Roof Rack Stories

[Hawker]

Seems like there are a couple of threads right now about roof racks.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done the unthinkable. In my case I had the entire family in the car and just before we left home I told wife and kids, "don't let Daddy forget the bike on the roof" As we checked into a motel in WV I attempted to drive up to the front door...which had an overhang. Being the great family they are they all yelled "Bike!" just as I hit that sucker and destroyed the bars and saddle on my Cannondale. What a sickening feeling as I hit it and then as I had to decide whether or not to get out of the car.

I have a friend in CO who ran into his garage with his road bike on the roof. One week later he did it again with his mountain bike. This is a very bright and successful guy...most of the time.

[Idris Icabod]

I've known multiple people who have done this (mostly in CO as well for some reason), the best are:

One friend destroyed his bike running it in to his garage, replacement bike was a couple of months old and on his friends rack. Friend drove in to our work which has an underground parking garage destroying the replacement. Those two didn't speak to each other for several days.

Another two friends at the same work place are car pooling, non-driver has his Pinarello (which he bought from driver which was a replacement for another garaged bike) on top of car. Mentions to the driver, don't park under building with my bike on top. Less than a minute later driver drives in to garage (passenger thought he was jokingly heading to garage). Roof racks rip from car, roof dented on Subaru not a scratch on bike.

I have a roof rack but don't use it because I am way too stupid to remember not to drive in to the garage.

[bzbvh5]

I a friend that was drivinig to a week long cycling vacation. He swerved to miss some dead animal in the road. The car went right then left, the bike and roof rack only went right and kept going. When he backed up to see the carnage, only the left hand brake was undamaged.

[eddief]

can we talk about car accidents next?

[David Kirk]

While I was working at Serotta we heard many (too many) roof rack stories. One sticks out because the guy was so mad at us.

We built him his bike and sent it off to his dealer and he picked it up and put it on his brand new roof rack on his brand new SAAB and went home to have fun with it. Of course he hit the button, opened the garage door and drove right in totaling the bike and doing no small amount of damage to the car.

He then called the dealer and when the dealer could not give him what he wanted he called the factory. He wanted us to give him a new bike for free. I didn't take too many calls back then but for some reason this one ended up at my desk and the guy told me that we owed him a new bike because he'd never even ridden it. I really didn't follow the logic but understood how upset he was. I recall telling him that wasn't a 25 cent ice cream cone that his kid dropped right after walking away from the counter but instead was a very expensive piece of gear that we couldn't just give away. I told him I understood it really sucked but there was nothing we could do.

He was not at all happy with this and even when I offered to give him a bike a reduced cost he wasn't going for it and never really came to terms that it was he that drove the car/bike into the garage. As I recall we never heard from him again. I suspect he was so upset and embarrassed by doing it and then not taking responsibility for doing it that he just could call again.

I really felt for the guy.

Dave

[RPS]

Roof Rack Stories
Thus far never an issue, so my only story is that its all been OK. :beer:

[yodelinpol]

Worst thread ever.

[AngryScientist]

finally - a justification for having my garage so full of crap that i could never fit a car into it!

[Louis]

Worst thread ever.

Do you work for Thule or Yakima? ;)

[MattTuck]

I prevent these sorts of accidents by not having a garage. So far, has been 100% effective.

For those that have garages, why not do something like put the garage clicker in the trunk of the car so you are forced to stop and get out.... or get one of these. http://www.snewsnet.com/cgi-bin/snews/04778.html

No real good solution for doing it at a public parking garage... just be alert, I guess. Or get a hitch mount system.

[blantonator]

i did this with my surly on my mint '90 BMW 325IS. I wish that bike wasn't so damn stiff, because it's a lot cheaper to replace a frame than to ruin the roof of your car. I now use a hitch rack.

[Hawker]

Worst thread ever.

Well then maybe we could here from some folks who have found ways to keep the garage-thing from happening. I've heard of signs, reflectors, beepers and lasers. Any of them actually work?

I now drive a station wagon, that works best for me.

[eddief]

not even close, but it reminds me of the day i was going to build up my brand new custom steve rex. was taking the frameset out to the garage and banged the lovely newly painted seat stay on the rough concrete corner of my back porch.

i should have called steve and asked him to do a full repaint free of charge...instead of spending hours learning about, buying the touch up products, and then spending days on touching up a 2 cm paint chip.


While I was working at Serotta we heard many (too many) roof rack stories. One sticks out because the guy was so mad at us.

We built him his bike and sent it off to his dealer and he picked it up and put it on his brand new roof rack on his brand new SAAB and went home to have fun with it. Of course he hit the button, opened the garage door and drove right in totaling the bike and doing no small amount of damage to the car.

He then called the dealer and when the dealer could not give him what he wanted he called the factory. He wanted us to give him a new bike for free. I didn't take too many calls back then but for some reason this one ended up at my desk and the guy told me that we owed him a new bike because he'd never even ridden it. I really didn't follow the logic but understood how upset he was. I recall telling him that wasn't a 25 cent ice cream cone that his kid dropped right after walking away from the counter but instead was a very expensive piece of gear that we couldn't just give away. I told him I understood it really sucked but there was nothing we could do.

He was not at all happy with this and even when I offered to give him a bike a reduced cost he wasn't going for it and never really came to terms that it was he that drove the car/bike into the garage. As I recall we never heard from him again. I suspect he was so upset and embarrassed by doing it and then not taking responsibility for doing it that he just could call again.

I really felt for the guy.

Dave

[yodelinpol]

Well then maybe we could here from some folks who have found ways to keep the garage-thing from happening. I've heard of signs, reflectors, beepers and lasers. Any of them actually work?

I now drive a station wagon, that works best for me.

How about a big trip wire connected to a bell....

Or maybe one of those gas station signal bells?

Neighbors would love it too!

http://www.miltonsbells.com/

[Idris Icabod]

In all the cases I have known personally the homeowners insurance has covered the losses. My friend with the Pinarello (above) had his 10 year old Pinarello replaced with the new steel Pinarello Opera at the current cost ($3K including Ultegra group).

[bart998]

In 1980 I was one of four riders going to a race in SF Bay area. Four bikes on the roof of the drivers Renault Le Car. About 7am on a Sunday morning. I see the driver's eyes go wide in the rear view mirror. I turn and look and observe one rack w/four bikes, air born, following us. The rack touched down (still up right!) and bikes exploded everywhere. Then four riders are chasing bike parts all over the freeway. Fortunately not much traffic at that time and day... Friendly CHP yelled at us, then blocked traffic to help.

[torquer]

Roof racks and overhead obstructions are like racing and crashing: not a question of if but when.
My when:
Driving back from a vacation, we were overnighting in a hotel with indoor-only parking. Ground floor had extra headroom, with a hanging sign announcing the clearance, and I slowly drove under it; nothing touched, I figured we were OK.
Leaving the next morning, the seat of the bike facing backward snagged an exposed sprinkler line. Bike pivoted up around front fork mount before I stopped, so only damage was to the bracket that held down the rear wheel (wheel was fine) but I just about crapped my pants.
If you can't trust the signage at a Holiday Inn, who can ya' trust?

[BumbleBeeDave]

PICTURES!We need PICTURES! :crap:

BBD

[Tom]

A few years ago (OK, maybe 15 years ago) a guy I knew told me he did the unthinkable... he spent $2k on a mountain bike.

Three weeks later he told me he was driving down the Northway and heard a funny noise. He looked in the rear view mirror in time to see his bike cartwheeling down the road. He had forgotten to tighten the front strap properly on the roof rack.

He said it was 2000 bucks well spent because the only damage was one of the brake levers needed replacing.

[pjmsj21]

I hate to admit that I have done this twice...yes I am a slow learner.

The first time I had my steel Gunnar on the roof of my Totyota and ran into a canopy at our local dry cleaners. The good news is the Gunnar survived with just a few minor scratches, however the roof had about $600 in damage done to it.

The second time it involved my beloved Fierte IT. The dropouts on the fork had to be replaced and Serotta was so very nice and did the job gratis. I noted this in an earlier post about Serotta's super service and it is one of just many reasons that if I ever tire of my Fierte I would only replace it with a Ottrott.

I now put a ladder or folding chair in front of my garage door whenever I pull the bike out of the garage, that wont allow me to drive in when I return tired and mind numb.

Pat Mc

[tuxbailey]

I am so glad that I chose to have a hitch rack on my CR-V. On the sedan I just take the front wheel off and put the bike in the back seat.

[rice rocket]

I have a CR-V!

I still fold down one seat though and toss it in, no wheels to remove. The corner of the seat rests right in the front triangle, so it doesn't get anything greasy. Dog sleeps next to the bike in the other passenger seat with bars in her face, but she doesn't care.

Edit: oh, I thought this was the dog/bike thread. My bad.

[bigflax925]

I did it with my then brand new Kestrel MX-Z on the roof of my Volvo 760.

To make matters worse, I was trying to get out of a friends driveway. It was shaped so that I had to pull forward to get enough room to back up and turn again to head straight out.

Yep, pull forward and crunch. Didn't do any damage to my Kestrel or Yakima rack, but the rack pads crushed the roof of my car. :(

For a short time after that, I changed over to an Enflite rack which presented it's own problems.

[TimmyB]

I had a bike nearly fly off my roofracks about a year ago.

I was on my way to move into my new apartment in the Bay Area from Goleta/Santa Barbara, so the car was jampacked full of everything I own - forcing me to put my bikes on the roof. I'm minding my own business blasting tunes, you know, stoked on new things/opportunities.

I get all the way to some small town a little south of San Jose, where it's pretty windy. All of a sudden I heard a WHAP/BANG. I was passing an RV at the time, and I noticed he all of a sudden has drastically reduced his speed. Weird, I thought. Then I glanced in my side mirror and notice HOLY ????! One of the bikes is dangling off the side of the car only attached to the loop that goes through the rear wheel. The bike had somehow come loose from the fork mount skewer thing. Thankfully that rear wheel loop thing was enough to support the weight of the bike flapping in the wind / off the side of the car.

And thank god it was my steel track bike and not the carbon road bike! Minimal paint damage to the car but the bike was fine. SteelISreal. It certainly was enough to give me a serious heart attack though. Ever since, bikes go in the hatchback.

[sbparker31]

I have a few of these stories.

First time it happened, I have my fairly new Giant TCR on the roof rack of my car, and did what many people do -- just drove into the garage. When I heard it hit, I stopped quickly. Luckily (I guess), the only damage was to the top of the garage door and the bike holder -- I had the one that the entire bike straps on without removing the front wheel. That is what saved the bike. It snapped the strap and the bike fell over.

Second time it happened, I was driving under the overhang to check into a hotel. Because of the first incident, I knew that I had 8'6" of clearance with the bike on the rack. The sign on the overhead said 9'. So I drove right under, and CRASH. This time the bike frame was cracked, the rack was ripped off the roof of the car, damaging the rack and the car. I got out of the car, asked a maintenance person nearby to borrow his tape measure, and the measured that the overhang was in fact 8'. The hotel was kind enough to replace the bike, the rack and repair the car.

I have also many related stories with racks and surfboards. It is in fact much more likely to have these incidents with surfboards, as the surf culture (at least 20 years ago) encouraged certain activities post surf outing (recall Fast Times). I have looked in my rear view mirror and seen a surfboard flying through the air at 50 mph. Actually kind of beautiful in a sickening kind of way. And that was my brand new surfboard. On another occasion, after surfing, a friend and I put our boards on the rack and drove home. When we arrived, my board was still there. His wasn't. He is still mad at me 20+ years later because he said he asked me to strap his board down. I swear, I didn't hear him, or I didn't really understand him. It's all kind of hazy now.

[tiretrax]

I have also many related stories with racks and surfboards. It is in fact much more likely to have these incidents with surfboards, as the surf culture (at least 20 years ago) encouraged certain activities post surf outing (recall Fast Times). I have looked in my rear view mirror and seen a surfboard flying through the air at 50 mph. Actually kind of beautiful in a sickening kind of way. And that was my brand new surfboard. On another occasion, after surfing, a friend and I put our boards on the rack and drove home. When we arrived, my board was still there. His wasn't. He is still mad at me 20+ years later because he said he asked me to strap his board down. I swear, I didn't hear him, or I didn't really understand him. It's all kind of hazy now.


sounds like it was hazy then, too!

[SEABREEZE]

All the experiences I read in this thread, is why I never used a roof rack.

Sooner or later, now matter how assertive you are, it will get you.

[lurpy]

Following a MTB race my buddy put his front wheel into the front wheel mount on my Yakima without closing the quick release. A few miles later, on a slight downhill grade, we heard a mysterious thump and I looked into the rearview to see a bike wheel rolling down the interstate among all the other Sunday afternoon traffic. We circled back at the next exit to find his front wheel leaning up against the guard rail with absolutely no damage! Certainly could have been much worse, both for his wheel and for drivers taking evasive manuvers.

[1happygirl]

I have a few of these stories.
Second time it happened, I was driving under the overhang to check into a hotel. Because of the first incident, I knew that I had 8'6" of clearance with the bike on the rack. The sign on the overhead said 9'. So I drove right under, and CRASH. This time the bike frame was cracked, the rack was ripped off the roof of the car, damaging the rack and the car. I got out of the car, asked a maintenance person nearby to borrow his tape measure, and the measured that the overhang was in fact 8'. The hotel was kind enough to replace the bike, the rack and repair the car.


Wow, just wow. Good exists. Still.

I have said before driving into a garage in Austin to see you know who (my infatuation phase) with my bike upstairs on my Yakima rack. Dented my roof. A lot. Swore I'd never be the one. Never think that. Last time I put the bike out side the car.

[TimmyB]

I have also many related stories with racks and surfboards. It's all kind of hazy now.I'm with you on that one. Got plenty of "hazy" stories relating to boards flying off the roofs of cars and the like. Best one was the rack completely detached from my friends car. Seeing four boards still attached to a roofrack fly off the car and roll down the highway is an interesting thing to say the least. Luckily my board was in the middle and unscathed :hello:

[chuckroast]

I think I've told this story before on this forum but here we go:

On some Sunday in 2003, I had a really dirty car and a really muddy mountain bike. I had the genius idea of taking them both to the coin operated car wash so I put the mountain bike on the roof rack and headed over.

I'm not a dope, I checked really really really close before I drove into the bay. No problems. Washed the car, washed the bike (still up on the rack). All's good.

Then I drove out the other end of the bay.

I didn't check.....

[rustychisel]

We had significant renovation work done to our home in 2008/09 so I took the opportunity to make sure the carport design was correct. Car, roofrack, my bike = 4 inches clearance.

[Mr. Squirrel]

keep going, keep going, you are good....<crunch> nuk nuk nuk!! :D

mr. squirrel

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_49XvLCCGtQk/S-BkYqMJkLI/AAAAAAAAAjE/U1X5fhpQQKs/s1600/squirrel+roof1.jpg

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . I will never have a roof rack. If the bike doesn't fit inside the car I don't take it with me.

BBD

[sbparker31]

I have one more -- this one was truly repressed in my mind due to its traumatic nature.

So it was January 3rd one year, and my wife finally convinced me to get rid of the Christmas tree. So like a good schleper, I dragged the tree down to my car, and attached it to the top of my racks, well secured with some twine I found in my toolbox. I was planning to drop it at the landfill on my way to work that morning.

Being that I live in San Diego, one has to drive on the freeway to get most places. So I'm happily cruising in the slow lane down the 5 freeway, going less than the flow of traffic (which was about 80). I reached point where the freeway splits into another freeway (805 for those in the know), and I found myself in the center lane. Then I hear this horrible ripping sound, and in my rearview mirror I see the tree flying through the air and land right in the middle of the stinking freeway.

Now really, what can a person do? It's not like you can pull over and run out to the middle of the freeway to get your tree. Anyway, I had to drive about 3 miles before I could exit and turn around and come back the other way. All the while I am just sure I'm going to see some massive pileup with cars flaming and bodies strewn all over the freeway.

When I got back to the scene of the crime, the tree was not there. Gone. Not even twigs. I still don't know what happened. And before you ask, no, I had not just been surfing. . .

[nahtnoj]

I once lost a bike off the roof at about 70mph. I forgot to fasten the rear wheel strap, and the first serious crosswind once I got up to highway speed flipped the bike off the rack and into the roadway. Amazingly, very little damage.

[pdmtong]

Here's a good one.

Used to load up windsurf gear while car in the garage. board on rack, nose first, fin up. back out. no problem. one day I put a bigger fin on the board to get more bite since its a lite air day. fin was just talle nough it caught the garage door while I was backing out and ripped my roof rack off the car from the back to the front. nice ripples in the roof. no damage to board or finbox. good thing it was a yakimass gutterless clip on a honda prelude....if guttered...bye bye roof.

never drove into a garage door....always put a ladder out in the place to prevent that. Toyota long bed and two suburbans later...bikes always inside unless on thule T2 hitch mount.

[Louis]

. . . I will never have a roof rack. If the bike doesn't fit inside the car I don't take it with me.

I do the same with my Integra, but back in the day when I was also transporting my GF's bike I used my hitch rack to carry both. No real problems with that, but my total miles with bikes on the hitch is not that huge.

The only way I would use a roof-rack would be if I really had no choice in auto selection and had to buy a car that could not accommodate the bike. There are options out there (though somewhat limited IMO, when I look for something I like) so I doubt I'll be using a roof rack any time soon.

A hitch mounted rack is certainly not foolproof, but probably a whole lot safer.

[tooonee]

Borrowed a car from a friend. Put my bike on the rack. Drove out of my apartment parking structure and BAM! forgot I couldn't do that. Ripped the rack half way off, bars got a little cosmetic damage, but I just put the bike in the car and drove away. Neighbor asked me if my bike was thrashed later and I acted like I didn't hear him as I passed by.

Roof racks are cool and come in handy sometimes but I definitely won't get one.

[radsmd]

Rocketbox on the roof rack which normally fits into the garage fine, but wife has this knack of driving into the garage before the roll up garage door is fully up. This is usually not a problem since she know how tall the car is (without the rocketbox). This time she forgot about the box and rams into the still moving garage door.

Had to get a whole new garage door.

[Louis]

All these stories are yet more proof of how we are creatures of habit, never more so when we are driving. It happens to me every now and then when I have to take my car to the dealer for servicing. 99.9% of the time when I leave my subdivision I take a left at the main road and head to the highway. When going to Acura dealership I have to take a right instead. On at least two occasions I've left the house knowing that I needed to go to the dealer, but when I got to the main road I automatically took a left, because that's what I always do.

There may be a connection here to drivers not "seeing" cyclists. I can imagine a driver on auto-pilot taking a left in front of a cyclist because he or she is just used to looking for cars, not cyclists.

[Hawker]

I have one more -- this one was truly repressed in my mind due to its traumatic nature.

So it was January 3rd one year, and my wife finally convinced me to get rid of the Christmas tree. So like a good schleper, I dragged the tree down to my car, and attached it to the top of my racks, well secured with some twine I found in my toolbox. I was planning to drop it at the landfill on my way to work that morning.

Being that I live in San Diego, one has to drive on the freeway to get most places. So I'm happily cruising in the slow lane down the 5 freeway, going less than the flow of traffic (which was about 80). I reached point where the freeway splits into another freeway (805 for those in the know), and I found myself in the center lane. Then I hear this horrible ripping sound, and in my rearview mirror I see the tree flying through the air and land right in the middle of the stinking freeway.

Now really, what can a person do? It's not like you can pull over and run out to the middle of the freeway to get your tree. Anyway, I had to drive about 3 miles before I could exit and turn around and come back the other way. All the while I am just sure I'm going to see some massive pileup with cars flaming and bodies strewn all over the freeway.

When I got back to the scene of the crime, the tree was not there. Gone. Not even twigs. I still don't know what happened. And before you ask, no, I had not just been surfing. . .

A Christmas miracle!

[godfrey1112000]

Something I would bury in the back yard and never let it out,

I did know a guy who did it twice, once with two custom carbon road bikes,
the second time was with two custom carbons that had just been repaired,



HE QUIT RIDING, SOLD EVERYTHING AND MOVED TO SF CA,

NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN AND NEVER PUSHED A CRANK AGAIN,

SAID SOMETHING ABOUT A BONG AND OUTER SPACE

I AM STILL WITH MR. S

[PaulE]

In the early 1990's driving down Manhattan's Henry Hudson Parkway to the MS Bike Tour before sunrise on a Sunday morning. Lots of cars heading there all with bikes on various racks. There was one car with a roof rack with 4 bikes in it, the kind which left the front wheels on the bikes. All 4 bikes were facing forward on the car. As the car moves along over dips and bumps at 50 mph or so, I see all 4 of the rooftop bikes doing wheelies on the roof of the car. The front rack crossmember had become detached from the roof. Tried to pull up alongside the car and warn them they were about to lose their bikes. Before I could get to them, after the third or fourth wheelie, they must have felt something and pulled off the road, and averted disaster.

Another time, I let a friend put his front wheel in the rooftop Yakima wheel fork. I secured the bikes in the racks which hold bikes by the front fork and rear wheel. He didn't tighten the quick release enough. Heading North on the Palisades Parkway on a Sunday morning at 6:30 AM, I hear a thump and in the rear view mirror see his Rolf Vector Comp front wheel go off the back of my car. Pull over to the shoulder and back up a half mile or so to find the wheel resting against the guard rail, no harm no foul due to no traffic at that hour and a strong wheel.

Knock on wood I haven't had any real roof rack disasters of my own for almost 20 years.

[William]

I tried leaving my truck at the park with my bike in the rack to draw in Mr. Squirrel to take him out once and for all. :butt: To bad he didn't show.

On my way out though I could have sworn I saw some of his cousins trying to wave me toward low hanging branches....

http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h420/SodaFuel/FJ60%20Landcruiser/IMG_8552.jpg





William

[PacNW2Ford]

Longshot: Anyone on this forum owned a red Toyota MR2 and drove their bike into their carport in Irvine, CA in the early 90's?

Must be something about red sports cars, because a guy down the street backed his BMW Z3 out of his garage WITHOUT first opening the garage door. Oops.

[Asudef]

In 1980 I was one of four riders going to a race in SF Bay area. Four bikes on the roof of the drivers Renault Le Car. About 7am on a Sunday morning. I see the driver's eyes go wide in the rear view mirror. I turn and look and observe one rack w/four bikes, air born, following us. The rack touched down (still up right!) and bikes exploded everywhere. Then four riders are chasing bike parts all over the freeway. Fortunately not much traffic at that time and day... Friendly CHP yelled at us, then blocked traffic to help.


This one got me best.

A similar thing happened to some friends of mine a couple years ago as they were driving to a race with 4 bikes strapped to the rack. One of them notices a wheel flying and then all 4 bikes all exploded over the freeway. CHP came, same deal but the worst they got of it was a screwed up wheel.

To my knowledge, they're all still using those parts today.

[Steevo]

I've had a roof rack since 1989, with only one incident. Being tired & hungry, looking for a place to flop for the night, I drove into a motel overhang and banged up the bikes a bit. The noise was worse than the damage. Both bikes were OK,but the car's factory rack took a beating. Not too bad considering...

[Mike748]

None of my road forks have lawyer tabs. I noticed that they will walk up in the the fork mount roof rack which scares me. So I no longer put my road bikes on the roof (wife & friends bike are ok). But I do put my MTB on the roof. If I kill it or the garage or the car one day by mistake then I'll kick myself and get another, they are tools.

[kelowen12]

No more roof rack for me- it has been sitting in my back yard for 2 years. I have driven into garage twice- or tried to drive in. 1st time scratched up car- did not travel that far into garage. 2nd time I realized it immediately. Both times I did nothing to my bikes- thank god. I really felt silly in both cases but it is easy to do.

I know somebody who had a Seven road bike fall off on the interstate- got smashed up.

[Ahneida Ride]

from what I can gather from talking to some of the Serotta boys ...

if you have a roof rack and if you have a garage,

there is a high probability that they will eventually mate.

and the prodigy won't be pretty.

[tooonee]

from what I can gather from talking to some of the Serotta boys ...

if you have a roof rack and if you have a garage,

there is a high probability that they will eventually mate.

and the prodigy won't be pretty.

Definitely. I think we all just have a lot on our minds on the way home from a hard workout or a good ride. I know I'm usually thinking food and not don't forget the bike on the roof. HA.