Do you have a full-suspension ebike, but find yourself running out of space for luggage as soon as you set off on a ride? A conventional rear rack is often difficult to fit to a full-suspension bike. The Ortlieb Quick Rack is a real game-changer here. Especially as it can be attached just as easily to ebikes without suspension, such as hardtails or trekking bikes. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to fit the rack yourself, step by step, onto the suspension rear triangle of your ebike, even if the corresponding bike frame doesn’t feature fixed mounting points.
1. Required parts for fitting the luggage rack
2. Fitting the Ortlieb Quick Rack to a frame with mounts
3. Fitting the Ortlieb Quick Rack to a frame without mounts
4. Installing the Ortlieb Quick Rack luggage rack on an ebike
1. Required parts for fitting the luggage rack
To install the Ortlieb rear rack, you will need the following components:
- The accessory pack for the Ortlieb Quick Rack included in the delivery, containing Ortlieb pivot bearing sets for M5 & M6. The set consists of: four screw-on contact points, two M5 screws, two M6 screws, six washers, two spacer sleeves, the seatpost mount, the 300-millimetre-long mounting stay, and a set of QL3/QL3.1 mounting clamps with snap buttons
- An essential seat stay adapter for ebikes without frame mounts. The set consists of: two contact points, heat-shrink tubing, four metal bands, four M4 clamping nuts and four M4 screws
- Allen key
- Pliers
- Tape measure or folding rule
- Cutting tool
- Lubricant
2. Fitting the Ortlieb Quick Rack to frames with mounts
For bikes that already provide corresponding mounts on the rear triangle, installation is particularly straightforward. The Quick Rack comes with two screw-on contact points each for M5 and M6 threads, as well as matching spacer sleeves. Once you have determined the correct screw size for your frame, thread it through the spacer sleeve. Ensure correct alignment: The flat side of the spacer sleeve faces the bike frame, whilst the recessed side sits flush with the screw head on the outside. These contact points are simply screwed directly into the existing mounts on your frame. They form the base onto which the luggage rack can later be attached with a click. Please ensure you follow the torque specifications for tightening the screws to the frame as stated in your user manual.
3. Fitting the Ortlieb Quick Rack to frames without mounts
However, if your ebike does not have such mounting points – which is usually the case with full-suspension ebikes – you will need to use the special seat stay adapter set.
Installation begins with preparing the metal bands. To provide long-lasting protection for the paintwork of your ebike’s frame, the seat stay adapter set includes heat-shrink tubing. Place this around the seat stay at the intended mounting point to determine the required length of the tubing. Using this method, trim each of the four heat-shrink tubes to size and pull them over the metal bands. Ensure that the heat-shrink tubes are positioned centrally on the metal bands.
Fitting the clamping nuts to the seat stay
Now pull one end of the prepared metal band through the slots in the clamping nut from below. Make sure that the domed side of the clamping nut is facing upwards. Bend the section of the metal band that is not protected by the heat-shrink tubing outwards. Now place the clamp nut at the desired mounting point at the upper side of the seat stay, bend the metal band around the stay and feed its remaining free end through the small slot in the clamp nut from below once more. Then bend this end outwards as well.
If you wish to provide additional protection for your frame, you can stick a piece of frame protection film or even sticky tape onto the seat stays in advance, at the points where the metal bands will later wrap around. This minimises the risk of paint damage that could be caused by dirt particles becoming lodged between the frame and the metal band whilst riding.
Once you’ve attached the four metal bands to the left and right seat stays, you can already roughly adjust their spacing. This ensures that the position of the clamping nuts will line up with the holes in the contact points. To do this, simply hold one of the two contact points against the side. You’ll then quickly see whether you need to adjust the distance between the metal bands or if it’s already correct. At the same time, check that the lower clamping nut on both seat stays is the same distance from the dropout. After all, the Ortlieb Quick Rack should be nicely aligned horizontally in the end.
Securing with pliers and shortening the contact points
To ensure the contact points can be fitted onto the clamping nuts as easily as possible, it is important that the metal bands lie as close as possible to the curve of the clamping nuts. Pliers, such as water pump pliers or parallel-jaw pliers, are suitable for this. The contact points can then be slid smoothly over the clamping nuts, and the fixing screws grip reliably.
