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