We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more›
We’ve looked through our picks and continue to recommend them, but have removed information about a now-discontinued Bontrager rack.
A solid rear rack is the foundation of any good carrying-stuff-on-your-bike setup: It enables you to attach other components to your bike and get a heavy pack off your back. After considering 38 models and testing eight top contenders, we’re confident the Topeak Explorer is the best rack for the average commuter.
This rack was the easiest to install on many kinds of bikes and felt the most stable carrying heavy panniers.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $45.
This rack was the easiest to install on bikes with disc brakes—these require a different mount than rim-brake bikes—and felt equally stable carrying heavy panniers.
The Topeak Explorer (which comes in a version for bikes equipped with disc brakes as well) does an admirable job of fitting a wide variety of bikes more easily than any other rack we looked at—and that’s the hardest job a rear bike rack has to do. That’s due to the rack’s flexible attachment arms (some racks have stiffer, inflexible ones) and the fact that it has a sizable amount of wheel clearance to accommodate the bewildering variety of bike frames on the road. In addition, it’s sturdier than other racks that cost the same. It’s rated to carry 55 pounds, which is a ton of weight—we loaded ours with four gallons of milk (34 pounds) and carried them off into the sunset with ease. Topeak makes a few variations of this rack, including one for 29ers, a style of mountain bike with 29-inch wheels.
It’s not the toughest bike rack we tested, but it installs easily and performs better under load better than most of the others.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $42.
Though we found it less sturdy in testing, the Planet Bike Eco Rack was also able to fit a larger number of bike sizes than several other racks we looked at. It’s rated to hold as much weight as the Topeak Explorer, 55 pounds, but it only has two stays on either side of the rack to the Explorer’s three. This results in some shiftiness if you really load it up. But for an around-town rider running light errands, it’s inexpensive and effective, and it comes from a company with a reputation for making affordable and hardworking products for commuters.
This rack was the easiest to install on many kinds of bikes and felt the most stable carrying heavy panniers.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $45.
This rack was the easiest to install on bikes with disc brakes—these require a different mount than rim-brake bikes—and felt equally stable carrying heavy panniers.
It’s not the toughest bike rack we tested, but it installs easily and performs better under load better than most of the others.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $42.
In addition to conducting our own research and testing over several years, we spoke to Mia Kohout, co-owner of Momentum Magazine and the general manager of Mobi by Shaw Go, Vancouver’s bicycle share system. An avid commuter, she gave us insight into how to make bike carry practical and efficient.
For even more real-world perspective, when beginning research for this guide several years ago, we talked with Andrew Blash, a volunteer Yosemite National Park host who commutes by bike between the park and the San Francisco Bay Area. That’s 180 miles one way, and he had a lot of opinions about how gear works, what’s overkill, and what items are best for the task of commuting.
The racks we recommend can carry up to 55 pounds strapped on top or hanging from hooks on the sides without having too much impact on your bike’s handling. That’s plenty for a commuter who wants to take a laptop to work or pick up groceries.
We looked primarily at aluminum racks for this guide, but if you’re going mountain biking or bike packing, a heavier steel rack may be more appropriate. Those higher-end racks, like the Tubus Cargo, are stronger and capable of holding more weight, but they cost a lot more (more than $100) and appeal primarily to touring cyclists who traditionally have valued the ability to repair them in the field.
Front racks, by the way, do exist, but they can’t carry as much as rear racks, and adding weight to the front of your bike can affect your ride much more than weight over the back tire.
That said, if you’re just running small errands around the neighborhood, a front basket might be all you need. Baskets can hold about 10 pounds of stuff—going beyond that can make the bike hard to steer and hard to stand upright.
Here’s what you need to make sure that you and your laptop get to work while staying safe, dry, clean, and comfortable.
This rack was the easiest to install on many kinds of bikes and felt the most stable carrying heavy panniers.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $45.
This rack was the easiest to install on bikes with disc brakes—these require a different mount than rim-brake bikes—and felt equally stable carrying heavy panniers.
The Topeak Explorer works better with a wider variety of bikes than any other rack we tested. That’s due to the flexible attachment arms and a sizable amount of wheel clearance over the back wheel. It’s also sturdier than other models that cost the same because it has three stays on each side to steady the load instead of two.
If you have either 26-inch or 700c wheels (most people do) or the recently popular 27½-inch size, chances are the Explorer will fit your bike. However, if your bike has disc brakes, make sure to get the disc-specific version, because you’ll need the extra clearance around the disc. If you have a mountain bike with 29-inch wheels, get the 29er model (also available in a disc-specific version).
Because they can flex, the Explorer’s flat steel arms can attach to a wider range of bike-frame rack mounts. This design makes finding a proper fit easier compared with models that use stiff aluminum tubing as arms such as the Axiom Journey.
The Explorer offered 1¼ inches of wheel clearance when installed on our Trek FX 2, which has 700c wheels—that’s more clearance than any other rack we tested. That amount of clearance, in addition to the movable arms, gives you more compatibility with a variety of bikes and means that the rack should fit over even the burliest of puncture-resistant off-road tires. Other racks we tested like the Axiom Transit left only a few millimeters between the rack and the tire.
Once installed, the Explorer provides a sturdy and stable platform for carrying up to 55 pounds of whatever you want. Often, when discussing durability of a rack, a review will talk about the type of metal used to build it. In this case, Topeak uses 6061 hollow aluminum. The “hollow” makes it lightweight, and the 6061 is an extremely common type of general-purpose aluminum.
