubber grommets; not on my bike anyway. Looks "cool" too.The problem started (and ended) when I bought the Topeak bag Topeak MTX EX - Trunk bag (Black / Grey/6.6 Litres). This is nearly twice the price of the rack. Specification etc also available in the Topeak web site.It very sensibly slides on the rack but then lock on to the end bar which on this cheaper rack is the lowest quality plastic I've come across and certainly not man enough job.The horrible plastic bar broke whilst carrying approx one third of the supposed load weight and I had to carry by the handle as best as I could.Not just a pain but dangerous too. Also the bag itself was damaged in the fall for which nobody we recompense me.For another £10 or so I think I could have bought more or less the same rack but with a alloy bar.What I do I've yet to work out but a very very strongly recommend you don't make the same stupid mistake for the sake of a few quid.