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review
£100.00
VERDICT:
Brilliant way to carry heavy loads, adaptable to multiple bikes over rough terrain
Rock solid
Fast mounting
Flexible load system
Adapts to most bikes
Price
Weight
Weight:
997g
Contact:
This product has been selected to feature in road.cc recommends. That means it's not just scored well, but we think it stands out as special. Go to road.cc recommends
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
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The Aeroe Spider Rear Rack is a quick-fitting, tough and flexible rack for hanging Aeroe's excellent luggage system off. Fitting to pretty much any bike, with a 5mm hex, and staying exactly where you left it over the roughest terrain, it's an investment in many future travels.
Aeroe is a New Zealand-based manufacturer of high-end bike luggage. It's taken a system mentality to its products, with everything designed to play together nicely. It has two luggage packs in the form of 8 or 12-litre drybags, and an 11-litre Quick Mount Pod (review to come). All are designed to fit onto mounts bolted to the Spider Rear Rack.
There's also the very good Spider Cradle front rack, which holds a drybag or tent.
At its most basic level, the Spider Rear Rack is a U-shaped alloy tube, held at right angles to your seatstays and fixed in place with a cunning strap mechanism. You bolt the luggage mounts – 'cradles' or 'pods' – to the U-shaped tubing, and go ride.
The system that fixes to the seatstays is identical to the front Spider rack: two long, threaded 5mm hex bolts winch back a sliding nut inside the 'foot'. That nut has notches, into which fit the ends of a rubberised strap that goes around your stays.
The ends of the strap have two holes apiece, to allow a single strap to fit a wide range of bar, fork or frame tube diameters, and two lengths of strap are provided, increasing that range, from the skinniest of steel stays up to hydroformed alloy whoppers of 50mm.
The feet are 33mm wide each, with a gap between the insides of 55mm.
Aeroe recommends using a layer of tape if you're fitting the rack to carbon tubes – good practice on paintwork you want to keep perfect too.
The process takes a bit of practice, but pretty quickly you work out how to fit or remove it speedily.
I found that winding the nut all the way out was the best way to start (taking care not to go too far, as it's not captive so will fall out). You need to slacken off the four bolts securing each foot to the tube too. Then offer it up to the stays, angle the feet to match the stays, and clip in the first end of one strap to one of the holes. Then, wrap it around the stay and clip in the tightest of the two holes at the other end.
Using a long 5mm hex, you then wind the bolt in to take up the slack. This is where you need to pay attention: if the sliding nut is more than halfway to being fully wound out, you will likely need to unwind it, go back and reposition the strap tighter at the start. This is critical, because if you wind all the way out to the stops and the tension isn't optimal then the rack will slip.
If all is good, you can then swap to a 4Nm torque tool, and tighten to spec; 4Nm makes for a tight fit, with no chance of slipping. You get a feel for what's tight enough to not move, and so long as you're sure the nut still has play to move once the cradle stops moving, you're clearly tight enough.
Aeroe says the alloy tube can be bent 20mm either way to accommodate stays of different widths. You can also rotate the whole rack 180 degrees, changing the distance of the top of the rack relative to your wheel, saddle or both.
I had to play around a bit to clear brake and gear cable braze-ons, adjusting up and down and sliding the whole tube in and out of the feet to get the lowest setting that would fit to keep handling snappy. Everything takes the one 5mm hex, and everything tightens to 4Nm. If you do need to do anything trailside, for any reason, it's an easy ask.
Finally, you can slide the tubing in the feet about 30mm to get the rack as close as possible to the tyre, thereby lowering the centre of gravity. If needed, you can trim the rack tubing ends short to get it even closer – I could see that being needed on a small-wheeled bike with steep seatstays, or if you needed to mount the feet higher up on the seatstay to clear a brake calliper or cable boss.
On the rack
Once the rack's installed, what to bolt to it... There are a load of options to mix and match between the top and each side, using Aeroe's drybag cradles or its 11-litre Quick Mount Pod. Again, they all fit with a 5mm hex, tightening to 4Nm.
It's very easy to adjust the angle of installed kit to ensure heel clearance, aeroness (no pun intended) or clearance for dropper posts or suspension travel. With pods mounted on either side there's clearance for a 4in tyre.
