i.e. the clampy things that my bike’s manufacturer say you shouldn’t use (carbon innit).

Do roof carriers exist that use the fold up/down metal bits that you strap on to, like what’s on lots of tow bar racks?

Thanks and warmest cuddles

I think the new Thule 598 is designed with carbon frames in mind. Bigger softer jaws and a torque limiter on the adjustment.
I wouldn’t worry too much though. Watch the santacruz video of them hitting a frame against a square edged concrete block if you need convincing.

I’ve use Thule 561s for ages and they work well for me.

Used 591s on my old carbon road bike and nothing died.

Just be sensible, you don’t need to do anything more than hold the bike in place, no need to try and crush it. Maybe use a rag or piece of chamois cloth to increase grip where it clamps the frame.

The thing is, I don’t want to invalidate any future warranty claim when the website explicitly warns of doom, disaster, pestilence and seven years of famine if clamp the frame in any way whatsoever..

Thule 591 used on my carbon bike and no damage.

Which manufacturer out of interest?

Intense – and it’s actually in the manual rather than the website as I first thought. Their carbon is supposed to be developed by SEED in Germany and rumours suggest made at the same place as Santa clauses so I’m assuming they’re pretty tough?!

Santa clause is made from carbon?? 😯

Are the fork mount racks any good to you? Means you need a wheel in the boot but works well.

Hmm I’ve always wondered about the fork mounts – seems like a lot of leverage from a bike swinging about in a 70mph wind? Tbh I don’t understand why more racks don’t use the simple uppy downy bar thing

(And yes, yes he is)

I happily use fork mount ones.
The bike is lower than it would be with both wheels on, so less drag. Also a bit easier to lift up there.
I reckon I trust the leverage point being the dropout, which is designed to be clamped and have some forces through it more than the middle of probably the thinnest tube on my bike which isn’t.

inno tyre hold roof carrier is the best I have used, way better than any frame clamp design and also is much easier to use. it isnt very low profile when folded though.

Thule 598 are all of teh orsumz.

Damn someone beat me to the ‘watch the Santa Cruz video’ that I always quote people for this question. Admittedly I don’t clamp my carbon road bike with it because I know the carbon in road bikes is much thinner. However, if you really think you can clamp them strongly enough to do damage firstly you may want to enter the iron man competition, secondly I would avoid riding the bike off road near any sharp rocks, definitely avoid drops off at all times. Don’t crash ever either as clearly it will crumple into a million pieces. 😉

There must be some reason why Intense say the world will implode if you do clamp them?!

Softer etc means nothing when you put even a slightly dusty frame into a slightly dusty clamp over time. Then giggle the lot down the motorway. My dirty ALU frame has some right scars now from the interface!

I’d recommend the fork clamp thule personally for carbon.

…designed to be clamped and have some forces through it more than the middle of probably the thinnest tube on my bike which isn’t.

The middle? You want to be clamping down by the BB as per the instructions.

Softer etc means nothing when you put even a slightly dusty frame into a slightly dusty clamp over time. Then giggle the lot down the motorway. My dirty ALU frame has some right scars now from the interface!

Helitape? Invisfame? Some vague mechanical sympathy or any common sense at all?

At the end of the day it’s a mountain bike ridden in a damp country.

I marvel at people who tape up their whole frame. Who cares, buy ALU and ride it. If I had a 5k bike I wouldn’t display it on the roof of my car to the neighbourhood anyway.

Hmm. Thing is – I can’t stuff my bike in the car easily as it requires removing and reinstalling two massive kids seats (big seats not seats for massive kids).

A tow bar rack would great but the cheapest tow bar is £450 ish and then there’s the cost of the rack.

I thought about saris bones type racks but then I don’t think my bouncy bike will fit on one. Roof rack makes sense given I have the rails..

A few years back I had one that clamped to the crank arm. Possibly from Atera. Didn’t seem any less stable than the down tube clamp ones and was the only way for some of the designs at the time, Marin’s!!! Did started to get issues as crank arms design changed, OK for old style squarish arms such as the Raceface Turbines of the time but as the fatter HT2 types came in the jaws on the clamp started to struggle to get a good secure purchase.
Don’t know if something similar exists today.

^ interesting!

The wheel holding ones look quite good actually ..

The problem with the SC video and that particular whacking against a concrete block test is that it is irrelevant in the real world. They’re whacking a naked lightweight frame against a concrete block and they bounce off. Well no wonder – there is no weight to create any significant force to the frame other than what the man is able to generate – and men are weak and feeble. So what. Attach a fork and a wheel to the frame and do the same thing and the frame would snap like a dry stick (as opposed to bending and deforming as a metal frame would). The only thing it demonstrates is that if you ride into a concrete block you’re screwed whether you’re on a plastic bike or a metal one, so avoid concrete blocks. As a test it’s utterly useless in relation to mountain biking and is just a cheap marketing gimick.

My concern with the 591 style rack is not crushing the tube – you can’t actually apply that much force at the jaws on a 591 – certainly not enough to crush or damage a carbon tube. My concern would be the the abrasion of the jaws on the frame. With my metal bike when I first got my 591’s within a few drives the jaws had worn through the paint and were starting to eat at the bare metal underneath. I now wrap a few layers of Heli-tape at the contact point. I need to replace this every few months or as the jaws wear though the hell-tape. Now I would think, knowing how soft carbon is, that the jaws could wear through the carbon far quicker than metal as it is softer, so causing damage much earlier.

If I were to go down the carbon bike route and the bike didn’t have hard plastic protectors attached on the frame at the jaw contact point, i’d either be using the fork style rack or using alot of hell-tape protection at the contact point when using a 591.

Spence – a mate of mine has one of those clamp to crank arm racks. It works fine with parallel sided crank arms, but when he used it with his mountain bike that had tapered crank arms it slid down the crank arm from the thicker part to the thinner part when on the motorway and I watched as his bike slowly lay down on it’s side and ended up lying down on its side on the top of the car. Luckily there was no damage to the car or bike, but it completed the journey in the boot of my car.

Cheap solution ^^ cut a strip of inner tube and again lengthways and wrap it around the tube inside he jaws if you haven’t helitaped the frame.

RRR less drag too I bet. Doesn’t waggle in the wind, just seems more stable. (I can look through my sunroof and watch mine ‘waggle’!)

Yakima frontloader

Hopefully this link works:
yakima frontloader

That ^ looks great actually!

There’s a few videos on youtube … pretty versatile.

Those frontloaders are pretty bulky when not in use if you’re going to leave them on the car all the time.

I didn’t have to replace the helitape in the clamping area in 7 years of use on my old bike. Now happily doing the same with a ££££££ carbon frame.
Thule even sell a carbon frame protector now, but I don’t really see the point as you’d still have to helitape to protect from dirt between the protector and the frame.

+1 for front loaders. Yes they are bulky but they come off real quick so I leave them in round town and take them off for long journeys. Tbh I don’t notice more wind noise over Thales I had, and their bulk is reassuringly bomb proof.