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review

PDW Loading Dock

7
£60.00

VERDICT:

7
10
Classy-looking rack for carrying duties on your city bike
Weight: 
1,100g
Contact: 

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PDW's Loading Dock will appeal to anyone who's looking to add stylish luggage space to the back of their bike. It's certainly a good looking rack, and it's easy to fit too.

The main body of the rack is alloy tubing, with a black finish. There's one stay swooping down in a curve from the back of the rack to the dropout mount, with another arcing off to the front of the platform. There's a small looped section of tubing at the bottom for attaching the bottom hook of a pannier.

The rack platform is constructed from varnished bamboo, with cutaway sections to allow you to slide your pannier hooks in. It attaches to the seatstays via an arm that's adjustable for length and angle, so you should be able to get the rack level although we did struggle on one bike with a short rear end. If you don't have seatstay mounts, P-clips are included.

In use the Loading Dock is a very decent rack. It's rated to 35lbs (16kg) so it's not designed for heavy touring or anything like that, but that's not what you'd use it for: it's an attractive rack for a city bike. I've used it with a number of panniers and they're generally been fine, although the deck can make using some panniers a bit trickier as there's not a lot of room to get your fingers in to click the closures shut. The deck is wide enough to carry a small box on if you're packing a bungee cord or two.

All in all it's a good rack. It's not quite as functional as something utilitarian from the likes of Blackburn or Tortec, but if you want a good-looking rack for occasional carrying duties it's one to consider.

Verdict

Classy-looking rack for carrying duties on your city bike

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road.cc test report

Make and model: PDW Loading Dock

Size tested: n/a

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

The Loading Dock™ is the lighter weight sibling of our venerable Payload™ rack. Its oversized aluminum tubing sweeps in graceful lines to form an elegant profile and a double ply bamboo deck finishes the classic look. The Loading Dock™ is also easy to install so you will be pedaling cargo in no time.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Deck measures 140x381mm (5.5x15")

Height: 368mm (14.5")

Weight: 2 lbs

Rated to 35 lbs

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Pretty well.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

Good looks, easy to fit.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Not quite as versatile as a bog-standard rack.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes.

Would you consider buying the product? Maybe, for the right kind of bike.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Maybe, for the right kind of bike.

Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
 
7/10
Rate the product for value:
 
6/10
Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
9/10
Rate the product for durability:
 
8/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
7/10

Overall rating: 7/10

About the tester

Age: 42  Height: 190cm  Weight: 100kg

I usually ride: whatever I'm testing...  My best bike is: Kinesis Tripster ATR

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Experienced

I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, commuting, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb, Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling, track

 

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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1 comments

Avatar
mikroos | 9 years ago
0 likes

Nice idea, but it will look like crap anyway after a month of actual use.

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