PR: Proprietary Items Craven rack dimensions and drawings

[craig]

Fitting a Craven rack to a 52 Comet.
Bead blasted all parts.
Have temporary hardware to trial fit on to Comet.
Since the FT22AS lifting handle is reversed the fit is not behaving yet.
It appears the rear arms could go either direction, but swap left/right.
This rack has extensions on the front arms to ? raise the rack height?
Also no bushing provisions on the front arms.
The seat short link pieces, allowing the unseat arms to hang 2" low, appear to have worn mount holes.
So any help here would be wonderful.
I will post more pictures and questions.

 

[TouringGodet]

I have a Craven rack with the same mounting arrangement, and I've swapped it from a twin to a single with no issues with the lifting handle being different between the two. I also am wondering about the dog leg on the brackets that attach to the lifting handle, whether the kink should be near the top or bottom, doesn't seem to make much difference to me.

 

[craig]

Here is a closer picture of the Craven rack.
The forward extension pieces, about 2" or so can be seen. I guess raising the height , which appears good to me right now.
Rear arms have full bushings and thrust washers, provided new by me, top and bottom.

 

[Albervin]

Put a moderately loaded pannier on it and 100% guaranteed it will fail. Ask me how I know.

 

[vibrac]

I never liked that contraption two tubes fitted to the underside of the seat always seemed to be a better way scales up to a great load carrying capacity
I haven't got a picture of banana man's set up on his A but his biggest set is huge it's almost a block of flats

 

[john998]

Hello, my Rapide had a Craven rack when bought in 1965. Soon after loaded with a weeks camping gear it went to Scotland and back with out problems. Perhaps being a novice helps.
The bike now has a stainless steel arrangement similar except it uses tubes to the rear seat fixing and tubes down the the foot rest plates. Not strong enough for panniers but OK for a tent and sleeping bag.

 

[Oldhaven]

Fitting a Craven rack to a 52 Comet.
Since the FT22AS lifting handle is reversed the fit is not behaving yet.
It appears the rear arms could go either direction, but swap left/right.

My rear arms are reversed from yours so they do not interfere with the hinge tommy bar on bump. I think some have had to remove that convenient feature. Comets may not have this problem? Mine also appear to be bent slightly differently than yours with the difference in bent lengths more equal.
http://www.vincentownersclub.co.uk/...mpton-coil-over-damper.8316/page-2#post-72876

 

[tatty500]

My rear arms are reversed from yours so they do not interfere with the hinge tommy bar on bump. I think some have had to remove that convenient feature. Comets may not have this problem? Mine also appear to be bent slightly differently than yours with the difference in bent lengths more equal.
http://www.vincentownersclub.co.uk/...mpton-coil-over-damper.8316/page-2#post-72876

I agree, the 40 year-old fitment on my tatty Comet had the rear links the other way round, this also means that the lifting handle won't rub the links either. A note in my book states that the clamp on the lifting handle was only 1/4 inch above the chainguard bracket so the whole thing must have been lower, perhaps using the other front holes?

Tatty

 

[craig]

My rear arms are reversed from yours so they do not interfere with the hinge tommy bar on bump. I think some have had to remove that convenient feature. Comets may not have this problem? Mine also appear to be bent slightly differently than yours with the difference in bent lengths more equal.
http://www.vincentownersclub.co.uk/...mpton-coil-over-damper.8316/page-2#post-72876

yes I see the reverse rear Craven arms on the B Rapide , I will try this.
Looks like my forward longer Craven rack arms may have been cut off to lower the rack, possibly to improve racing weight distribution.

 

[craig]

I will go and measure all this Craven linkage and hopefully we can compare to other known good installations.
My long forward Craven arms are not bored to accept bushing and thrust washers at the rear at the rack, but the rear arms are bored and fitting with bronze bushings and washers both top and bottom.
Should the forward arms be fitted with bushings/washers at the rack ?
Here is a worn hole at the seat mount that appears to enable the Craven rack to flop about.
the pic is rotated, sorry.