Selecting and final assembly of the contact points
Everything is now ready for you to screw the contact points onto the clamping nuts. Make sure beforehand that you select the correct contact point for each side. This is because the mounting brackets for the rear rack are positioned at different angles from the mounting point depending on whether you attach it to the left or right seat stay. This angle compensates for the fact that seat stays do not run at right angles to the rear wheel axle, but instead angle inwards towards the seat tube. For each side, the contact point is the one where the rack mount runs almost parallel to the rear wheel axle.
Once you have made your decision, you can mount the contact points onto the clamping nuts. Insert the screws into the designated holes and tighten them by hand for now. Then check the alignment again using a ruler, folding rule or similar to ensure it is even on both seat stays. You can now tighten the screws to the torque specified in the instruction manual. If you do not have a torque wrench, use your judgement and tighten the screws by hand until they are secure without causing any damage.
4. Installing the Ortlieb Quick Rack luggage rack on an ebike
Once the contact points are in position, you can place the Ortlieb Quick Rack onto the bracket for the first time. To do this, open the quick-release fastener at the bottom of the rear rack. When placing it on, you may need to bend the rack’s struts slightly apart so that it fits onto the adapters at the contact points. Once the rack is correctly positioned, close the quick-release fastener’s locking mechanism again.
In the next step, attach the rack’s support to the seat post. The rear rack comes with two stays of different lengths. The shorter of the two is pre-assembled with the upper connection to the seat post, whilst the longer strut is included loose in the pack. You can use the stays to adjust for the distance between the seat post and the rear rack. In our case, the shorter pre-assembled version was perfectly adequate.
To attach the seat post mount, including the mounting stay, first slightly loosen the 3-millimetre allen screw on the fixing lever. Then, the flexible plastic fastening strap with the ratchet mechanism can be moved freely. Next, hold the clamp against the seat post, wrap the strap around the seat post and feed it back onto the clamp on the other side. As you do so, the fixing lever of the seat post mount passes through the long slot in the fastening strap. However, this will only work if you have first turned it forwards towards the front wheel.
Now press one end of the fastening strap firmly against the seat post mount and, at the same time, pull the end of the strap with the ratchet mechanism firmly away from the seat post. You can do this by hand or using pliers. Make sure the strap sits flush. In this position, tighten the allen screw on the fixing lever again. This secures the seat post mount at the preset length. If you now turn the fixing lever 180 degrees back towards the rear, the quick-release mechanism on the seat post mount is secured.
Next, you can slide the open end of the mounting stay through a guide on the rear rack so that it connects to the support on the seat post. You may need to loosen the two screws on the guide at this point so that the stay fits through. As long as it can be moved within the guide, you can adjust it to the correct length required to ensure the cargo area of the rear rack is level. Once you have found this, you can finally tighten the screws on the guide. In theory.
What are the key points to bear in mind when fitting full-suspension bikes?
In practice, however, you may need to shorten the mounting stay. After all, the rear triangle of your full-suspension ebike needs to be fully movable. Under certain circumstances, however, a mounting stay that is too long may hit the first vertical crossbar of the rack’s cargo area when the rear triangle compresses. In that case, this would block the movement of the rear triangle. If this happens, shorten the stay with a metal saw so that it protrudes approximately two centimetres from the guide on the Ortlieb Quick Rack towards the rear. Thanks to this final adjustment, the rear triangle should be able to utilise the full suspension travel even with the luggage rack fitted.
Additional note:
You will need to avoid using the Ortlieb Quick Rack with certain pannier systems. This refers to designs where a fabric centre panel connects the left and right panniers. This centre panel usually lies flat against the cargo area of the rack. However, the moving mounting stay would strike this fabric from below whenever the rear triangle dips significantly. Over time, this would certainly create a hole, which would later cause a tear. It is therefore best to consistently opt for systems where the panniers can be attached separately to the sides of the Ortlieb Quick Rack.
Pictures: Elektrofahrrad24 GmbH
