Removing rear rack from Street Machine Gte

Recently, a fellow posted a question to the HP Velotechnik message board on Yahoo.

- Removing rear rack from Street Machine Gte
- Tue Oct 8, 2013 4:29 am (PDT) . Posted by: "L C____"
- I would like to remove the rear rack from my recently acquired Street
- Machine and I notice that 2 of the mounting bolts appear to go right into
- the pivot point of the rear suspension.
- Is there a special trick to doing this?
- TIA.
- L___

You can just remove the bolts, then remove the rack, and then replace the bolts.  However, when done properly, the long bolts that originally held the rack are replaced with a pair of 20mm button head bolts.

Getting the new bolts back in involves a fair amount of fiddling.  I'd try finding replacement bolts at your hardware store.  Be sure to grease the new bolts before replacing them to prevent them from seizing and becoming impossible to remove in the future.  The torque for the swing arm bolts is 17-19 nm when using HP Velotechnik's bolts.

If you want to ride with only an underseat rack, and no rear rack, you'll need to use the long bolts to hold the rack with spacers to take up the space otherwise used by the mounts for the rear rack.  The spacers go on the bolt, between the swing arm hinge and the mounting point on the rack.  HPV provides spacers, for the official solution, or you can find something on your own that is strong.

Have fun and stay healthy,
Robert
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Robert Matson
New York City Recumbent Supply
The Innovation Works, Inc.
copyright 2013 Robert Matson