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.
Reading the posts so far, most disasters stem from "user error" rather than a problem with the actual rack.
I think that's true, although some racks make the potential for user error much greater. Eg with my rack you couldn't accidentally only tie the bikes together rather than to the rack.
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