What’s the supposed problem?

OP mounts expensive bikes on cheap shite, cheap shite fails, quality of fitting unknown, OP wants cheap shite seller to fix car, and buy a new frame, possibly two.

Just about covers it? 🙂

Flipping heck! I’m glad my little 1 series has 4 bolts that go through the feet straight into the roof.

me too!! I bought Thule, they’re a market leader for a reason.

No Nobeerinthefridge, the point is that no matter how expensive the item, it should be fit for purpose, end of!!

If I buy an SLX mech instead of an XTR one, it will still do the job it’s intended to do and advertised to do!!

One ‘failure’ doesn’t prove it’s not fit for purpose IMO, Any comms back from Micks garage yet?

Edit to your edit – It’s not the same as your analogy is it? both XT and SLX are quality components, from a known brand, with a proven track record, the only difference being weight.

Your comparison would be better described by buying a chinese no name from alibaba, and comparing that to a Shimano mech tbh.

They’ve asked the weights of the bikes and how it’s fitted so far. As it’s through the Amazon portal I expect it to be a very long and drawn out process.

One interesting thing though, the bars have disappeared from their site to be replaced by a 404!! Luckily I screenshotted them.

One interesting thing though, the bars have disappeared from their site to be replaced by a 404!! Luckily I screenshotted them.

That is a good sign, IMHO. A responsible retailer would certainly stop selling something when they’ve had reports of it failing in use, at least until they’ve had chance to investigate it properly.

Your comparison would be better described by buying a chinese no name from alibaba, and comparing that to a Shimano mech tbh.

And it’s funny, because I have a friend who insists on buying cheap “XT” cranks from China that are, at a glance, obviously not genuine. So far, he’s had two crank arms fail on him and I can’t remember the last time a genuine Shimano crank snapped on me! (that’s not an invitation to start that conversation again BTW!)

No Nobeerinthefridge, the point is that no matter how expensive the item, it should be fit for purpose, end of!!

This is true. At the very least they should be safe to use.

That said, and as others have alluded to and I have experience of, cheap roof bars and cycle carriers are often utterly rubbish quality (as with many other products in life now that we buy online for the cheapest price possible). Cheap is different from good value and all that.

I hope the Micks place do keep responding well – pulling a product from their site may be a good sign.

Passed a rack with two bikes still attached, upright and looking ok in the middle lane of the M60 a few weeks ago. It could have only just happened as the driver and passenger were running a short distance down the hard shoulder and looked like they were thinking of running on the motorway to drag the rack and bikes back. Rather them than me, I would have called the police and hoped the bikes did not get run over before the boys in blue could help out.

I’ve used roof racks of varying qualities and cost through the years. The only time I’ve seen one come off was a colleage rear ending another car. The racks were carrying two sets of 3 stage ladders which then embedded in the poor car in front, the    gutters on the mk4 Escort had bent.

I hate roof racks and ladders. Any ladders I  carry fit inside the vehicle strapped down, same with bikes.

worth noting my GFs Astra estate started leaking water where the roof gutter seam sealer had split, by coincidence the previous owner who I know used the roof rails and rack a lot. Possibly linked possibly not, took ages to find the water leak.

Sorry for the roof rack rant, on topic regardless of cost the rack needs to be fit for purpose.

I carry ladders on a rack & on one occasion 4 years ago the rack did come off,luckily no-one else involved just slightly scuffed roof but it’s a work van, it touched my bonnet seesaw effect 😮 as Id applied the brakes near home !

Just before this happened I’d reversed & not realised after touching the open garage door,this had slid one foot out of its fixing point this was on a Citroen Berlingo.

After this I refitted it & saw that the foot pack doesn’t fit that well into the roof fittings,I aligned it all & pulled the bars to bring/pull the feet closer,before tightening fully it seemed more secure after.

I use a Rhino rack on my latest van much more secure than Thule offerings,my bikes fit into the van,but if I had a car I’d prefer a towbar mounted rack though.

