Hi, thought this would be of interest to the group. I have a Nitto mini front on my Sam, and had a Nitto Big Back for a while, which I just replaced with the Vega (in silver, ordered from Germany).
Reasons for replacing the Nitto rear: 1. My Bombadil-riding friend coveted it. ;) 2. Overbuilt for my purposes. 3. The front stop on the rack interfered with my saddlebag (banana style), and didn't allow me to carry my Manduka yoga mat longitudinally (I tried once, but the rear overhang was too great). 4. I got the size L, but think the M would fit the 56cm Sam better (the L sits too far back), and all my other bikes would only fit the M. May get an M in the future for my Ibis tandem. Still the most gorgeous rack out there. Btw, the Riv site says M for up to frame size 54, but the drop down selector says up to 56.999. I would say the drop down is more accurate. Go for the bigger rack if you want it farther back, the small one if you want it closer to you. Reasons for settling on the Vega: 1. I wanted a light-weight, silver rack with a flat top that can take panniers on occasion. First impressions (photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/25150...@n08/5185320523/): 1. Well-made rack, very complete set of bolts, etc., and great instructions (it's a German company, after all). 2. Silver paint not nearly as jewel-like as Nitto nickel, but much better than I was lead to believe by statements explaining why the silver isn't available in the States. Time will tell how it holds up. 3. Tubes much bigger in diameter than Nitto. Makes for a less elegant look, but should be very rigid. Tube walls are surprisingly thin. 4. Distance between drop-out mounts 165mm! I don't know if they think that Santana tandem owners make up the bulk of their customers (Santanas DO have 160mm rear hubs), but that's ridiculous. The rack came with spacers, and a warning not to bend the stays more than 15mm. I sighed and installed the spacers (see photos). Actually the spacers match the plastic stay clips of my Berthoud fenders well, so aesthetically this is fine, but I assume the spacing reduces the actual max payload, and it just seems like poor engineering. Or perhaps the extra triangulation outweighs the disadvantages of the longer bolts? Any opinions? 5. The top of the rack is quite narrow. I knew this, but was still a bit surprised. Not ideal for carrying 3 yoga mats sideways (I am a yoga teacher and bike-commute to private classes, so I need to bring mats for my students). 6. The seatstay connector attachments don't allow much outward rotation. I could just barely connect to the outer brazeons on the seatstays. No biggy, could have bent the rack stays but was too lazy. 7. The cutouts for lower pannier attachment hooks could be bigger, but at least they are there (the older version didn't have them). Also has attachments for fender stays, which is nice. All in all am very pleased with the purchase. Not a Nitto, but a good alternative between the Nitto R14 and the Nitto Big Back. Cheers, Gernot -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
