EVO Low Rider Fork Mounted Front Rack: Gear Review

SPECS for the EVO Low Rider fork mounted front rack:

Weight: 635gms

Dimensions: 24.9 cm x 31.75 cm

Price Paid: $39.99 (CAD)

PROS:

  • Easily attaches to mid blade eyelets and lower fork eyelets
  • Doesn’t interfere with mechanical disc brakes
  • Cheap!
  • Low profile, Can’t be seen when panniers attached

CONS:

  • Unstable, causes “wobble issues”
  • Cheap poor quality materials and substandard welds
  • Will break…multiple times
  • Aluminium is not easy to weld if (when in this case) breaks
  • No stability loop bar over the front wheel

OVERVIEW:

I had made it all the way to Regina from Vancouver with far too much crap piled up high on the bikes’ front cargo rack which caused my front end to sway out of control if I wasn’t giving the handlebars the ‘grip of death’ constantly to keep it stable and I had finally had enough. I needed to re distribute the weight, a low rider rack and front panniers seemed like the best option.

In Regina I had the choice between an axiom lowrider and an EVO Low Rider fork mounted front rack and seeing as I had been told bad things about Axiom racks from a Warmshowers host I opted for the EVO Low Rider fork mounted front rack…oh what a horrible choice!

evo front rack
The EVO front rack on the bike without the panniers.

DESIGN AND FUNCTIONALITY:

The EVO Low Rider fork mounted front rack is a simple design attaching to the bikes mid blade eyelets and lower fork eyelets and has some slight room for adjusting to fit your bike with three possible different attachment points for the mid blade eyelets so you can have it angled to suit your needs.

Right out of the package it was very simple to fit to the bike and I was able to position it easily so it did not interfere with my disc brakes, it does however limit the use of the wheels quick release lever so I needed to position the lever in a way that I could still gain access to it once the rack was attached meaning I needed to tighten the nut on the opposite side of the wheel to the quick release lever more as the lever could no longer move freely. Not a major issue as it is not advertised as disc brake specific rack, but something to bare in mind.

I purchased a pair of Axiom Typhoon 18ltr panniers at the same time as they were the only bags available to me and they fit the rack perfectly, it has plenty of space on the bottom bar for the bags to hook on to and the top bar is nice and wide allowing the clips to drop into place easily.

That’s about where the positive features of this rack come to an end.

When riding with the panniers loaded you can actually see the rack slightly flex back and forth due to the lack of a stability loop over the front wheel to connect the two sides of the rack…I knew these guys weren’t going to last pretty early on.

It had been my hope that getting the weight lower on the bike would stabilize my ride and get rid of the wobbles I’d been experiencing, but unfortunately due to the flexing issue they only added to the problem.

It didn’t matter what I had in the front panniers; I tried it with heavier gear like our food up front and lighter stuff like sleeping bag and clothes, but it didn’t matter what the racks were supporting, they still flexed and wobbled horribly.

evo rack front
Close up of the front rack, with the panniers attached

DURABILITY:

These things are a joke. It took less than a week for the first break to occur snapping at the top weld connecting the flat inner bar to the outer frame. Luckily for me we were staying with a Couchsurfing host in Manitoba who just so happened to have a blacksmith neighbor with an aluminium welder who managed to reconnect the broken section, but I was warned by the welder that he felt it was a cheap alloy and would most likely break again. He was correct.

Over the coming month these pieces of shit snapped in several different places and I had to hold them together with hose clamps until finally the outer was no longer salvageable and I limped into Ottawa with these useless hunks of crap flapping wildly on my front forks.

Contacting EVO was pretty much pointless. The customer service was terrible and I was told ‘sorry for your misfortune’ which pissed me off even further. It was not my misfortune, it was their terrible product that was the problem.

evo rack bike
Another photo of the bike with the racks attached

SUMMARY:

I give the EVO Low Rider fork mounted front rack 1.5 out of 5. Some nice design features, but made with terrible weak material and shoddy welding. Steer clear of EVO racks!! (Amazon / Our Gear List).

Like this review and want to read more? Check out my review on the Origin8 Classique Cargo HD Front RackLifeStraw Go water bottle filter and Goal Zero Rock Out 2 Speakers.

2 Replies to “EVO Low Rider Fork Mounted Front Rack: Gear Review”

    1. We don’t sell the racks, this is just a gear review for the rack – I think there is a link in the article to the Amazon site that sells them. Good luck!

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