Aeroe recommends a maximum load of 16kg, spread across a combination of its cradles (4kg each) or pods (7kg each).
Cradle
Along with the rack you get a single Drybag Cradle, good for carrying drybags, tents, poles or wherever takes your fancy. The cradle attaches to the rack with a simple clamp fixed with four 5mm hex bolts, and you can change the orientation through 90 degrees.
The buckle system is nifty, with the ability to thread the straps through different slots to accommodate different diameters of loads.
Value added
Additional cradles cost £65, so if you want three cradles plus the rack you're looking at around £230 – not cheap at all – but that does give you the ability to carry a huge amount of gear.
Now, before a legion of audax-hardened pannier fans cry out 'HOW MUCH?' in unison, look at what a decent rack, pannier and top bag setup will cost you. If your bike can even take it... Also, if you need to unload your bike for any reason – to get over a fence/gate, on or off transport, up or down stairs at accommodation, and so on – the Aeroe system is going to beat most pannier systems hands down. Certainly, it's a much better idea to simply remove bags than if you're touring with a frame bag, and have to empty the whole bag out to get your stuff inside a bivvy, B&B or bunkhouse. Add rain, midges or darkness into the mix, and the Aeroe quick-removal proposition becomes even more appealing.
> 15 easy ways to carry stuff on your bike
The rack (including one Drybag cradle) is €109.95, or about £100 before any import tax or duties, but you do get free global shipping. If you go for two of the 11L Pods and a 12L Drybag, you're looking at £340 plus duty. For two 12L drybags, an extra drybag mount and one Pod, it's £370.
And here's the rub (or lack thereof) in the Aeroe system. Yes, it's pricey – but what price confidence, stability, flexibility and ease of fitting and removal? Not everyone wants to spend the evening before and after every trip faffing with P-clips, small bolts, nyloc nuts or whatever to add or remove racks. Or festooning their beloved bike with paint-scratching bags that take ages to get just so. The Aeroe system is genuinely one that could be pulled from hand luggage and fitted to your bike in an airport baggage hall with a single 5mm hex, ready to wheel out the terminal door. Or lent to a friend the night before a big ride, confident that over the course of a single IPA it could be fitted securely to any bike and would stay thus. Try that with a traditional rack and panniers, folks.
> Buyer’s Guide: 17 of the best racks and panniers
Compared to traditional racks and panniers the Aeroe Spider system comes up well weight-wise, the system with one cradle weighing just under 1kg with one cradle, and around 1.6kg with three cradles fitted. Of course you then need to add in drybag weight, but not if you're simply strapping tents to the cradles. I'd say if weight is that important, you're probably not the target market for the Aeroe system.
We've seen some very spendy luggage systems before – Dave really liked the 800g, £339 Tailfin system – that's 20 litres of luggage and a weight limit of 9kg without pannier bosses – which again is Aeroe's target market. To be fair, Tailfin does a version that can carry around 20kg, if you have suitable frame bosses.
I really liked the £90 Topeak Tetrarack R2, but that's limited to a 9kg load and you're pretty much tied to Topeak's proprietary trunk bag/pannier ecosystem, plus the fiddly fixings weren't anywhere near as robust as the Aeroe Spider system. Given the choice (and budget), I'd choose the Aeroe system in a heartbeat.
Conclusion
I used the Aeroe Spider Rear Rack for days through the Highlands, battering at speed over very rough tracks, with no suspension, with a full load of gear, and it didn't budge one millimetre. I couldn't detect a hint of sway, unlike with even the stiffest of seatpacks. Leaning the bike up against fences, trees and so on carried no concerns, the gear all secure and the rack unmoving. Once home, it was the work of maybe 30 seconds to remove the entire system with a ratcheting 5mm hex tool, bags still attached.
Like pretty much anything cycling, the value is in the eye of the beholder. Somewhere on a gravel estate road between Laggan and Corrour Station I met a couple out touring, who had suffered no end of woes with their racks. After a few minutes checking over the Aeroe setup they were sold – loving the modular nature, clean lines, simple mounting and bombproof construction.
