The thing is built like a tank. It looks spindly compared to other racks, but it's made out of solid steel wire and is very substantial. The construction is very similar to commercial-grade wire shelving. The welds look deceptively small, but the wire is arc-melted together with no filler. There is a lot of surface area in the joined areas. It's not just bomb proof. It would survive a nuclear attack. Nothing less then a grinder would put a dent in it.

This is easily the most robust bicycle rack I have ever used.

Two major downsides:

1. It's heavy.

2. It is designed for more traditional basic bicycles with 26 tires. It's going to require some modification to the mounts to fit on a lot of bikes. I would not buy it if you are not comfortable with the idea that you may have to make your own metal tabs using a file and drill to make sure it's solidly mounted to your bicycle.

The upside to the weight and lack of adjustability is that it's very solid and once attached well it becomes a structural part of your bicycle.

Don't buy this if you want something light weight. Don't buy it if you want something that will work with zero effort unless you have a traditional style bike. Get it because you want to have something that is affordable and is built to last.

This rack is brilliant. It's solid steel, made in Kentucky. Unlike the fancy imported racks that are mostly made of hollow aluminum tubing, and sometimes made of tubular steel, this Wald rack is solid and can be bent without kinking and crushing the tube.

With the hollow aluminum racks, the rack pretty much must fit the bike the way it's provided. That used to be a pretty straightforward thing, since bikes and racks were standardized. But since we've gone from 5-speed freewheels, to 6-speed, 7-speed, 8-speed, 9-speed, 10-speed, 11-speed and sometimes with disc brakes and other times without, sometimes with inch or inch and a quarter tires, but often with 45mm or 50mm or even "fat" tires bikes, the rear-end of bicycles no longer have any kind of standards -- or you could say they have 178 different "standards."

Want a rack that fits? Get this one and bend it to fit. I tried 7 other racks, including so-called "disc" racks, from Topeak, Bontrager, Tubus, Ortleib, Blackburn, and more... that did not fit a 2019 Cannondale, two of which Cannondale claimed could fit "with modifications." This Wald fit perfectly with two careful bends using a wide bench vise with wood jaws.

I bought a second Wald, because this rack fits my 80's Schwinn without any bending. I would just use this for any bicycle and avoid buying those $150 racks that don't even fit.

This is a quality steel bike rack that is actually very durable and stable now that I've gotten it properly installed. I ride a Giant Rincon with 26" rear wheels.

- First off, the hardware that comes with this is a joke. So you'll want to get a thicker nut and bolt for the mounting piece to the rear of your bike. I ended up getting a nice thick bolt and butterfly nut that worked perfectly once we measured things out.

- Additionally, there is another itsy bitsy sized nut and bolt for connecting the rack to the provided mounting piece. It is very flimsy, so again scope out what hardware will work with the items and your bike.

- We had to bend in the bottom connection pieces to the rear wheel axle. Once we did this it slid right into place. We also had to bend the mounting piece to get around the rear brakes.

Once we got through the initial conniption fit about the hardware and odd angle of the hardware, it was just figuring out the proper hardware for my bike specifically.

While the installation was tough, I don't regret getting this high quality, American-made, sturdy bike rack. It's good product and I've ended up loving it in conjunction with my Wald 582 pannier baskets for picking up groceries and whatnot around downtown DC.

The title says it all. It's solid, good quality, and make in the USA. It costs a bit more, but is much better than the cheap Chinese crap. Plus, it's one of the very few you can get in a chrome finish. Most at alum. with black powder coat or paint. Those never hold up. Or even ir they're steel, they're zinc plated or painted. Cheap! The only thing I don't care for on this, is the attachment on the front. They really need to give a couple of three mounting options to connect to the bike in the front. This one didn't work for my bike, so I had to fabricate one that would.

This piece was a bit tricky and took me about 30 minutes to install. Lack of instructions certainly didn't help, but the biggest issue was figuring out what went where.

Once I decided how the pieces were supposed to fit together, and how that was likely to actually play out on my bike, it went together pretty quickly. It wasn't an exact fit, but with things screwed down I am not worried about it falling off before the frame of the bike fails.

You will probably need an additional bolt and nut to attach it to your seat post, so be aware of that. The two bolts that secure the bottom to the frame do look like they will hit the sprocket at first, but there is a quarter inch gap, so it seems to be fine.

The only improvement I would suggest is some tabs on the rack itself to provide additional places to attach bungie cords, locks, flowers, whatever. As it is, it is a secure platform to build on, but is not a carrying mechanism in itself.
As a bonus, if you want to use a detachable fender/mudguard on the back, there is *exactly* enough room to put that on and still clear the top of the rack (you will not however be able to put anything on the rack while you are doing so).