Touring Equipment: Old Man Mountain RedRock Rear Rack

So I was thinking about exactly what equipment I'm going to need for a bicycle touring adventure through southeast Asia. Adventure. I don't really like that word. It sounds ~fun~. I am not doing this for fun, I'm doing it for the physical brutality that my body will endure cycling a hundred miles or more a day, and the mental duress and loneliness of being in the farthest place possible from home, in a country where no one even speaks the same language. It's just something that a man in his mid-20's needs to do, to break out of . . . whatever. We're here to talk about equipment, not the philosophy of a quarter-life crisis.

So, the first thing I guess I need is a bicycle. I've got that, my Fuchikoma. I guess the next thing is a rack. I did a bit of comparison shopping, read a whole lot of touring sites, and I came up with with the Old Man Mountain RedRock rear rack. I guess you're supposed to try to say that ten times fast, or something.

There's a picture of it that I got off the site. I can't be bothered to show it on the bike at this exact moment but I'll show you before I go. This is the most highly recommended rear rack that I've found, and every time I show it off to seasoned touring veterans they whistle with appreciation. My theory on matters in which I don't know what the hell I am doing, is to exhaustively research before I dive in. In other words, it is better to spend 10 days online reading forums and sites and spend $50 on a rack, then to spend 10 minutes, spend who-knows how-much, and get some piece of crap that screams "newbie".

On the other hand, please don't mistake me for someone who knows what they are doing.

So the deal with this rack is that is has all the specific attachments that my bike was built for, in other words it bolts to the frame which was designed to take a rack. Other racks connect to the rear skewer and/or brake bolty-things. I guess this one can too, depending on how you set it up. Whatever, it was a good fit. The Old Man Mountain RedRock is specced to hold up to sixty pounds, which is the highest of any of their racks. Also the copy on their website said, "When someone tells us they're headed around the world, this is what we reach for", which was pretty much all I needed to hear.

Anyway, I've got a bike and a rack. Up next (Wednesday): Panniers! (also knows as "bags")