A Review of the Old Man Mountain Divide bike rack

hello everyone and welcome back to queer cyclist 
today i am going to be reviewing the divide rack  
by old man mountain i’m also going to be reviewing 
some micro paneers by north street bags which were  
made specifically for this rack full disclosure 
this review is not paid but old man mountain  
sent me all of this gear to review i do want to 
note however that everything that they’ve sent  
me will be donated to the gear library and if you 
don’t know what that is i will put a link in the  
description below so old man mountain is a company 
out of bend oregon and they’ve been in business  
since 1996 which is what 25 years something like 
that they make really cool kind of industrial  
style racks this particular rack is called the 
divide rack and it is the most versatile in their  
lineup i was particularly excited about this rack 
and the micro panniers because i feel like micro  
panniers are really in right now so i was like 
i’m excited about this jumping into the specs  
the divide rack is made of 6061 aluminum the 
deck or the top of the rack is 3.9 inches by  
10.5 inches or 100 millimeters by 266 millimeters 
it has multiple rails and

attachment points for  
different kinds of bags and panniers so if you 
don’t have the bags that are made specifically  
for this rack you can use just about any type of 
pannier one of the really cool things about this  
rack is that it can fit on just about any bike 
you can mount it on a bike with tires as big as  
29 by 3 inches you can also mount it in just about 
any configuration of eyelets and there’s also an  
option to mount it via through axle this means 
that you can mount the rack on a suspension fork  
or even a full suspension bike and that is one of 
the things that makes this rack really interesting  
and really unique in terms of price as of may 2022 
it retails for 168. it comes with everything that  
you need to mount the rack with eyelets however 
if you want to mount it via through axle then you  
will need to purchase an additional fix kit if you 
are interested in the fix kit they have a guide on  
their website that helps you figure out which 
axle is the correct one for your specific bike  
i have been riding with this rack for a good 
couple of months now i’ve taken it on two bike  
packing trips and i have also been commuting on 
it i mounted the rack using eyelets and it is  
super solid i’ve used a couple of different 
bags on this bike in addition to the north  
street panniers for one trip i used a single swift 
junior pannier and it didn’t work too well because  
i couldn’t get the bag to attach securely and so 
it ripped up a lot of the paint on the rails even  
when i cinched it on with multiple volley straps 
and velcro it was still like half falling off  
throughout the entire ride even on like pavement 
and on really really easy gravel the second trip i  
took this rack on i used the micropaneers by north 
street bags these bags retail at 130 a piece and  
they’re made from a recycled eco pack they know it 
on their website that the material is waterproof  
however the zippers are not i didn’t experience 
any rain so i can’t speak to the waterproofness  
of it or the zippers but they seem really 
solid these painters on the other hand attached  
really really securely to the bike they attach via 
two very strong velcro straps and a volley strap  
at the bottom i rode on some pretty chunky gravel 
on that trip and had no issues with them bouncing  
around or falling off and nothing fell out of 
the bag they have a ton of room in them and it  
allowed me to organize all of my bike packing gear 
really really nicely often on bike packing trips i  
struggle with like where the hell i’m gonna 
put everything these panniers actually gave me  
so much room that i could have carried a lot more 
if i needed to the only issue that i had with the  
north street bags is that when i first installed 
them they would hit my heel as i was pedaling  
i was able to adjust it so that my feet had 
enough clearance to pedal and not have to  
alter my pedal stroke if you would like a full 
review of these bags let me know in the comments  
below and while we are at it if you have made it 
to this point in the video you should go ahead  
and subscribe to this channel and help me get 
to 10 000 followers this year okay so in terms  
of the review of the divide rack i have 
a lot of pros and then a couple of cons  
so the first pro is that this is a super versatile 
rack and i really really really like that about  
this it can fit on just about any bike so if you 
have multiple bikes and you’re stable you can  
switch them from bike to bike you also can use 
this rack on the front or the back of the bike  
which is so nice because not every rack is made to 
do that because it has multiple attachment points  
you can strap just about anything and a lot of 
different configurations on the bike so for me  
on one of my backpacking trips when i used the 
micropioneers on either side i could strap my  
crocs to the top of the rack you could also strap 
something like a dry bag or a tent or just about  
anything to the top of it the rack is also very 
well constructed it is solid i’ve used other racks  
particularly commuting that have been anywhere 
from the 50 to 120 price range that have really  
failed me even with a lot of weight on the rack 
i had no issues whatsoever with any flexing any  
kind of movement from the rack and so it’s really 
stable and really reliable and as i was writing  
more i was like oh this is one less thing i have 
to worry about as my gear falling off the bike  
or falling out of the bags or the bags falling 
off the huge plus of this rack is that it’s so  
reliable this rack is also beefy as hell it holds 
a ton of weight eyelet mounted it holds 55 pounds  
and if you mount it via the through axle it’ll 
hold up to 70 pounds this is great if you carry a  
ton of [ __ ] on your bike or if you carry a crate 
with a small dog or an animal i also really like  
the way it looks not everyone is a huge fan of the 
industrial style however i really like the way it  
looks on my bombora i do have a couple of things 
that i dislike about this rack and the biggest  
one is that it’s really heavy it will add 34.2 
ounces or 2.1 pounds or 970 grams to your bike  
in contrast for example the tumbleweed t-rack is 
1.1 pounds or 17.6 ounces or 500 grams the t-rack  
has kind of a different purpose it’s not meant 
for panniers but it’s another popular rack and  
bike packing right now and while this doesn’t seem 
like a whole lot if you are on a trip for example  
with a lot of climbing like i was a couple of 
weeks ago you feel every single ounce after about  
1500 feet of climbing it got it was it started 
to feel really heavy after a while however on  
the first trip i did with this rack on much 
flatter terrain i really didn’t feel the weight  
of it at all the trip was about maybe 500 feet of 
climbing over 40 miles and i didn’t really have  
an issue with the bike being too heavy i’ll 
also say that installation was easy but not  
super intuitive as someone who does not like to 
read directions in order to install it you will  
need a regular wrench and some hex keys i had 
a hard time figuring out how to screw in some  
of the bolts on the rack arms i actually ended 
up taking it to a bike shop so in this video i’m  
not going to show you how to install it since i 
didn’t do it myself and i don’t want to steer you  
in the wrong direction but i will point you to 
the many videos that old man has that show you  
how to install the rack i will say that this 
is a me problem and probably not a u problem  
i am just stubborn and didn’t want to 
i didn’t want to read the directions  
the last kind of con about this rack is that 
it’s not cheap it’s 168 it’s it’s quite expensive  
however you are getting a really quality product 
from a reputable company and it’s not going to  
fail you overall this rack is super versatile it’s 
really really reliable if you are looking to pack  
as minimal and as light as possible this might not 
be the rack for you however if you are looking for  
something that will fit on your bike and or fit 
on multiple bikes if you’re looking for something  
that will not fail you on a trip if you’re taking 
a long kind of tour or something like that this  
is a great rack and i have really really enjoyed 
using it and i’m really excited to donate it to  
the gear library because that means we can put it 
on any bike that we have in our stable so that is  
my review old man mountain thank you guys so much 
for sending this along i am so excited to have  
used this it was a great time i hope you guys 
enjoyed this video i hope you found it useful  
if you did hit the like button leave a 
comment below and i will see you next week

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