After my newly bought roof bars decided to part company with the roof of my car on the M54 on Saturday with 2 bikes on, I’m just seeing if anyone else has had this happen to them.

The rails on the car are the closed type and I get a feeling the clamps were just not up to the job.

They were fitted exactly to the instructions and torqued to the specified 6nm!!

I can’t help but must have been a scarey moment for the cars behind!

Luckily 2 mates behind managed to slow some traffic, if it had been 10 minutes earlier we would have been on the M6 at Wednesbury!!

I’m always paranoid when I fit my roof rack..

Hope your bikes are ok! How did you retrieve themmand reattach?

I’ve got the clamp version that reaches around the door frame rather than your system. It never feels right..
I always add another quarter to half turn once its torqued correctly.

Next car will have fixed system points or a tow bar. CBA with looking out the window every minute to make sure they are still there..

Never, ever happened in 30yrs of using roof bars. Was this the built in torque wrench or your own? In any case I would contact the manufacturer to work out what happened because even if it was user error when fittting (and I’m not saying it is) it is something that shouldn’t happen.

I usually strap my bikes down in addition to the bike holders but that doesn’t help in this case. Think I’ll pay more attention to this clamps in the future

What make? I had one of the captive nuts that pulls the clamp shut fail on a pair of atera signos earlier this year. Thankfully they didn’t escape & I noticed the failure when I was removing them. Roofbox replaced them next day.

I’ve seen the aftermath of someone driving into a low bridge with his Thule system and a seven sola on the roof.

Lowered the roof on his Audi 2 inches and snapped his forks /bent his ti king headset cup andThomson masterpiece

Roof rack and frame(sent back to seven for inspection ) were fine

Car was a write off.

Doesn’t really matter if the correct torque is applied, if footpack isn’t seated properly, I’m willing to bet that they weren’t.

The rails on the car are the closed type and I get a feeling the clamps were just not up to the job.

Unlikely to be as simple as that as there’s no way all 4 clamping points decided to fail at the same time

Doesn’t really matter if the correct torque is applied, if footpack isn’t seated properly, I’m willing to bet that they weren’t.

Seems more likely

“Unlikely to be as simple as that as there’s no way all 4 clamping points decided to fail at the same time”

They probably didn’t – one failing will have caused another to fail and so on, in very quick succession.

Yep, the Thule feet (less than a year old) failed on the Thule roof bars.  Bike, still attached to Thule bike carrier, parted company and bounced along a busy dual carriageway on a Sunday morning.

Beleive me it was triple checked before we left by my mates as it was their bikes on the top, mine was in the car! They all seemed pretty secure when we set off and it happened around 25 minutes into the journey.

My mate behind said it tilted to one side slightly then ripped clean off which suggests one failed causing a shift which ripped the whole lot off.

One of the frames appears to be written off where it’s twisted on impact and it’s flexed the carbon. I’d add a photo but ain’t that clued up on here! Link below:

https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/16201060/

Seems more likely

Not if the OP was using a rack that clamps onto the roof rails rather than one that bolts to the roof via a footpack.

One of the frames appears to be written off where it’s twisted on impact and it’s flexed the carbon.

I would have thought that unless the bike actually hit the rode and suffered some impact damage (like crashing it and a frame tube actually hitting a rock/treestump) it would be fine, the loads involved in a 30lb bike hitting the motorway at 70mph are going to be considerably less than the loads of a >200lb rider+bike on the trail at 30mph.

Never happened to me in many miles of use. 6nm seems very light. I’d go way tighter than that.

I have the sealed rails on my car and it’s easy to torque them up without them being seated correctly if you aren’t used to attaching them. I put mine on and off as I use them and so have plenty of practice, but I can see how if they are only used intermittently that you might not get it right – the clamps can lean if you aren’t careful.

Interestingly the foot pack for the sealed rails on my previous car (BMW 3 Series Touring) were easier to seat than on my current one (Audi A6 Avant). I think the Audi rails are slightly taller.

Trying not to be a condescending arse! but tbh, it’s entirely possible that the clamps weren’t fitted properly, and the force of all that air resistance at 70mph tends to expose that sort of thing. It’s far more likely than an actual material failure, but you’ll never know really.

What’s the limitations of the bars? there must be a weight limit?.