Of course, not everyone has the funds to pour into a setup like this, or maybe the weight is offputting. Or you want the super-clean aero lines of a full frame bag. That's cool – I have the 'traditional' light, fast setups used by folks on escapades like the Trans-Continental Race too. They have a place. For some, on some bikes, for some rides, the Aeroe Spider Rear Rack and its ecosystem will tick the right boxes, and they won't be disappointed. Choice is good.
Verdict
Brilliant way to carry heavy loads, adaptable to multiple bikes over rough terrain
road.cc test report
Make and model: Aeroe Spider Rear Rack
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?
It's for people with bikes that won't take panniers, or who want to fit and remove luggage quickly, or who want flexibilty in load carrying.
Aeroe says: 'The Rack is the base layer of the aeroe system and includes one Cradle to carry your drybag or tent, which can be mounted horizontally or vertically. Secure with the built-in straps – no fiddly cables or fiddly attachments. Customise your ride with additional Cradles (up to three), Pods and aeroe accessories.'
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
Aeroe lists:
Weight: Rack with cradle & in-built straps - 979g (2.1 lbs). Rack alone - 641g (1.4 lbs).
Load capacity: 16kgs (35 lbs). Refer to Cradle and Pod for individual weights.
Materials: High grade stainless steel, anodized aluminium, glass reinforced nylon and silicone coated straps.
Rate the product for quality of construction:
10/10
Can't fault it.
Rate the product for performance:
10/10
Held solid over the roughest terrain.
Rate the product for durability:
9/10
Looks like new, and will do pretty much forever as far as I can tell.
Rate the product for weight (if applicable)
7/10
A kilo for the rack alone is not light – but the money has gone into strong, solid, functional design and materials.
Rate the product for value:
5/10
It's not cheap, but for a rear rack ready to carry a drybag or tent, out of the box, on any bike, fitted in a few minutes, it's well worth the money.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
Cannot fault it – it stayed 100% put and silent over very rough trails.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
The quick fitting. It's genius.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
As with the other Aeroe products, only price and weight.
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
While more expensive, it beats out others, such as the Topeak Tetrarack R2, on a number of fronts, including speed and ease of fit, robustness and payload.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
This is an excellent piece of kit. Yes, it costs a lot and weights quite a bit, but if you are prioritising longevity and quality of use, it's ideal.
About the tester
Age: 47
I usually ride: Sonder Camino Gravelaxe My best bike is: Nah bro that's it
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: A few times a week I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: cyclo cross, general fitness riding, mtb, G-R-A-V-E-L
Living in the Highlands, Mike is constantly finding innovative and usually cold/wet ways to accelerate the degradation of cycling kit. At his happiest in a warm workshop holding an anodised tool of high repute, Mike's been taking bikes apart and (mostly) putting them back together for forty years. With a day job in global IT (he's not completely sure what that means either) and having run a boutique cycle service business on the side for a decade, bikes are his escape into the practical and life-changing for his customers.
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24 comments
Very high quality rack, use on all my bikes. No sway or rattle, great for gravel or MTB , no problems going on the rough stuff! Use the rack and their handlebar cradle also.
This is a great rack, I have used these in our rental stock, and for personal use. Wouldnt go back to another rack or saddle bag. Very stable and easy to use. Thanks for the review.
This looks like a fack off great long lever with a 9kg weight at the end, located at the weakest point in the stays, with no bracing for rigidity.
Jesus, they haven't even braced it on the post tube. You'll not see one of these any where near my bike....
Hi @Captain Badger, This product is incredibly strong, so absolutely no issues here. We have done significant design, engineering and testing internally and externally over the years on this. We designed a rack called the freeload rack under a similar principle back in 2009 (before it was acquired by Thule in 2011 - now known and sold worldwide as the Thule Tour rack). Tens of thousands of people have used these products on all types of bikes and rides under the freeload and aeroe brands and Thule have sold hundreds of thousands if not millions of these over the last 10 years and have not come across any issues.
In terms of not bracing to the seat post – this was done intentionally to meet the demand for people to use their dropper post if required, and to allow for more room for those that have a low saddle or large wheels. The feedback on this feature has been very positive. Our instagram page shows the wide range of bikes and types of rides people are using our gear: https://www.instagram.com/aeroebikepack/?hl=en
Happy to chat further on any of this – just send us an email at team [at] aeroe.com Cheers the aeroe team
No problem Aeroe, thanks for teh response. Will stick with my current arrangements.
