Tubus Vega Rack

This Tubus Vega Rack is a very sleek and stylish rack, but tourists and audaxers will probably want to look elsewhere.

Tubus describe this as a "low-profile carrier" for "daily use & weekend trips" which sounds about right to me. It still has a healthy 25kg load limit but the load deck is too narrow to be much use, tapering from 9.9cm down to 8.6cm. It's just not wide enough for rack-packs to perch comfortably, especially those with soft undersides, and there are no obvious hooking points for bungee cords or cargo nets.

Tubus make plenty of bigger, wider, more practical racks, so I won't be too harsh. You just need to decide what you want from your rack before you buy and if all you want is a pannier hanger, it's just fine. After all, not everyone wants a rack that looks like the back end of their bike is being mounted by some randy scaffolding.

Fitting is very simple, with two arms that can be adjusted to suit and locked in position with allen bolts under the deck. They are tubular though, which means you can't bend them around awkwardly located bits of frame furniture.

Fitting the rack to the Surly Disc Trucker that I tested recently was no problem, but my old GT has braze-ons positioned in such a way that rack struts tend to foul on the rear brake. I managed to find a way round this by shimming out the strut with a fat washer (actually one of those noggins that go round the bottom of a tyre valve) but if you have to resort to this, make sure there is enough bolt actually inside the braze-on because you don't want 25kg of load supported by just a few delicate threads.

The rack has a rear plate to which you can attach a light bracket, a welcome touch, and there is a bewildering plethora of accessories available, including disc brake adapter kits and pump holders etc. Helpfully Tubus also supply 'bended' struts (they have a kink at the end) which might just about clear my brake arm.

Build quality is good, although the bolts have the type of domed top that often indicates that they are made of cheese. One of them has already started to round off, so be careful or dig some sturdier bolts out of your parts box. Hundreds of miles with a pannier on board has also rubbed the paint through, but that's my fault for not applying liberal quantities of electrical tape beforehand.

Within its limitations this is a nice rack to use and certainly looks smart, but the RRP is £75 and even at a reduced online price of £60 it's still pretty expensive. As a comparison, Tortec's very similar Ultralite rack will set you back a mere £27, and that's at full retail.

Verdict

Nice rack within its limits, but very expensive.