I bought two of these racks from REI in the late 1990’s with the idea of “bike packing” on our mountain bikes. I think we did one trip on the Monte Cristo road and it wasn’t particularly successful. The racks were big and square and seemingly indestructible – but a weld failed on one of them and I fixed it with a hose clamp. We did find them useful as a way to carry U-locks and we used the trunk bag that worked with the rack system. (I assume that the rack was made by Topeak since the attachment system works with a Topeak bag, but it may be a knock-off or some manufacturer hoping to capitalize on Topeak’s specs – there isn’t any label or brand on the rack that I can spot.) Google makes me think that this is what Topeak calls their “QuickTrack” system.
I put the broken rack on Will’s mountain bike before we gave it to Goodwill. The other one sat in the garage for years because when I wanted a rack on my mountain bike I wanted one that was as light as possible. I thought that a silver rack would look good on the Ibis and the ability to use the Topeak trunk bag was attractive – so I bought some generic struts and mounted the rack on the Ibis. I had to drill a pair of holes to put a second mounting screw in and I had to improvise a taillight mount, but overall I was pleased with the set-up and I’m confident that this rack will hold up to my kitty-litter panniers, no matter how much stuff I cram into them.
I had to change out the bolts I put into that new set of holes because the heads protruded too much and interfered with the trunk bag. ( figured that out after several episodes where we had a lot of trouble getting the bag off of the bike.) I used the dremel to grind out the middle sliders before I realized that it was the bolt-heads. I don’t like the tail-light configuration I’ve got now – clamps with a Planet Bike mount on each of the side rails. I haven’t figured out anything better, but I’m still working on it because I want to reclaim those clamps.
UPDATE June 2015 – the second rack broke at a weld, just like the first one. I fixed it with a hose-clamp, just like the first one. I’m thinking of a different plan – maybe a Nitto rack from Rivendell