My pictures are a little deceiving, the camera gives a fish eye of the rack, as if the rack was the biggest thing on the bike. The rack doesn't really look so big in real life. Here's a top view of the aluminum custom brackets. I snugged aluminum flat stock around the 14 mm round stock in a vice to make the custom brackets. The only trick was not to scratch the aluminum. I have had people tell me that you can hardly notice the rack on the bike. They didn't notice anything different.