Rix Rax or Grand Prix

Tim -

Personally I think I'd take the RixRax. It seems more substantial with heavy metal build, and very nice wood. I have seen/used the Monaco rack from GP - it's very high tech and nicely made, but I don't really care for the 'feel' of it - although the carbon fiber may be strong/desireable in it's mechanical properties, it's essentially a hollow thin shell. the shelves are nice (if you like clear acrylic), but the rear 1/2 seems not all that well supported. The feet are nicely machined, which is cool. I'd be more inclined to go with it if the carbon fiber was built as a tube fully enclosed on all sides instead of a U-shaped inverted channel (essentially). See one in person and you will see what I mean. Primarily, I use custom racks from this builder: http://www.bjtanner.com (he has the cover article in this month's Fine Woodworking magazine, FYI). Very nice build quality and fully custom, at less $ than the "big name" manufacturers. Mine are solid maple with birds-eye shelves.

enjoy
-Ed

Ed

Thanks for the input I will check your suggestion out, I was leaning to the Rix Rax more as well how ever I wanted to consider a few other options.

hi Tim, i would be careful with the combination of the Grand Prix rack and the Basis 2500.....the fluid suspension of the Basis and the 'sloppy' suspension of the Grand Prix will probably not work well together. i don't know that for sure but when you are combineing 2 different damping systems in the same directions you will introduce a certain amount of instability to the Basis. the Basis 2500 is usually somewhat 'rackproof' meaning that it doesn't much care what it sits on.....but it needs relative stability for the fluid suspension to work properly.

i tried a few different things under my 2500 and couldn't find anything that made any particular positive difference. you might consider tradeing the fluid suspension for the solid legs if you want to get creative with racks.....i never compared the 2 approaches but i would think the solid legs with a vibraplane would be killer.....but in general using two different suspensions on anything is not advisable.

imagine a car riding on 2 different suspensions......a tire-guy like you would be replacing the tires all the time. sorry, i just had to say that.

Mike- Thanks for your help as well- you know who this is for so I will relay the message :)