I recently tried installing a new bike rack on my commuter rig and the included hardware wasn’t long enough to reach the frame’s braze ons. I scratched my head a bit and then started digging through my random parts bin to see if anything caught my eye. I found a couple extra rack extenders that exactly matched the ones that came with the rack and thought they could work.

The problem is they are twisted at the end that attaches to the frame and when you try to bolt two sets together that bend causes problems.

So I took the extra set of extenders, clamped them to my work bench and used a set of pliers to bend them straighter. I then grabbed my hammer and banged on them a bit to flatten them out. Now I was able to use the original set of hardware, add the extra extenders and securely attach my rack to the bike.

This is one of those projects I didn’t post until I tried it out. I was afraid something would snap and my crap would hit the ground. But after several days of commuting with this setup and even hanging more weight than the rack recommends, it’s holding up nicely.