Nope, I’ve fitted roof bars to every vehicle I’ve ever had (except the roadster)

I have had a couple of issues mind, on a Merc they were screwed into the roof by a bolt, but the bolt supplied wasn’t long enough … only went in 1/2 a turn.. Merc branded racks from the dealer, so took the whole lot back and they fitted the racks for me with new bolts.. had that car for 3urs no issues.

Thats the only issue I’ve ever encountered.

I would say the feet and rubber bump pad must be seated properly on the roof/rails before you start tightening any thing up.. then tighten in sequence, then finishing the tightening in opposing sides making sure it’s all square and such.

I do use vasaline (small amount) on the rubber feet just to make sure they seat properly..

Gald to hear you’re ok, bikes are a right off yeah?

Seen an ‘expedition quality’ roof rack come of a Land Rover in front of me complete with roof tent.

The alloy rack legs had all sheared so the rack sliced open the Defender roof as it bounced and slid off the back of the vehicle. We had only done 10km of corrugations while crossing the Sahara.

Don’t you love seeing a thread like this the day after you buy roof bars and a cycle carrier….

Wow, my worst nightmare right there! A few things to add from my own experience (obviously, all in hindsight):

To add to other voices here it’s very, very easy to tighten up a roof rack when it’s not actually properly fitted and it can be very hard to actually tell that it’s not right. I’m insanely careful about fitting them, mostly because of the thought of the photos in this this thread, but even then when you look round you realise that it’s not clamped correctly and would easily work loose if not fixed.

On mine, the correct, rated torque (Thule) felt about right, so they’ve been fastened up to that. Once fastened, the whole lot was shaken hard (and I mean, two people standing on the sills, hanging from the rack trying to rip it off hard!) and then checked and re-torqued to be sure all was well.

I don’t remove mine from the car. Once on, it stays on. This is partly because of the faff of doing so, mostly because it’s used several times a week for shifting bikes to and from races but also because I know that if I keep taking it on and off, eventually I’ll screw it up.

Forgive me for saying this, but looking at the photos it does appear that OP’s rack wasn’t a Thule one, and looking at the bike carriers, looks distinctly like a “cheap and cheerful” rack. Obviously, not everyone has pots of money to buy the very best kit, but I’ve seen other people use cheap bike carriers and they never seem as secure as the Thule ones. Same goes for the roof mounting hardware.

Sorry to hear about the bike damage, but noone was hurt and I suppose this is the most important thing.

It was fitted and torqued up to the instructions and seemed to be physically tight with the standard grab it and shake it test. I have already questioned the supplier as to whether they are intended to have some sort of specialist fitting to which they replied no.

Not entirely sure how you would be able to check them as you are going down the motorway though.

I just think that the clamping system was not suitable for my roof rails, maybe they neede a different type of clamp as the outside edge only has 3mm ish to clamp to. Yes they were the recommended bars for the vehicle by the seller.

The black rack was supplied with the roof bars by the supplier and are TUV rated.

There was no problem with the bike racks, they probably helped in keeping the bikes together!!

Tricky q is if the damaged bike didn’t belong to the OP does he compensate the owner?

(or maybe not tricky – I would take responsibility, my car, my rack)

Never happened to me in many miles of use. 6nm seems very light. I’d go way tighter than that.

6Nm was the recommended torque for my old Seat OEM roof bars & is the same for my new Atera Signo RT bars

I think that the manual for hte Signo RT bars also recommends that you re-check the torque after doing a certain distance; after 50km and then every 500km thereafter, is what i read into their rather too hieroglyphic instruction manual.

Upss …

Posted by Selfie on Bike on Monday, August 6, 2018

in the same spirit…

Yes, years ago.  Longboard not bike though.  They can create a fair amount of lift but there’s no way it should have failed as it did.  Not gong especially quickly at the time, inside lane and just heard a massive crack/thud combination followed by the horrific sight of my beloved mctavish somersaulting down the m4.  Either the plastic socket through which the bolt fed had broken or the bolt had sheared and caused the socket to smash – impossible to tell after the event.  My fault for buying the cheapest ones I could find on eBay.  Thule every time since then – no issues.

in the same spirit…

We’ve all had tyres that are hard to get off the rim. Good to see some people are thinking outside of the box when it comes to solving this problem…

Op have you been successfully using these roof bars on this car for ages before this failure, or are these new bars that you haven’t used before?