But how the rack is supported is as important as what it’s made of when talking about durability and stability. The rack needs to be welded together, not just riveted with bolts, and in the case of the Topeak, three triangulated stays on each side support it—not just two. Although other racks may be rated to the same 55-pound capacity as the Explorer (our budget pick, the Eco Rack, for instance), it’s that third stay that stabilizes the load fully. Higher-capacity racks will be modified even more to add the necessary stiffness.
We loaded each side of the Explorer with panniers carrying 2 gallons of milk each (17 pounds per side) to see if it swayed, but everything stayed in place.
Other things we like about the Explorer include the fully welded-on taillight mount. It’s more substantial than the thin, bolted-on piece of metal on the Axiom Journey, Axiom Transit, Ibera PakRak, or Planet Bike Eco Rack. Topeak includes steel mounting hardware, and the included nuts are locking nuts with nylon inserts, which absorb road vibration and stay screwed on better than standard nuts.
Rack platforms, in general, are useful. This one can accommodate Topeak MTX QuickTrack luggage pieces if you want them (though we did not test any of these options), and it also provides two mini-perks: It gives you an unobtrusive way to carry a bike lock if you’re going without panniers, and, like most rack platforms, it acts as a built-in fender that keeps water off your back in light rain.
Most cycling publications specialize in either road or mountain biking, so we didn’t find a lot of existing reviews for commuter racks. Amazon reviewers also currently give the Explorer 4.6 out of five stars in almost 3,000 reviews.
In the world of bike accessories, “easy to install” is a relative term. The biggest issue with this rack applies to all racks—it can be confusing and even downright frustrating to figure out which variation of the rack should work with your bike and install it. (If you’re not sure what size wheel your bike has, just check the tires: The size will be printed or embossed on the sidewalls.) Should you run into problems, though, we recommend checking with your local bike shop (and buy your helmet there, while you’re at it).
The people there will be able to confirm which version of this rack will fit your bike, and if there are any mounting issues, they’ll know how to deal with them. They may even have the Explorer in stock, as it’s a very common rack.
It’s also possible that your bike will not have the proper attachment points on the frame to bolt the rack to. Enter the P-clamp: a small metal loop commonly used to tack down cables in construction. They can be purchased at any hardware store. Wrap one around your bike frame at the appropriate place to create the attachment point you need.
It’s not the toughest bike rack we tested, but it installs easily and performs better under load better than most of the others.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $42.
Planet Bike’s Eco Rack is the only other rack that installed as easily in testing as the Topeak, due to the height of the rack above the wheel (1¼ inches) and the same flexible arms that are a key feature of the Explorer. In opting for the Eco Rack over the Explorer, you sacrifice some stability, as this model has only two stays supporting the platform instead of three. It’s rated to carry 55 pounds (same as our top pick), and it toted the same 4 gallons of milk we put on the Explorer. But it felt less stable, as if all that liquid was pulling against us as we biked home.
It also wasn’t completely level when we first installed it, although P-clamps are included in case you run into the same issue. (The clamps will allow you to affix the arms at whatever height achieves a level surface.) This rack will fit 26-inch or 700c wheels, but Planet Bike offers no disc-brake option. Overall, the Eco Rack is not a standout, but if the Explorer is sold out or you can’t find it—and as long as your bike doesn’t have disc brakes—this rack will get the job done.
The Axiom Journey lack our pick’s flexible, sliding steel arms, which made it more difficult to fit. It also did not sit parallel to the ground when I put it on our test bike; to get it to do so, I would have had to remove sections with a saw. This problem may not happen with all bikes, but the fit we achieved was less than perfect.
The Ibera PakRak Touring Carrier Plus+ has adjustable legs. We installed it to see if we got more clearance over the rear tire, but the adjustable legs stretched to their limit when mounted over our 700c wheel, so this rack could fit smaller bikes but nothing bigger than what’s already standard. The extra bolts in such models also introduce another point of potential failure. (The version we tested, for rim-brake bikes, is nowhere to be found; the disk-brake version is readily available.)
The Thule Tour Rack is meant to modify a full-suspension mountain bike into a touring bike. The Thule requires no frame eyelets for mounting, and I had no problem putting it on our Trek, but it costs $120. Given that you could solve the no-eyelets problem with P-clamps, this seems unnecessary for anything other than the specific job it was intended for.
Eve O'Neill is a senior staff writer reporting on travel and outdoors at Wirecutter. She can remember the titles on her childhood bookshelf that set her in this direction: Into Thin Air, On The Road, The Call of the Wild. She has always been drawn to ideas about how to relate to, and play in, the wilderness.
by Eve O'Neill
After spending three years testing dozens of panniers, we’ve chosen eight that’ll be great for daily duty no matter what you’re toting or where you’re going.
A kids seat mounted to your bike is a good way to begin to nurture your child’s own love of riding for transportation—or just for fun.
by Amy Roberts and Duncan Niederlitz
After 85-plus hours of pedaling, shifting, folding, and unfolding, we’re convinced that the Dahon Mariner D8 is the best folding bike for most commuters.
After riding a dozen hybrid bikes up and down San Francisco’s hills, we’ve pegged the Marin Fairfax 1 as our favorite (and most affordable) bike for commuters.
Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing to save people time, energy and money when making buying decisions. Whether it's finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we'll help you get it right (the first time). Subscribe now for unlimited access.
© 2022 Wirecutter, Inc., A New York Times Company