So basically if I've read this right you can any combo of 3 dry bags or pods? And theoretically sneak well over the weight limit with 3 x 7 Kgs in pods?
More concerning is that there appears to be no UK option on their site - so where did the GBP costs come from and do they include UK shipping and customs duties as per their other country options?
So shouldnt a con be no UK shipping and Returns?
Yes, you could mix and match. IMHO the thing is so well-built, it will let you stack up more weight than you'd ever want to. The bike would likely be unrideable before you go to that point.
The website charges in NZD, AUD, Euro or USD. Prices are based off of a Euro-GBP rough conversion. Thery've been selling through Rose in Germany for a while, but rose don't ship to UK anymore (another Brexit win).
As per "The rack (including one Drybag cradle) is €109.95, or about £100 before any import tax or duties, but you do get free global shipping", shipping is free - whether you get stung for import VAT/duty - like for any ex-UK package - is a guess.
Hi @secret_squirrel, Yes your right can take any mix of dry bags or our pods. Most of our demand is for the cradles - 1 on top or 2 on sides or 3 (2 on sides and 1 on top) as people like that it is a bit more flexible...given you can just strap in your dry bag or favourite tent and away you go...our pods have been very popular with EBikes. Typically, most people are using pods each side or just one on top, rather than on all 3 sides so weight limits are plenty for most people.
In terms of product in the UK - Wiggle / Chain reaction in the UK have our products arriving very shortly (available September), so should be available through there very soon, otherwise yes you can order through our website and we ship free to UK. We have had a few recent orders through the UK and havent had feedback that customs have been an issue however we cant speak to that, Apologies the prices arent in GBP on our website, hopefully update soon, you can still process payments from the UK however. Happy to answer anything further just give us an email on team [at] aeroe.com , Cheers the aeroe team.
Think you meant "seat stays" where you've said "chain stays" - and I'm not sure you'd get many of those at 50mm.
Personally, I'm not sure I really want all my luggage bouncing up and down on the middle of my seat stays, at least not on my carbon bikes.
I'm not a fan of the bike packing seat bags (wobble, height and awkward shape) and still prefer a rack with dry bag on top at the back. I've yet to have a problem fitting a rack to any of my bikes - although I've bodged a bracket on one of them in the past, I've since found a better solution with seat clamps with rack eyelets in them.
I think if I could justify it, I'd go with the Tailfin version
I'm no engineer, but I'd think that a fair concern. And perhaps more so on a bike with dropped seat stays making any force applied closer to being perpendicular.
Would perhaps be good to see this in place on a road/gravel bike rather than the full-susser it's shown on here.
I am a bike engineer and there is no way I'd be putting that on my seat stays, go over a pothole or down a kerb etc then your looking at buckled chainstays.
Something like a MTB swing arms or chunky aluminium/steel frames then you may be ok, but for a modern frame then the seat stays are getting very close to redundant, have a carbon thickness of 0.6/0.75mm and a tiny cross section. The extreme of this is the Hope Track bike where the seat stays offer zero structural suport.
I'm not an engineer either. But I had the rack fitted to steel and alloy bikes, going over some horrendously rough tracks at full blast for some long days, with no issues Previously I've mounted racks like this to a carbon frame and loaded them up with no issues. The Aeroe racks are commonly seen on the 3,000km tour Aoteaora in their native New Zealand on gravel bikes with no issues. The Thule Tour rack is basically the same concept, as is the Topeak Tetrarack R. I've never, in the process of riding, writing or researching this style of seatstay-mounted rack, ever found an example of one damaging a seatstay. Never.
So whilst it might be an intuitive concern, the fact that over a decade or so and tens of thousands of units sold, including in litigious markets like the USA and hyper-cautious/regulated ones like Germany, I can't find one example of a failure, and these companies continue to sell there, this is simply not an issue, and to say it is as someone does below is just scaremongering. If anyone's got proof this sort of rack is inherently bad for carbon or thin stays, let's see it. And 'I'm a bike engineer and I wouldn't do this' is opinion, not proof that anyone should be concerned about. Yes, bikes can be engineered not to need seatstays. 99.9999999999% of bikes do need them, and they are more than up to the job of supporting a 10kg or so weight low down like that.