Ive used roof bars for years now to transport bikes, on all sorts of cars, and never had an issue with the bars coming off the roof, I’ve used the clamp type and the bolt on type.

I have had an issue where a bike wasn’t correctly clamped into the bike rack, which resulted in the bike coming out of the main clamp,but still being attached by the wheel straps, no damage done,but a close call.

It was a few years ago now but I had an experience where the clamps on my (brand new) roof bars snapped. The bit of the clamp attached to the gutter was still there…..the rest, where it was attached to the bars had failed.

Anyway, my windsurfer, masts, sail bag etc etc went floating down the A14 and straight under the wheels of an artic.

Peugeot dealer more or less said it was tough luck and go take a hike. (They had sold me the bars as robust enough to take windsurfing equipment so it wasn’t as if I was using them outwith their design parameters. Also, I was only going at 55mph at the time)

Luckily no one was hurt. It gave me nightmares for ages afterwards.

Brand new bars, I had been driving around with just the bike racks on for 3 days before with no problems.

the loads involved in a 30lb bike hitting the motorway at 70mph are going to be considerably less than the loads of a >200lb rider+bike on the trail at 30mph.

Disagree completely!  Its going to cartwheel and fling bits all over the place!

<span style=”display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: ‘Open Sans’; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.4px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;”>Yes they were the recommended bars for the vehicle by the seller</span>

Recommended by the seller, not the manufacturer?

Never had an issue, even using ‘cheap’ roof racks.  My current ones I’ve had about 15 years are Thule Aerobars, and their Freeride racks.  My car doesn’t have a gutter or rail. The foot pack sits on the roof, and a bracket wraps round and locates in a small hole on the underside of the door surround.

I’ve always ensured it’s fitted correctly, and spent some time making sure the feet were in the correct position – once done, you don’t have to do it again.

Had 4 bikes on the roof at 70 or more MPH before now.

In my case one of the feet sheered.  Car had been bought new a couple of months earlier and ended up damaged with scrapes with paint missing.  Bike needed parts replacing.  Car insurance would not cover repairs, we were advised to pay for an independent report.  Thule fobbed us off and sent a cheaper model of bike carrier to shut us up.  I regret not involving a solicitor but it was very traumatic and did not want to dwell.

Yes by the seller.

It will be up to them to prove that the manufacturer has specced them for the car.

What rack/car was it? Would be amazed if 3mins of googling didn’t tell you.

OTOH how are you proving it wasn’t your installation that caused the problem?

OP just interested when you say closed type roof bars / rails do you mean those low profile things that are now becoming popular on estates and SUVs that are solid and pinched in like a kind of squashed I shape? I always think these look a bit insecure/unforgiving in set up.

Never lost a set of roof bars.

I’ve used the door/window/sill clamp type and the type for estate roof rails that clamp right round a raised roof bar all with little concern.

I second the check the tension after X miles and 6nm is normal for every posh set of bars I’ve had.

My cheap near 15 year old Halfords ones actually seem to have the most secure design imo.

Sh!t. That is unlucky.

I have had various bars/clamps  over the years ( but always thule, for a roof box, not bikes) and never had an issue. Like others said above 6nM does sound quite loose to me, given the aerodynamic forces on the bike on top of a car at 60mph. I usually tighten mine to what feels like way more than 6nM then tighten a bit more to be sure. Not sure if that’s a good idea but never had any issues thus far.

They are indeed the newfangled closed roof bars which don’t look like they offer much purchase!

Not sure how I can prove if they were installed correctly but what can you do apart from following the instructions to the letter!

Can they prove that they were not installed correctly?

Not sure if that’s a good idea but never had any issues thus far.

It’s really not a good idea, torque figures aren’t just made up for no reason.

It will be up to them to prove that the manufacturer has specced them for the car.

Are you actually gonna try and pin this on the place you bought them from? isn’t it our responsibility to check from the manufacturer that they are suitable?.

Can they prove that they were not installed correctly?

I’d say the onus is on the guy with the mangled bikes to prove anything tbh, though all the best, I hope you get some joy with this.