Marty my friend,
You could really afford that Bruce Gordon stuff, "back in the day"? For me, back-in-the-day meant a $5.00 Pletscher carrier and those $5.00-per-pair canvas panniers from American Youth Hostels. (Then again, a ticket to see The Who at the Fillmore East was $3.00)
Anyway, this was even before Pletscher included that "T" shaped thing in their hardware package. So to prevent your carrier from sliding down and stripping the paint on the chainstays, you had to get some .063" aluminum sheet from the hobby shop and make your own.
Actually, I definitely saw nice racks from Jack Taylor, Singer and even Herse in those primeval years. But those bikes were owned by men and women as old as my parents! I mean, we're talking about professorial types, who took sabbaticals in Europe and returned home with genuine cyclo-touring bikes...
BTW, if you go to the current Pletscher Web site:
http://www.pletscher.ch/
Fred Rednor - "strutting my stuff" in Arlington, Virginia (USA)
> From: Martin Walsh <mowalsh@verizon.net>
\r?\n> Subject: RE: [CR]Recommendations for racks and panniers
\r?\n> To: "CR List" <ClassicRendezvous@bikelist.org>
\r?\n> Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008, 11:25 PM
\r?\n> Dear CR listees,
\r?\n> Jerry Moos asked about "quality racks and
\r?\n> panniers".
\r?\n> Bruce Gordon has been known for a long time as one of the
\r?\n> top makers of
\r?\n> racks and now panniers.
\r?\n> I have a set of Bruce Gordon racks and they are first
\r?\n> class! Back in the
\r?\n> day,one used Robert Beckman panniers with the Bruce Gordon
\r?\n> racks.They
\r?\n> have gone their separate ways and now Bruce is selling his
\r?\n> own line of
\r?\n> panniers to work with his rack system.
\r?\n> Bruce's racks feature many little extras.They're
\r?\n> not inexpensive but top
\r?\n> quality seldom is from my experience.Other frame builders
\r?\n> on the list
\r?\n> also make custom racks. Here's the link to Bruce
\r?\n> Gordon's website:
\r?\n> http://www.bgcycles.com/
\r?\n> my touring
\r?\n> bicycle has worked wonderfully.
\r?\n> The racks incorporate braze ons for shortening the fender
\r?\n> stays to the
\r?\n> rack.Bruce also sells all sorts of fittings to make his
\r?\n> racks work.Check
\r?\n> out the website!
\r?\n> Good luck with the bicycle commuting!
\r?\n> Yours truly,
\r?\n> Marty Walsh in Vienna,Virginia in the UNITED STATES OF
\r?\n> AMERICA