Aeroe’s Rear Spider Rack is a super adaptable carrying system for your bike that negates the need for mounting hardware on your frame. The design utilises a proprietary cradle mount for your gear which can be located in a variety of locations with up to three cradles and a max weight of 16Kgs of kit should you wish. It’s fully adjustable to fit almost any frame style, shape, and material and all you need is a 5mm (torque) hex key to fit it. Is this the best off-road bike packing rack system?
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Aeroe Spider Rear Rack - Technical details
The Aeroe Spider Rear Rack is at its base level a simple U-bend aluminium tube with an adjustable cradle mount with removable luggage straps, adjustable rubber feet with silicone-coated webbing mounting straps, and stainless hardware. All that is required for mounting is a 5mm hex key (supplied) preferably with a torque-measuring attachment.
If you think the idea looks vaguely familiar to Thule's Tour Rack or even an older product called Freeload Rack there’s a reason for that, The guys behind Aeroe created the Freeload Rack (which I have a set) and then sold that to Thule. Why am I telling you this? Simple really, Aeroe has form when it comes to designing and testing racks for bikes without mounts or even with mounts but unable to carry heavier weights that can often be required touring long distances off-road. The Aeroe spider rack is a culmination of all the previous designs and a development phase lasting over 10 years.
The result is a rack system that clamps with two rubber feet on each stay with a silicone-coated webbing strap using stainless hardware that is simply tightened by a 5mm hex key to just 4nm. i.e. not a lot.
The design allows for multiple frame designs be it an e-bike, full suspension, hardtail or gravel adventure bike, heck, or even a road bike. Basically, anything that has rear seat stays. The only issue might come if the seat stays are so fat that the supplied strap cannot reach around, and they would have to be pretty big for that to happen, but it's possible. Aeroe has a good FAQ page on its site should you have issues and a contact email for questions if you find yourself in that position.
The U-shaped rack is made from anodised aluminium with the glass-reinforced nylon cradle mounted via an aluminum clamp design very similar to the face plate on an old BMX stem. Four bolts are threaded through from the cradle side into the alloy face plate with Aeroe logo embossed into it. The cradle can be mounted on the top of the rack inline with the bike or perpendicular to the bike (especially useful for small frames for clearance) or on either side in pretty much any position taking into account cable mounts and heal clearance clashes.
The Rear Rack Spider cradle comes with two nylon webbing straps with standard quick-release buckles and two slotted cable tidies. The straps can be used to hold any dry bag you have (which saves cash) or can be threaded through Aeroe’s own toughened 8L or 12L drybags available separately.
The frame mounting hardware is a Y-shaped yoke with four bolts attaching it to the rack tube via non-captive nuts. The silicone-coated webbing strap has two stainless circular holes that hook over the stainless notched rod that is adjusted by yet another 5mm hex key. Simply tightening the hex bolt pulls the rod up away from the frame and clamps the rubber-coated feet against your frame. It's recommended that you use frame protection tape with carbon frames.
Aeroe provides decent instructions on paper and online if you need them but with one tool only (plus a torque adapter to make sure it's all under 4nm) you cannot go too far wrong.
Aeroe Spider Rack - Performance
Solid is one word to describe the performance of the spider rack. Solid on the bike and solid in the security it offers its cargo and solid in the weight of the actual rack itself. Lightweight bike packers look away now - the rack weighs in at 995g with one cradle and all-mounting hardware. The second cradle weighs 355g all weighed on Park scales and then you have to add a dry bag which depending on whether you use your own or Aeroe’s tough spec versions, could add another approx 230g 8L - 310g 12L per bag.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s a pretty heavy setup before you pack it, but hang in there. It’s also incredibly rigid on your frame and when adjusted and torqued up to the correct setting, the rack showed absolutely no signs of wobble, sway, bounce, or any movement at all. Adventure riders? Do I have your attention again? It doesn’t move plus you can put 16kgs on the rack itself (not sure how that relates to the seat stays of ultra-light gravel bikes but that would be a question to the bike brand) suffice it to say the rack can take pretty much all you should want to throw at it.
I packed my tent (Vango F10 Helium UL2) Alpkit sleeping mat cooking equipment, Rab sleeping bag, pillow and liner, and all campsite clothes plus spares in a 12L and 8L Aeroe bag. Yes, that tent is quite light at about 1.2Kgs but you get the idea. Riding the bike through nasty rutted gravel descents and woodland-rooted singletrack I really couldn’t detect any untoward movement from my kit. It stayed still and only the overall weight was noticeable, but then it would be with that much stuff on the bike regardless.
