I’ve never felt comfortable with bikes and surfboards on the outside of the car, I fear just worrying about them could affect my driving. Anyway, on Sunday I was driving north on the M1 around junction 22 and in the hard shoulder was three policemen looking rather bemused at a roof rack sitting there with three bikes on it and no car attached.

we had a good laugh about some poor soul pulling in at the Hope car park and a big wtf?

Obviously the consequences could have been rather more horrific. Take note and take care!

On the M90 about 3 cars in front of me someone’s roofbox popped open and all their clothes were distributed about the motorway.  haven’t used mine since

all their clothes were distributed about the motorway. haven’t used mine since

Give them their clothes back and start using your own again.

Seriously;

There was a 3 bike tailgate mounted rack in the middle of the outer lane on a dual carriageway bit of the A36 and a car about half a mile up the road with a bloke looking at a couple of straps attached to his car.

All forms of carrying stuff outside (and inside) vehicles rely on them being used correctly.

Just make sure the roof box is strapped shut as well as locked…shouldn’t be an issue…

You’d think roof boxes would hinge at the front.

The one I borrow off my father in law does…. Plus I also use an additional ratchet strap over the top 2.99 seems worth the extra!…

Always ratchet strap mine even though it’s a bastard to open in normal conditions.

Yeah my roof box gets two straps round as well as the normal closing mechanism. My sister and bro in law lost the top of theirs on a motorway in France.  Fortunately it was empty as they were on their way to pick something up.

My bike rack is a flange mount tow bar mounted one so the whole thing would have to fall apart for that to leave the car…..

Touch wood!!

Very old photo, but I used to lock the bikes to the bars, which bolted to the car chassis itself (on the Mark IV Golf).

Had quite a few Thule bike rack bolts just snap over the years, so never relied on the rack themselves…..

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8ga91]Return to England[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

On the M90 about 3 cars in front of me someone’s roofbox popped open and all their clothes were distributed about the motorway.  haven’t used mine since

That happened to someone I was following up the A30, pulled alongside, beeped the horn, finally got the drivers attention, kept pointing up, they just looked at me… I pulled forward, the next car did the same, the look on the guys face when he realised was a picture…

As a side note, I’ve never used one, but I was surprised it was essentially a suitcase on the roof, I always thought you’d chuck another bag inside.