Well – apparently it equals squashed down tube – the photo doesn’t quite do it justice, but this morning I spotted that I’d managed to ovalise the downtube on my Roadrat through overzealous (read: made scared by photos of bikes picked up off the motorway after coming off the car at speed and having seen the business end of a lorry) clamping…

Oops…

Please make me feel better – tell me I’m either amazingly strong to have done such a thing, or that you’ve done it too… Alternatively feel free to tell me I’m stupid – which is how I felt when i realised what I’d done.

How on earth did you do that!?
Which roof cycle carrier?

well, id say you must be pretty strong to do that to a steel frame.
ive had my P7 on the roof bars in winds that were so strong it required my foot well down to do 50mph on the flat and it didnt even mark the paint.
dont worry about it tho.

That tube’s in tension, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it, not on that bike anyway. You could try to squeeze it back if you’ve got something suitable.

Speak to Cy at Cotic if you want more reassurance, I’m sure he won’t just try to sell you a replacement 😉

I wrap a strap about my roof carrier clamp – so if it did come loose, the bike would waggle about but couldn’t jump out of the arm.

just buy a fork mount roof carrier , much betterererrer.

Looking at that pic, I don’t see what you’re talking about. Looks OK to me.
However, you now have me worried. I ride a Soul and clamp it quite tightly on my Thule rack. I use the packing foam that came on the headtube from Cotic between the frame and clamp though. More to protect the paintwork than stop me squishing it though! 😯

Fork mount carriers completely baffle me. I just don’t get it! Why would you want to remove a muddy wheel and put it in the car? Why?

Are you Arnold Schwarzenegger/ 🙂

I’ve had both my old steel GT and modern Alu Trek on the roof of My car at :cough: “making progress” speeds and so ensure the clamp is tight. BUT I can’t imagine ever being able to do that to the steel framed bike, possibly the Alu one, so I’m more carefull with that.

Vorlich…i find it a more secure fit, no frame damage, slightly lower profile and not such a long rack. If your afraid of dirtying up your Audi’s boot then pop the wheel in a wheel bag as i do if its bad ,job done.

vorlich – Member
Fork mount carriers completely baffle me. I just don’t get it! Why would you want to remove a muddy wheel and put it in the car? Why?

Use a wheel carrier?

Because fork mount carriers don’t clamp the frame which, in some cases can cause damag…………oh, hang on.

I suppose shorter length might be useful on smaller cars. But I remain unconvinced. Especially as I’d have to find space in the boot for two wheels when we go our camping holidays. We already fill a large boot and roof box.

It is an Audi! 🙂 Am I still a **** if it’s ten years old has a rusty arch and 120k on the clock? 😉

It is an Audi! Am I still a **** if it’s ten years old has a rusty arch and 120k on the clock?

yes 😆

Too bad you didn’t ovalize it on the horizontal axis – the bike would be stiffer. Steel bikes can take a lot more than that, so don’t worry for a minute.

I used a fork mounted tandem carrier with the Thule wheel carrier. A pain in the neck to be honest. 591, plop bike on, clamp and go. Much easier. And I have carried everything from lead/steel clunker to Ti bling machine. You can get quite a purchase on the older Thule clamps though, so I’m suspecting that you didn’t have a 591.

The carrier is a Thule lever clamp one – I thought I was just making it nice and “secure” for the roundabouts and corners on my way home… 😳

vorlich – Member

Looking at that pic, I don’t see what you’re talking about. Looks OK to me.

Yeah it is hard to tell from the photo – but it is defintely flat on both sides where I clamp it… Feeling a bit better now a few people have told me I probably haven’t *totally* ruined the frame.

I’m defintely not Arnie – I’m a skinny wee runt – just goes to show that Archimedes was right about levers

Yeah, I did that once. I was using a carrier that was clearly designed for ’round’ tubes and my steel frame was almost diamond-like and therefore much too tall to sit into the curved recess. Because steel frames can be made using tubes that are thin compared to aluminium frames I think they are particularly susceptible.

As others have said I really wouldn’t worry about it, but I now have Thule Pro-Rider carriers, which I believe are less likely to cause it… and if they do, it would be in the ‘right’ orientation, as djaustin indicated!

just buy a fork mount roof carrier , much betterererrer.

Except for all those reports of cracked fork dropouts from the stress.