Compared to the largest seat packs I have at around 20L which weigh in around 300-450g, the Aeroe setup is a lot heavier but the advantage is that I simply could not put all that kit in a pack and neither would I be able to prevent movement if I could get it in. And I’m really good at fitting those things tight.
So it works well, it’s rock solid on your bike and it’s pretty easy to fit as long as you have no cable routing issues which can cause the process to be delayed. Offering it up to the back of my Surly Mk I Krampus showed the cable seat stay issue to the max. Disc brake and gear cable run down the stays so you’ll have to remove the zip ties to get a bit of slack in the cable and then refit the cables once the rack has been fitted.
Need more capacity than the one cradle stock system? No problem, you can add more cradles or even pods (zipped up helmet style semi-hard case) to your Spider Rear Rack so that you could end up with two low profile side bags and a large one on the top or you forgo the top cradle and just use two side mounted ones. The options are completely up to you (and your wallet). Likewise, the exact position that the cradle has to be in is up to you. Should you have a small frame or large feet you can move the cradle around for greater clearance and rotate the top cradle 90 degrees to provide more heel clearance.
If you decide to use the matching Aeroe heavy-duty dry bags you will be pleasantly surprised how tough they are. Yes, they’re weighty, but you’re not going to pluck one of these on a blackthorn bush and neither is it going to rip after scuffing it against a wall or the odd off on the trail (hopefully).
If you’re looking for extended long tours or rough conditions then these might be a great solution on their own for anyone. They feature a really handy Aeroe strap mounting guide with enough slack in it to still be able to thread the buckle of the cradle strap through even when the bag is stuffed full. That’s a neat touch. Just an air release valve missing from being brilliant but you cannot have everything.
So this all sounds most excellent, and to be fair, once mounted, the system is excellent. But it’s not quite perfect, there are few little niggles during the assembly phase. When trying to mount the rack to my frame three of the four rubber plugs kept falling out of the yoke's feet making it frustrating to have to hold them in place, try to balance the rack on the frame, and then attach the silicone webbing strap to the stainless rod which also keeps falling off as the whole thing moves around. Ideally, the rubber plugs could do with being a tad tighter fit to prevent loss in the garage, van, or outdoors. If you rotate them 180 in the fet they stay in much better but are quite as flush fitting.
The four bolts on each yoke which you can undo to help align the feet to your angled seat stays or to raise or lower the rack a little - are not captive. Undo them too far and you’ll be on your knees looking for the nut. Add your own Loctite or use nylok nuts if this concerns you, but once fitted you should be fine.
Aeroe Spider Rear Rack - Value and verdict
At £119 for one Spider Rear Rack and Cradle and £184 for the setup you see here, it’s a decent investment although not as much as the Tailfin system or even some of the higher-end saddlepacks on the market. You can add another cradle to the rear - up to 3 - so you can balance out your cargo and of course, you can also add a front handlebar mounted cradle (review to follow soon) The dry bags cost £49 for 8L and £55 for the 12L versions. Your own drys bags are free to use and will work perfectly so def worth considering using what you have.
Tailfin makes a carbon or £230 Alloy Rack that attaches to your rear axle or frame mounting stub and seatpost with £160 Top Trunk Bag and side-mounted pannier or mini-pannier bags. Pricewise aeroe is a lot cheaper but the Tailfin setup is lighter and able to carry more load.
Ortlieb, the mainstay of the traditional touring market, offers various setups from traditional to lightweight gravel using their much lighter panniers and fork-mounted bags. Costs are £140 for the Gravel Pack Pannier (pair) plus another £100 for the Quick Rack and approx £57 for each Fork Pack. It’s all very good stuff and the weight is excellent but the price is heading upwards quickly.
And finally, if you know you don’t need as much weight or capacity and you’ve never suffered from a swaying seat pack then what about a setup from Apidura, MissGrape, Ortleib, or the godfather of bikepacking, Revalate. All great kit but never as completely sway-free as the aeroe Spider Rack and Cradle.
It all comes down to what you want to carry and what bike you are trying to fit it to. If you’re using a full suspension frame and/or carrying a decent chunk of stuff then the Spider Rear Rack is ideal. If you’re on a gravel bike then you have options but Aeroe's system will put an end to that swaying seat pack feeling immediately. The solidity of the setup negates any weight disadvantage of the rack and cradle weight and slightly finickety mounting issues aside, the Aeroe Spider Rear Rack is a great product for hauling your kit and I'm going to enjoy exploring with it.
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