DIY inserts for Tubus racks

In the mad rush before we left London, we didn’t get around to testing out our new Tubus racks with our Ortlieb panniers. When we arrived in Mexico and tried them out for the first time, we realised that we were missing the plastic Ortlieb specific inserts for the smaller diameter tubing on the Tubus racks.

After talking with Cormac at thetouringstore.com, I discovered that it would have cost $48 USD for 16 plastic inserts plus anther $24 USD for international shipping to Mexico! It was clear that a bit of creative DIY was in order.

Cormac recommended just using some thick tape wrapped around the tubing to increase the diameter. I augmented this solution by cutting up some strips from a used inner tube.

Key advantages of this method over the standard Ortlieb inserts:

• much cheaper than buying extra inserts from Ortlieb
• achieves a better fit than the stock inserts (no more rattling panniers!)
• the rubber provides some shock absorption between the rack and the panniers
• after time, the pannier mount wears a notch in the rubber and fits into place perfectly