This is not low down.... this is 10kg in the middle of a seat stay. While it may indeed work and apparently has, it's inherently not a sensible idea. Seat stays are not designed to be loaded like that. Its not scaremongering to say that literally no modern day road bike engineer will design their bike to take this load.
Please find just one example of a rack like this damaging a bike. Just one. Please.
No, bikes aren't specifically designed for this. They don't need to be, *because they are inherently strong enough*. This is based on a *decade* of major brands selling racks to fit on seatstays, with no recalls, no lawsuits, no proof of any damage.
A good bike engineer, if asked to design a bike to take a load in this manner, would first of all work out if a redesign was even needed. Based on the last decade's experience, the answer would be 'no, we're good thanks, crack on'. Unless they wanted to make $ selling a needlessly-overbuilt frameset, that is.
That'd be …
… surely?
FWIW, and as mentioned in your review of them, Topeak say of their equivalent(s) "TetraRack is not recommended for carbon forks and seat stays" but then show them in use on what looks suspiciously like a carbon rear triangle to me!
Just covering their asses I guess.
Hi All, understand this option might not be for everyone and that’s ok. Each to their own, however there are no issues regarding any of the items mentioned above. Every thing Mike has picked up on is spot on.
We have done significant design, engineering and testing internally and externally over many years on this.
As Mike touched on, we designed a rack called the freeload rack under a similar principle back in 2009 (before it was acquired by Thule in 2011 - now known and sold worldwide as the Thule Tour rack). Tens of thousands of people have used these products on all types of bikes and rides under the freeload and aeroe brands and Thule have sold hundreds of thousands if not millions of these over the last 10 years and have not come across any issues.
We have also had various bike engineers input and review these products in conjunction with their bikes over the years. A recent one has been the specialized bike carbon engineers in the US. Their feedback was that there are no issues here and viewed it as a great option for people to use these bikes for more things. We also work closely and are also in all Trek bike shops throughout Australia. Happy to chat further on any of this – just send us an email at team [at] aeroe.com Cheers the aeroe team
Here you go KiwiMike, here's the entirely predictable end result of placing a weighted lever on seat stays that are not designed for streses in the direction an Aeroe rack places on them.
And yet, you did it... (unless this isn't your pic)
Not my bike. I defintiely wouldn't put such stress on stays not designed to take such a load.
A Tailfin setup is a far superior solution to my mind. 22L of Taifin storage is also cheaper than 24L of Aeroe storage and a masive one kilogram lighter too - that's for folk who make out Aeroe is a much cheaper option. Neither are bargain basement products.
I've been researching the Tailfin rack (I want something that can take regular sized panniers for when commuting and needing to carry a laptop, but also offers options for more light/aero set ups for backpacking) and just a minor correction - they sell axle mounting kits and so your bike doesn't need suitable bosses even for the "full" rack. They've also recently updated the alloy versions of both the original rack and aeropack to include triple bosses, and so increased carrying capacity to 9+4.5+4.5 = 18kg without panniers.
I was looking at a tailfin rack (despite the huge cost) in order to get a heavy laptop off my back so I can enjoy the commute again. Probably would've ordered one if only they didn't have such large delays (same as many companies to be fair).
Ended up with a Carradice Cadet seatpack with their frame thing to stop it moving about. Takes a 15 inch laptop, loads more if you want and no movement whatsoever. Plus it attaches to the saddle rails so no carbon is touched (can also get a seatpost quick release for aluminium posts).
Worked out around £110 all in which compares well with the solution above and the tailfin. Slightly old school looking but I like it and apart from when you get out the saddle to sprint from the lights, you dont notice its there
Thanks, I'll look into that option. Although my work laptop is 17" so it can be trickier to fit.
Also still working from home and awaiting an update on when I'll have to start commuting again - certainly no earlier than Sep so the current Tailfin waiting times (assuming their website is accurate) wouldn't actually be a huge issue.
I did wonder whether the trunk pack thing would fit a laptop, I assume it'll just go in diagonally and you can pad it out so it doesn't look odd. The thing is, a couple years back Francis Cade of youtube fame had a prototype laptop case from them that he could fit to the side of the arch - no idea why they didn't manufacture it properly