Back in 2012 (whoa, that long ago?), I posted about a
front rack I built for my Fargo. When the Trek 1120 came out I was surprised at the similarity between its front rack and mine.
Coincidentally, I'd also been working off-and-on on a similar way to mount dry bags to the sides of a rear rack, as the 1120 does. After lots of thought and some trial and error, here's what I've come up with.
Generic rear rack, to which I added brackets out of 1" x 1/8" thick aluminum bar; p-clamped to the rack struts.
Initially, I cut reliefs in the edge of the aluminum bar to keep the straps in place, but later cut slots in the bar - now the straps won't slide off no matter what.
This worked OK, but strapping a dry bag tight would push the bag between the struts, too close to the tire for comfort.
So I scavenged some coroplast signs (picking one with an agreeable color and text), cut to shape, and zip-tied to the rack.
This works great - push-through virtually eliminated.
And plenty of heel clearance.
I use a Revelate seatbag for more technical/singletrack bikepacking, but this setup allows me to haul more stuff (and keep it off my back) for gravel, longer trips, etc.
(Lens distortion makes the bag look enormous in this pic; it's really not as big as it appears)
