Top

Old Man Mountain Fat Divide Rack Review

I’ve been rocking an Old Man Mountain (OMM) Divide Fat Rack on my fat-bike, Ten Beers, since late last Summer. We shared a product spotlight about this newest generation of racks from OMM. In that article, I tried to share what the new rack looked like and share some of the details. For those that need a refresher on the spec’s I’ve copied these from my previous article (below).

The Divide and Divide Fat rack specs are as follows:

  • Weight: 
    • Divide: 970g 
    • Divide Fat: 1050g
  • Tire clearance:
    • Divide: Up to 3”
    • Divide Fat: up to 26×5” or 27.5×4.6”
  • Deck Size:
    • Divide: 100x266mm
    • Divide Fat: 130x306mm
  • Fits front or rear, just swap the extenders
  • Top deck with slots for lashing gear and holes for mounting lights at either end
  • Height adjustable dropouts
  • Pricing:
    • Divide: $148
    • Divide Fat: $158
    • Divide Made in USA: $180
    • Divide Fat Made in USA: $190
    • Fit Kits (optional for axle mounting rack): $62-80

Our test rack came specifically outfitted to fit my Fatback Corvus FLT. The kit included a special thruaxle and dozens of carefully labeled and packaged hardware kits. The rack attaches at the thruaxel and at molded plastic pucks that ziptie to the chainstays. They provide clear vinyl adhesive patches to protect the seatstays. I found the fit of this rack to be the very best that I’ve ever tested. The weight of the cargo that this rack supports is centered over the rear axle and the deck of the rack could be adjusted to run as low as possible. The positioning of the rack is far enough back that I never experienced any heel interference with full sized panniers.

The pucks help with the Dived Rack’s versatility and makes taking the rack on and off of the bike a snap. I switch things around quite a bit and the first time that I took the Fat Divide off of Ten Beers, I cut the zipties that hold the pucks onto the seat stays and removed the two bolts at the ends of the Thru axle and the rack was off. When I went to put the rack on, I inadvertently trapped one of my cables under the ziptie that hold the puck on place. I emailed OMM customer service and asked if it was ok to use standard zip ties. They replied the same day and sent me more zip ties. The pro-tip that they also mentioned was to unbolt the support arm from the puck instead of cutting the heavy duty flat zipties. That would mean riding around with a couple of pucks attached to the bike.

I’m not 100% sold on the long term durability of the Puck/Carbon Seatstay interface. I think that it’s probably pretty important to stay within the seventy pound weight limit on this kind of installation. Giving a drunk gnome a ride on your rack is probably a bad idea, but bad ideas do make for more interesting stories. The bulk of the weight carried on the rack is borne by the thruaxle, but I’m curious about how strong my carbon seat stays are with regard to forces transferred from the rack’s cargo through the pucks. I bet that they’ve done a bunch of testing, but that’s what I get for riding a carbon fiber bike. I get to worry about stuff that will probably not happen. All of that being said, the current situation is that they’re working perfectly fine. I shall try to update you all with puck reports throughout the winter on our Instagram @fatbikedotcom.

The bottom line is that the Fat Divide made for an excellent rear rack on my fatty. It makes me wonder how it would work as a front rack? Or how would it work on a full suspension fat-bike? They assured me that they’ve got it all figured out with their sophisticated catalog of hardware kits that help turn every bike into a backcountry RV. This is the good stuff right here. The company’s customer service exceeded my expectations as well as the quality and innovation in the final product. The Old Man Mountain Fat Divide Rack is simply the best rack that money can buy for your fat-bike.

4.625 Flaming Danger Gnomes out of 5

For more details about the Divide or Divide Fat, visit Old Man Mountain’s website at oldmanmountain.com

,

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply