A warning on roof cycle carriers

rmurphy195
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by rmurphy195 »

Mick F wrote:Warning of tow bar mounted bike carriers too.
Driving though traffic with my precious Mercian on the rack, we stopped abruptly at a zebra crossing. The car behind wasn't so good at stopping and hit us from behind. :cry:

Luckily, it was only the rack that was hit, but my Mercian was fine. The car that hit us had its bumper and grille damaged.

We swapped info, and no doubt the car behind had dosh to spend, but our rack only needed a new tail light and me to bend some metal straight. It could have been much worse - for us, him, and my precious Mercian, but it's worth considering when you have bikes on the roof or on a rack.

Keep an eye out! :shock:


I suspect it may not just be the rack that was damaged. Have you had the towbar mounting and your car chassis checked? The force of the collision would have been taken by the towing bracket, which received a shock loading that it was not designed to handle. If the collision lifted the car upwards then this is definitely not a force that the towbar was designed to take, and damage may well have resulted.
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Vantage
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by Vantage »

redfacedbaldfatman wrote:
Blood on the seatpost, saddle etc. I was finding bits of feathers for weeks.

IMG_3104.JPG




That looks to me like an original Flite saddle :lol:
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by [XAP]Bob »

rmurphy195 wrote:
Mick F wrote:Warning of tow bar mounted bike carriers too.
Driving though traffic with my precious Mercian on the rack, we stopped abruptly at a zebra crossing. The car behind wasn't so good at stopping and hit us from behind. :cry:

Luckily, it was only the rack that was hit, but my Mercian was fine. The car that hit us had its bumper and grille damaged.

We swapped info, and no doubt the car behind had dosh to spend, but our rack only needed a new tail light and me to bend some metal straight. It could have been much worse - for us, him, and my precious Mercian, but it's worth considering when you have bikes on the roof or on a rack.

Keep an eye out! :shock:


I suspect it may not just be the rack that was damaged. Have you had the towbar mounting and your car chassis checked? The force of the collision would have been taken by the towing bracket, which received a shock loading that it was not designed to handle. If the collision lifted the car upwards then this is definitely not a force that the towbar was designed to take, and damage may well have resulted.


Nothing on the tow bar at the time, but mny brother got rear ended whilst tstopped at lights (his mate in another car didn't see the lights...)

He had three passengers in the mini, and what saved their lives was the tow bar. The whole chassis was cracked and twisted out of shape - the only main structural element that remained was the tow bar fittings, and that included an element that ran front to back of the chassis, holding it together...
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TonyR
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by TonyR »

redfacedbaldfatman wrote:Another warning... pigeons. This one flew infront of me when on the autoroute.


Driving down through France at night many years ago I had to disentangle a large white owl- about 4ft wingspan- from the ski rack. Very sad.
IanW
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by IanW »

TonyR wrote:
redfacedbaldfatman wrote:Another warning... pigeons. This one flew infront of me when on the autoroute.


Driving down through France at night many years ago I had to disentangle a large white owl- about 4ft wingspan- from the ski rack. Very sad.


1) I have had to dodge a pigeon coming the other way that would have come straight through my motorbike helmet visor.

2) I have been stabbed in the leg by a starling's beak when I was riding a motorbike and it was coming the otherway.

3) I have been hit in the throat by a bumble bee coming the other way. (at > 60mph they hurt.)

4) My sister had a big bird of prey (probably a hen harrier from size, and feather colouring) come through the car windscreen tallons-first,
ripping shoulder of passenger's leather jacket before exploding through / round headrest and all over the contents of the car.

Birds do not have bird-brains for nothing ;-)
TonyR
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by TonyR »

rmurphy195 wrote:I suspect it may not just be the rack that was damaged. Have you had the towbar mounting and your car chassis checked? The force of the collision would have been taken by the towing bracket, which received a shock loading that it was not designed to handle. If the collision lifted the car upwards then this is definitely not a force that the towbar was designed to take, and damage may well have resulted.


Most cars don't have a chassis these days and the tow bar is attached to the body shell. But you raise a good point. There is a reasonable chance that the tow bar will have transferred the impact to the body shell and its quite common for it to be distorted. I would have the garage check it out before the OP assumes an all clear
orangebiker
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by orangebiker »

My friend has a ford fiesta (old one, V reg), and can get a road bike in with both wheels still on. Same with my old Citroen zx. Could get 2 in that with wheels on. So you don't need a massive car.
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661-Pete
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by 661-Pete »

RonK wrote:This is a much greater risk than being hit from behind...or bikes falling off.

Bugger - forgot about the bikes...

That picture makes one want to cry.... :cry:
Not about the dent in the car, of course.... :)

Edit - I often drive through this underpass in Rouen, France (on the left: note the height limit). I find it scary. Not about my own car, I know it'll fit! It's about whether the car in front will fit - or won't it? Thus far, I've never seen a car with roof load attempt the underpass - but it's bound to happen, one day... :shock:
Last edited by 661-Pete on 31 Oct 2014, 5:54pm, edited 1 time in total.
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661-Pete
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by 661-Pete »

TonyR wrote:
redfacedbaldfatman wrote:Another warning... pigeons. This one flew infront of me when on the autoroute.


Driving down through France at night many years ago I had to disentangle a large white owl- about 4ft wingspan- from the ski rack. Very sad.

No collision, but I remember a very close encounter with a low-flying buzzard once - it swooped within inches of my windscreen and I could swear the wingspan was greater than the width of my car. Perhaps it could see its reflection in the windscreen and thought: rival?

Do the stories about buzzards attacking (helmetless) cyclists on country lanes, mistaking an abundant crop of brown hair coursing along the road, for a nice succulent hare (no pun intended) - do these stories have any truth in them?
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
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Mick F
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by Mick F »

rmurphy195 wrote:
Mick F wrote:Warning of tow bar mounted bike carriers too.
Driving though traffic with my precious Mercian on the rack, we stopped abruptly at a zebra crossing. The car behind wasn't so good at stopping and hit us from behind. :cry:

Luckily, it was only the rack that was hit, but my Mercian was fine. The car that hit us had its bumper and grille damaged.

We swapped info, and no doubt the car behind had dosh to spend, but our rack only needed a new tail light and me to bend some metal straight. It could have been much worse - for us, him, and my precious Mercian, but it's worth considering when you have bikes on the roof or on a rack.

Keep an eye out! :shock:


I suspect it may not just be the rack that was damaged. Have you had the towbar mounting and your car chassis checked? The force of the collision would have been taken by the towing bracket, which received a shock loading that it was not designed to handle. If the collision lifted the car upwards then this is definitely not a force that the towbar was designed to take, and damage may well have resulted.
They didn't hit us very hard ..... thank goodness!

The car has been MOT'd twice since then, and I looked underneath after we got home and I could assess the damage to the rack. I couldn't see any problem with the car, and the MOT people have never picked anything up.

The towbar is mainly used for our trailer, and it regularly hauls twelve bags of coal - that's 12 x 25Kg = 300Kg ..... plus the weight of the trailer. Never had a problem or issue.

............. as I say, thank goodness!
Mick F. Cornwall
rmurphy195
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by rmurphy195 »

Mick F wrote:
rmurphy195 wrote:
Mick F wrote:Warning of tow bar mounted bike carriers too.
Driving though traffic with my precious Mercian on the rack, we stopped abruptly at a zebra crossing. The car behind wasn't so good at stopping and hit us from behind. :cry:

Luckily, it was only the rack that was hit, but my Mercian was fine. The car that hit us had its bumper and grille damaged.

We swapped info, and no doubt the car behind had dosh to spend, but our rack only needed a new tail light and me to bend some metal straight. It could have been much worse - for us, him, and my precious Mercian, but it's worth considering when you have bikes on the roof or on a rack.

Keep an eye out! :shock:


I suspect it may not just be the rack that was damaged. Have you had the towbar mounting and your car chassis checked? The force of the collision would have been taken by the towing bracket, which received a shock loading that it was not designed to handle. If the collision lifted the car upwards then this is definitely not a force that the towbar was designed to take, and damage may well have resulted.
They didn't hit us very hard ..... thank goodness!

The car has been MOT'd twice since then, and I looked underneath after we got home and I could assess the damage to the rack. I couldn't see any problem with the car, and the MOT people have never picked anything up.

The towbar is mainly used for our trailer, and it regularly hauls twelve bags of coal - that's 12 x 25Kg = 300Kg ..... plus the weight of the trailer. Never had a problem or issue.

............. as I say, thank goodness!


No slight, unexplained creasing above the rear wheel arches or across the roof then!
Brompton, Condor Heritage, creaky joints and thinning white (formerly grey) hair
""You know you're getting old when it's easier to ride a bike than to get on and off it" - quote from observant jogger !
PaulB
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by PaulB »

One of the reasons I bought a folding bike was so that I could put it inside my 15 year old Nissan Micra and drive to distant departure points. The thought of my pride and joy hanging from the back of a car does not fill me with joy!

Old photo shows my M. Steel tourer sitting nicely in the back of a Reliant Rialto three wheeler I used to own. As my wife keeps telling me, "If you can see it, you can do it!"

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iviehoff
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Re: A warning on roof cycle carriers

Post by iviehoff »

When I first got a roofbar mounted bikerack, on about the second time I used it I tried to drive into a carpark with a height barrier. The car's rear windscreen was smashed in, but everything else was OK, because the rack just peeled off. I was sufficiently mistrustful of the rack fittings of the first ones I had that I used to secure the bikes additionally with some light rope to the roofbars. I got some better quality ones later on. I'm sure I wasted a lot of petrol because I rarely demounted the racks and roofbars.

A friend who has one of those rear windscreen mounted racks, where you put the bikes on sticking out horns, had two bike falls off while driving along the M1, fortunately managed to rescue the bike without him or it being hit. This convinced them not to use this design of rack again. I agree that this is the least satisfactory design.

Yes a car can hit you from behind with the towbar rack. If you were hit hard, it would actually act as a prolonged crumple zone helping save the car and occupants, so you can see that as an advantage, depending upon how highly you value your Mercian in relation to other things. That hasn't happened to me but I've reversed into a rock that was too low to see in the mirror, causing minor damage to the rack that hasn't been a problem. Overall I find this the most satisfactory kind of rack if you need one, though it's expensive to get a towbar fitted.
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