Carrying Cargo: Old Man Mountain Sherpa Rack & Chrome Barrage Pannier

I’ve recently been riding the Cube Stereo Hybrid 160 HPC SL eMTB as an all around eBike for off road and on road adventures, commuting, and errand running. 

It has also been a good test eBike for a number of accessories that enable it to be a great do-it-all eBike. 

Carrying cargo is an important part for adventure rides and running errands around town. 

A good combination of gear for carrying cargo on this full suspension eMTB is the Old Man Mountain Sherpa Rack with Chrome Barrage Pannier.

The Cube Stereo Hybrid 160 HPC SL eMTB is a well built eMTB that features a carbon fiber front triangle with aluminium 160mm rear suspension, 170mm Rock Shox front suspension, Bosch Gen 4 CX motor, 625 Wh Bosch Power Tube battery, SRAM NX drivetrain, Magura brakes, and Schwalbe 27.5″ x 2.6″ tires. It is priced at $5,499.

It’s fun for any kind of riding and its a good bike to test out some of these new eBike accessories. 

Old Man Mountain Sherpa Rack

With 160mm of rear suspension travel the Cube Stereo Hybrid 160 HPC SL eMTB is a challenging bike platform to test the Old Man Mountain Sherpa rack on with its full suspension design and lower seat stays.

It is priced at $210 as set up in this review and Old Man Mountain racks have a lifetime guarantee. 

The Old Man Mountain racks are built to fit almost any kind of bike with their innovative Fit Kit system.

The Sherpa rack can fit so many different types of bikes: commuter, road, gravel, mountain, full suspension, etc. 

The Fit Kit comes in a well organized box with everything you need for installation. 

When selecting the rack on the Old Man Mountain website there is a helpful Fit Kit guide and they have a large database of bike types to help you select the correct set up.

The main attachment point for the rack is the axle of the wheel that offers a lot of structural strength allowing the Sherpa rack to carry up to 70 pounds of cargo. 

In addition, the axle connection adds an attachment point to some bikes that many not have originally been designed for rack attachment. For instance a full suspension bike, a carbon fiber frame, etc. 

The Robert Axle Project is the company that recently bought the Old Man Mountain Racks company and they supply the axle in the Fit Kit. Robert Axle Project offers a lot of specialized axles for bikes in general.

Here is a look at the left side of the new axle installed on the bike with the rack ready to be attached.

This is the rack installed with a bolted connection to the new axle.

This connection is much stronger than a typical rack because of the larger connection area and the bolt itself is not in a shear load scenario that is typical of most racks. 

Here is the base Sherpa rack without the Fit Kit installed.

The Sherpa rack can be moved to another bike by getting a new Fit Kit.

The rack can also be moved to the front of the bike by getting the correct Fit Kit for front attachment. 

The front attachment uses the same axle system for solid connection. As you can see it can be mounted on a suspension fork!

The Classic Sherpa rack fits almost any bike with a tire width of 3″ or less.

Old Man Mountain also makes the Fat Sherpa that will fit fat bikes with 4″ wide tires and larger. 

The 6063 aluminum rack is built with 1/2″ diameter tubing for the main structure and 3/8″ diameter tubing for the top rails for bag and pannier attachment. 

Old Man Mountain Racks and all the parts are made in the USA!

This is the dropout that is typically positioned in the other direction but this position worked best for the installation on the Cube Stereo Hybrid 160 HPC SL eMTB.

In this view you can see that the rack has plenty of clearance between the disc brake on the left side of the bike. 

Similarly on the right side there is a lot of clearance to the frame. 

The other connection points are the Pucks and Extenders that connect to the seat stays. 

The Pucks are attached to the frame with the supplied zip ties. Also supplied is clear protective tape for the frame. 

This connection is pretty sturdy and the rack in general feels very solid, even when loaded heavily on one side.

I tested the rack with heavy loads while riding in pretty tough off-road conditions and it handled the challenge well. 

The Old Man Mountain Sherpa Rack with Fit Kit is priced at $210 and that is on the pricier side for a rack.

With that premium price you get a USA made sturdy rack capable of carrying 70 pounds, a rack that can fit almost any kind of bike with the ability to be used front or rear, and a lifetime guarantee. 

You can learn more at Old Man Mountain Racks at their website.

Chrome Barrage Pannier

Next up is the new Chrome Barrage Pannier with high capacity for up to 21 L of cargo volume. This is a good pannier combined with the Old Man Mountain Sherpa rack. 

Chrome bags are built to be tough and long lasting with durable materials and the Barrage Pannier is a good example of that. Chrome bags are guaranteed for life!

The Chrome Barrage Pannier is priced at $180 with free shipping. 

There is a side pocket for quick access to smaller items. 

The large top buckle has a solid engagement and sturdy connection. 

The interior is pretty basic with the main open compartment and a side compartment for up to a 13″ laptop.

The material is 100% waterproof so you don’t have to worry about your cargo on a rainy day.

It comes with a carry strap for off the bike transport. 

There is an exterior cargo net that is good for holding a helmet, shoes, or other large bulky items. 

The cargo net has strapping that can be adjusted and the strap has some reflective striping.  

Speaking of reflectivity, the lower part of the bag has these large reflective logos.

The lower part of the bag has extra durable material. 

There are 2 attachment clips along the top rail of the rack. 

Once the pannier is attached to the rack rail the top of the clip is rotated to create a solid connection to the rail.

The pannier has a very sturdy feel, even when riding off-road on challenging terrain. The Cube Stereo Hybrid 160 HPC SL eMTB  was a good test bike for this!

The Barrage Pannier comes with shims to fit smaller rack tubing size if necessary. I used the shims for the attachment to the Old Man Mountain Sherpa rack. 

Chrome states that the Barrage Pannier will fit racks with 6mm to 12mm tubing sizes. 

The clips can be moved so you can dial in where you want the bag to be located on the rack.

Just remove the screw and move the attachment clip to the preferred location and reattach the screw. 

This is the lower rack attachment clip that can also be moved along the track to dial in the position of the pannier on the rack.

The clip can also be positioned the other way if desired.

Here is a look at the lower attachment clip connection to the lower tubing of the Old Man Mountain Sherpa rack.

It did a good job to keep the Barrage Pannier in place even during rough off road riding. 

At $180 the Chrome Barrage Pannier is on the pricey side but like many Chrome products it is built to last (lifetime guarantee) and provides a lot of cargo carrying capacity. 

You can learn more about the Chrome Barrage Pannier here. 

Stay tuned for more e-bike news and reviews and thanks for reading!

-Pete

Review Note: All of these products were given to electricbikereport.com with no requirement for return. 

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