If the new rack mods work and they carry the weight of the loaded panniers without adding a supporting arm then the mod is finished.

  

Since I brazed the new rack parts rather than bolting things together, ‘minor’ probably isn’t the best descriptor of this little project.  What I’ve learned from doing this is that the Ortliebs were pretty clearly designed for hard shell seats and so mounting them on a recumbent with a mesh seat pretty much requires widening the rear rack so it approximately equals the width of the seat back.  If I needed any more clues, the strap that joins the front of the two panniers and goes across the seat face is barely long enough…in fact I should probably add about 6 inches to it just to make sure the Velcro has enough length to get a good grip.

The rack seems pretty strong the way it is, but if need be I can a supporting arm that attaches to the outer edge of the rack top and connects at the bottom to lower rack/frame braze-on.  And if I attach it to the rack with a Cateye clamp then the arms will fold flat against the rack top when the entire assembly is removed.

The only real change I made from my original plan was to dump the idea of using Velcro to secure the rack top to the original rack.  There was no way I could get a solid mount with the Velcro that didn’t allow the new top to move somewhat.  So I used small stainless band clamps and covered the bands with heat-shrink so they wouldn’t chew up the powdercoating.  I also put some 1” pieces of clear tubing on the original rack at the spots where I installed the band clamps so the new and old rack parts wouldn’t rub against each other.

The bottom section of the new rack simply serves as a lock-down for the panniers and a way to keep them from swinging in toward the frame.  The front of that section bolts to the forward rack braze-ons, and the rear is held in place with two Velcro straps which seem to work fine.  Turns out that the space beneath the rack-top on both sides, between the panniers and the rack legs, might turn out to be convenient storage for long narrow stuff like tires, tubes and even tools. 

So now I’m just going to ride the GLO with the new panniers attached, gradually adding weight to make sure the rack top is strong enough.  

By the way, last Saturday Jim and I rode the Foothills Trail to Orting.  It was about 30 miles, and I rode the GLO for the first time with my neck rest attached.  The day's two highlights - the neck rest was absolutely perfect, and I lost my cell phone...for a change.

On to the next project.