Its easy to not realise somethings amiss don’t take it for granted its ok,reason we have an mot.

just clicked on the link and I have to ask why the hell anyone would buy that rubbish to secure bikes to their roof? Sorry OP but they really do look like cheap rubbish. The clamping to the roof bars looks ropey but the bike carrier itself is horrendous. Did they come with any wheel clamps and what if your down tube is so fat that the frame clamp doesnt close enough so just relies on friction to grip the sides of the tube rather than close slightly over the top?

I suspect you won’t get anywhere with the seller but if I were you I would be contacting trading standards immediately as they are your best hope.

I would be wary of anything unbranded with claimed TUV and CE approval/logos.

The other scary thing is how many unsuspecting people are driving round with bikes on these things?

FWIW I’ve just got back from holiday – 24+ hrs of driving with four bikes on the roof lots of it at 80mph into a strong headwind. No issues

Cruz roof bars on a mondeo, thule and exodus(halfords) bike carriers

Brother in Law had a similar incident on the A303 a couple of years back – again with the closed type bars and an atera rack – front of rack came off at 70 mph with 5 road bikes on the roof – all carbon, all lost at a value of £24K all in! The car insurer said as he was doing more than 55MPH they did not cover it !  I reckon the closed roof bars are the issue – lets face it if the foot of the rack is wrapper around the bar its not coming off, if its bolted down its not coming off, but those bars your relying on an edge…… Just saying.

And the carbon bike – its a right off/new frame job. Likely to be cracked and will fail, catastrophically.

I’ve just got the proper Thule ones for my car now, the clamp actually clamps on both sides of the rail as it has a lip both sides and not locating holes like some others.

It’s definitely one of those hindsight things, If I’d known then etc….

Still ongoing with the seller though, they are hiding behind Amazon as an excuse to take an age to reply.

Trading standards have now been informed as I don’t think there is any way these clamps would stay seated form what I now know.

Sounds like a sensible move, to be honest! Hope you have some success with the Amazon seller.

I reckon the closed roof bars are the issue – lets face it if the foot of the rack is wrapper around the bar its not coming off, if its bolted down its not coming off, but those bars your relying on an edge…… Just saying.

My Thule’s that work on ‘old’ estate roof bars still only really have a lip under the bar. They do rely on a good old hoofin’ clamping force at the end of the day. Never had an issue in 20+ years of that design though….

goozee – glad you have some good ones now. Let us know how the shop responds…

I don’t think you can claim for consequential loss as part of consumer rights (I may be wrong) – if so all you could claim is surely the cost of the rack (which they’d be happy to stump up).

To show negligence (and claim for bike loss) I think you’d have to prove they were negligent – if they’re buying TUV-stamped stock from china – is that negligent? Not sure

I lost a bike off a roof rack 25 years ago. Brand new Orange E2 on the outside lane of the M3 at 70mph. I hadn’t put the bike on the rack, my passenger had and I asked 3 times as we drove to the motorway if was secure. My responsibility, so should have checked. Anyway accelerated onto the motorway and saw the bike lifting through the sun roof and then bouncing along behind. Car behind mercifully was far enough back to slow in time. Retrieved bike and it was fine other than a taco’d rim and scuffed bar end.

These days I always check the bikes myself and also use a plastic covered steel cable that goes through the bikes and is anchored by large plastic balls at each end which are shut inside the rear passenger doors. If the rack or bike attachment fails the cable should stop them going anywhere…..

“And the carbon bike – its a right off/new frame job. Likely to be cracked and will fail, catastrophically.”

impressive diagnosis from one small photo with no detail , do you do telephone tarot as well ?

Claiming for consequential loss is possible in theory but you need a very strong case and it remains highly unlikely in this sort of situation

impressive diagnosis from one small photo with no detail , do you do telephone tarot as well ?

Indeed, sooth-sayertrackworld!.

Any word in the trial of OP versus cheap shite bike carriers yet?…

Paranoid about mine. Will always stop after a few miles and have a jiggle to make sure that nothing seems to be working loose.

Glad to see after getting some new ones you’ve realised our comments weren’t throw away and had merit about how poor those that were for sale were, TUV or no TUV.

Hope you get somewhere with Micks cheap shit.