on past trips to centre parks and the like ive seen some outrageuosly bad fitment of those "tie on too your tailgate" type racks.
there must have been some "mishaps" with these before or people must have seen it happpen…come on..tell us… 😉

I lost the number plate from my rack once, no idea how it came off as it was secured with two E clips.

I dont have any experience with strap on's ( !!! ) , but my bike fell of of my rood mounted rack first time I put it on.. who know I was supposed to tighten that little bolt thingy to the front forks.

Strapped my bike and my mate's to the back before setting off to Edale. Driving down the lanes, overtook a roadie and gave him a really wide berth.
I get a "w*****" sign from him as i pass regardless, so do it back at him.
Get to Edale, and as I come to take the bikes off the car, I notice that my mates is only held on with one strap around the fork crown, while the rest of the bike had spun round on the bars and was perpendicular to the car. The roadie has tried to warn me.
It's a high mount so couldn't see that it had moved. Still don't know how it happened as they were very secure when we set out.
Never had a problem since though.

I'll start you off with one…

A couple of weeks ago I was planning to nip up from Leeds to Dalby to try out my new Santa Cruz Blur LT, but it wouldn't fit on my rack. I sulked for a few minutes and then loaded up my Trek 8k and set off up the M1.

About 5 minutes after I got on the motorway the bike bumped and came off the carrier. I pulled over as quickly as I could, which took about 1/4 of a mile. Thankfully(!) I discoverd that the retainer strap had held and I had only dragged the bike 1/4 of the mile along the road, rather than it disappearing under a truck or hitting some poor motorcyclist….

Que a quick damage assessment. Believe it or not, only the following components made contact with the road and needed to be replaced.

Rear skewer – filed down to almost nothing on the disk side
Bars – filed down by about 1 inch on one side
Grips – 1 grip melted (was actually smoldering when I stopped the car)
Saddle – ripped
Rear tire and tube – worn through by being dragged down the road

The frame didn't make contact with road at all and the impact didn't bend anything. Ditto on the forks.

I did about 10% of the value of the bike in damage and I'm now thankful that my Santa Cruz wouldn't fit on the carrier after all. I later discoved that one of the retainer straps on the carrier had actually failed and separated.

I

maybe daver will be along in a bit to tell you about his 90mph motorway roof rack disaster

two girls i know,

bought two brand new kona hardtails (2005ish) and put them on the back of the car to take them home. Going round a roundabout the car continued to the right and the bikes went more kind of straight on!

very annoyed with themselves and the stupid bike rack they threw the contraption in the bin. The bikes only recieved minor grazes.

They then bought roof bars and 'proper' bike racks.

Just about to head off to the lakes for a week, they had to stop and get some cash so pulled into the multi-storey car park. Needless to say they didnt get under the barrier!

IanMmmmm – 1/4 of a mile to stop!? Are you driving a wagon? 😆

Nope, there was a lot of traffic and I couldn't get over the hard shoulder from the middle lane that easily… Also I had to triple take because I couldn't believe that it had come off..

I seem to recall Binners having a bit of a nightmare with one involving bits of bike all over the M602

My bike slipped once while putting it on the roof & rather than have my X-Lite bar end smack a hole in the roof of my car I put my head in the way, which resulted in a large bloody cut to my head, a substantial headache & a LOT of swearing & hopping around.

Didn't damage the bike or the car though – which is the main thing! 😀

Reversed the subaru with 4 bikes on the back in the dark outside the Neuaddd at llanyrtyd in the dark, my mate says "come on, no problem" as I fold two bikes in half against a bollard.

Many moons ago was witness to a childs bike falling off the back of a carrier and going through the windscreen of the car behind. Right outside the Little Thief on the A65 near Clapham. It was a blanket over the poor guy in the drivers seat. Got rid of my rubbish carrier the next day and have fitted bikes in the car since.

mt – thats a scenario that runs through my head every time I use a rack, and its one of the reasons I bought an estate in the end. Still use a rack on my other halfs car, but it gets double and triple checked and often more during the trip, which is a pain.

I have no faith in the strap on type racks. Used to use on ones of Halfords finest until it fell off the back of my Alfa. Fortunately I used to tie an anchoring strap inside the boot (before mouting bikes) and that saved the bikes from actually leaving the car (though not from the short drag along the tarmac).
I commute 100 miles a day by motorcycle so I am rather nervous / aware of road debris hazards…
A couple of weeks ago on the highway I saw a guy walking back along the hard shoulder recovering a bike that had made a break for roof-rack freedom. Scary thought.

Always use a roof rack type now or towbar type. I prefer the towbar as it seems solid as hell even though the roof rack mounting has never budged an inch.

erm…. alright then… I'll confess

After a fireworks night-ride at Rivi in absolutely horrendous weather (horizontal rain and ridiculously high winds) I set off back to Manchester. My bike went on first. My mate Jo put her Stumpy on next. Note… she put her own bike on. It wasn't me!

The wind was buffetting the car all the way back. It really was hellish. We got off the M602 and pulled up once I'd noticed that we seemed to be a bit light on the bike front. I have to admit, my heart sank. Not for the bike, but the thought that a big chunk of metal was now lying in the middle of the motorway in absolutely horrendous driving conditions and really poor visibility.

I phoned the feds and they said that they had recovered some 'debris' from the carriageway. It had been run over by an artic.

In a testement to shimano: the XT front brake was the only salvagable part of the bike

Oops! 😳

i was merrily driving back with a mate after hed done up the straps on my thule roof carrier….we were chatting away and his bike casually rolled off the roof,landed on its wheels and catapulted very dramatically into the nearby field where it performed all sorts of manouvres! i expected all sorts of damage but all hed bent was one saddle rail…..and learnt a lesson in doing up the straps on the roof rack

Bikes go inside the car. Better all round.

Its no coincidence that i now drive an estate

was loading a thule roof carrier at innerleithan and I got talking to someone. I forgot to do up the pincer clamp fully. At the other side of peebles there was an almighty bang and my bike was dangling by my door hanging on with the two plastic wheel straps. Luckily no damage to my bike, but I put to cracking dents in the roof of my car.

Bike now goes in the back.

Have seen a chap trying to retreave families(?) bike of the M42 one busy Saturday. Scared the hell out of me (and others by the sound of horns) so phone the Police, the guy was going to kill himself almost in front of his family. Should ban those strap on thing (Hmmm).

I have one of the older Halfords hi-mount wheel support strap ons. A very stable carrier that can cope with the straps being torqued up tight. (unlike its bendy aluminium successor, I bought one but took it back as it wobbled all over the place)

After the first test run I found it was impossible to get the lower hooks to stay attached to the under bumper supports, so I promptly chucked them away and threaded the strap round the bumper support and back throgh its buckle before attaching to the carrier. Short of snapping, it won't come off.

My old car had a plastic hatch so the top straps used the plastic donuts inside the boot lid so again they are unable to unhook unless something breaks. After threading the top straps into the rack I used to loop them round the rack loosely and knot the ends together so if the metal buckles broke the rack would still be attached to the car, albeit loosely.

The side straps I couldn't do anything with so just used the supplied, but I lost count of the number of times I'd arrive somewhere to find them hanging down 👿

Still used to watch the thing like a hawk as I don't trust it, you could see if it slipped more than a few mm's as it no longer lined up with the demister elements on the back window 🙂

I saw a motorhome go past recently with a bolted on wheel support rack. They'd forgotten to strap the top of one of their 'his and hers' matching bikes so it had fallen off and was hanging upside down under the rack by its wheels, a couple of inches clear of the floor 🙂

put my mates 40lb shitter of a raleigh then drove round exmoor, 4 up, looking for cycling glasses that where left on a rock near a crossroads (surprisingly my mate found them!!)

going to fast down a dip – g out – the rack put a **** dent in the bootlid!

1st rule of my bike rack is only i get to tie things on – with excessive strapping.

I had a roof rack disaster at speed returning on the motorway from Wales.

Wrote off £250 roof rack
£250 worth of damage to Specialized HT
Wrote off Cove Hummer about £1,000 (but luckily insurance paid)
Damage to underside of Skoda (paid for by insurance)
£80 worth of fuel were wife drives back to last junction to collect me then gets lost.
£80 taxi to get back to where wife eventually parked the car.

Now have a van to save the aggro

3 of us were leaving Guisborough Woods a couple of years ago in my mate's Ford Ka with 3 bikes on the back. Turning round at the end of the road we came VERY close to the bonnet of a dark blue Fiat Multipla with 1 guy in the driver's seat. He leapt out and, very helpfully, "watched us back" up to the front of his car. "You're fine there mate" he shouts so it's into 1st gear and pull gently away. Half an hour later at home we find a large chunk fd dark blue Fiat coloured paint attached to my pedal.

No idea how it got there unless the Fiat bloke had watched us reverse into his car and chose not to say anything. Bizarre 😮

No damage to the bikes, fortunately

Thule A frame racks. Rearward facing bike with crud catcher on (so mudguard facing front of car). Possibly wasn't wheel tied at the front/may have ripped out. I figure the lift off the mudguard lifted the bike right up and out of the A Frame. it then pivoted round the headtube and the rear wheel caught on the saddle of the other bike on the roof.

Never had a problem in many thousands of miles with Thule fork clamp racks and would happily use them again. We have a van now but it's more for security than anything else – it's nice not to worry they whole time you're in a motorway service station.

Nylon strap rear racks should be illegal. Very difficult to fix to most cars with soft plastic bumpers. Why anyone skimps on a car carrier when they've got a few grands worth of bikes on the back is beyond me.

Cant find it but there is cctv footage of someone trying to drive under a barrier on youtube hysterical especially when the pillock driving panicks and has another go.

edit: not the one I am looking for but worth a giggle at the 4th emergency service

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvmEZw9iVHc

lobby_dosser – Member

was loading a thule roof carrier at innerleithan and I got talking to someone. I forgot to do up the pincer clamp fully. At the other side of peebles there was an almighty bang and my bike was dangling by my door hanging on with the two plastic wheel straps. Luckily no damage to my bike, but I put to cracking dents in the roof of my car.

Bike now goes in the back.

Done that too, one winter at Kingshouse Hotel. Strapped bike onto roofrack with wheelstraps but the downtube clamp had frozen in place so I left bike balanced there and car with engine running to warm up and defrost the windows and the roofrack while I had a coffee. Came out, windows clear, off we go. Fine for about half a mile. Turned left onto A82 heading for Bridge of Orchy and there was a loud bang and my bike (had a 456 at the time) was hanging by the wheelstraps on the driver's side. ****. My mate who was following me stopped and while he pissed himself laughing he managed to get it upright so I could get out. No damage to the bike but quite a ding on the roof where the pedal had hit.

Always doublecheck the thing now, and long journeys the bike goes inside anyway.

Not rears but roofies:

En route to Cwm Carn, on the M4, I noticed that one of 4 bikes on my roof was wobbling around. Got so 'interested' in that I missed the sodding exit off the M'way. Fortunately, bike was held on by the bikes either side.

Hightailing up Jackdaw hill to Halden, my Enduro managed to let go of the clamp and swing down the side of my A4 held on by the straps on the now massively buckled wheel-gutter, gouged a big chunk out of the door, and the pedal nearly came through the driver's window. Thank f*ck there was nothing coming teh other way.

(I am highly impressed with my new Pendle towbar mounted wheel support rack – no more roof mounted wobblies. worth every pence)

had a very near miss with a Thule 591. Driving up Loch Lomond side one autumn early morning with my pal, large bird (seagull or similar) comes from low left verge towards car, missess bonnet and bangs into the 2 bikes on the roof. We stopped and had a quick look, all seemed okay apart form the feathers and guts everywhere, kept on going to Argarten (another 15 miles of fast and sometimes twisty roads) and when we come to unload bikes discivered that mine had been knocked out of the downtube clamp jaws and was hanging on the mech cable on the clamp -)

there was a classic thread on mtb-wales.com years ago, a bloke left afan in a hurry with his mate, about 5k worth of bike on the back, didnt do the straps up 'properly' and both fell off on the M4 on the way home.

how a major accident didn't happen was a miracle, suffice to say the bikes were wrecked.

they way he described the fear of looking in the rear mirror and seeing the bikes bouncing down the road behind him was amazing.

Great thread.

Narrow escape here too, wife's bike started trying to climb off our strap-on rack when we were about a mile onto the M25 – with one wheel flapping back in the wind.

Tightened it up properly and used it for the rest of our holiday but now have a towbar mounted Thule instead.

I was behind a car on the m1 last year that had one of those Thule standyuppy racks with both wheels on. Just as i was saying to my wife how dodgy it looked the fookin bike came off and missed us by about a foot !

My mate had his new Meta flapping off the side of another mate's car on the motorway on his way back from literally the first ride on it.

I know I shouldn't say this but I am pretty confident in my Saris Bones RS rack – it bloody cost enough anyway! It has steel core straps on a ratchet and metal hooks under the bottom of the boot, with ratchet straps to attach the bike.

I'm still gonna get a Berlingo though!

Years ago was heading to a road race with a mate with our bike on a rear carrier, doing about 70 on a dual-carriageway I looked behind and could see the bikes swinging a bit more than normal. Was just about to say something when they went flying off the back, high into the air, hit the road hard and bounced along then went under a following HGV. Turns out we'd used all the straps to tie the bikes to each other and had forgotten to also tie them to the bike rack :p

hit low petrol station in France with 4 bikes on roof

bikes basically okay but £6k of damage to brand new Discovery – virtually ripped the roof off

thankful, bro in law was motoring journo so was a test car – made some excuse about low branch or something

I suprised that more people are not pulled by the fuzz for having unsafe loads or covering the brake lights/number plates. When you go somewhere like GT I'm surprised at the amount of people with 'illegal' rear racks .

I used a rack on a Fiesta once. I opened the hatch slightly to secure the flapping straps but didnt notice the the clip things had moved. When I closed the hatch it peened up the hatch around the clips.

My Sister-in-Law recently spent £8k on an Avensis…& £20 on the most god awful cheap rack I've ever seen. I cringe when I see her load bikes onto the thing, & always insist on driving in front.

A near disaster…

Many moons ago driving back from the FoD to Bristol with three bikes on a rear mounted 'prong' rack. As we're steaming over the Severn bridge my front seat passenger says "Oh that's why I'm so uncomfortable" and pulls out the chain and padlock she's been sat on; the chain and padlock that should be holding the bikes onto the rack.

To this day I take it as testament to my silky smooth driving that the bikes stayed on the rack.

Reading the posts so far, most disasters stem from "user error" rather than a problem with the actual rack.

I've got a cheap strap mounted rack and it's generally rock solid. Once it's tightened up, which I check and re-check several times before putting the bike on, it's not going to move anywhere.

The bike is then attached to the rack with two ratchet straps and two bungee cords as back up in case anything fails.