Heading to Llandegla today with my son and our bikes on the roof and there was an almighty bang. First that I thought was what the hell have I hit, but then instinctively looked in the rear view mirror to see one bike being jettisoned off the roof.

Thankfully there were no cars or pedestrians any where nearby. A thankyou to the guy who stopped on the opposite side to move the bike off the road. Kinda laughed it off to begin with but then the shock and "what ifs" sets in. The thing bounced a good 6 feet when it hit the tarmac and kept going. I dread to think what might have happened with a car following.

The frame and forks look to be OK along with the chainset and the mechs which is a bonus from a ££ point of view, but everything else is basically scrap.

I'll post some pics later for your amusement and maybe a game of "estimate the repair cost"

Ah well I never did like those DT 4.2s anyway.

🙁

Oh and before anyone asks the bike was strapped to the roof bars and the mechanism that holds the bike was locked, so I'm struggling to see any "user error".

BAD KALMA

Sorry for the damage & hope your is car.

Sorry to hear this, good if you can post pics and let us know which rack your using.

Hate to hear of a days riding spoiled 🙁

so the bike came out of a locked jaw mechanism and broke the wheel straps or did the whole bike carrier assembly come away?
What make of carrier is it?

My guess is a sniper took out the lock mechanism with a CheyTac Intervention M100. Are the Sons of Glendower on the rise again?

Seriously though, get the whole bike checked over properly – that's a much bigger impact than any part of it has been designed to cope with.

why was your son on the roof maybe he undid the straps as revenge

Bugger…Foes or Whyte fella?…unlucky happened to me once only it was a double divan bed that took off the roof rack …..bounced into the path of a car I'd just overtaken…fortunately then bounced straight onto the hard shoulder, gave me a few sleepless nights I can tell you 😳

Sideways Tim..Sons of Glyndwr are en route to your shop right now!

fortunately then bounced straight onto the hard shoulder, gave me a few sleepless nights I can tell you

Not surprised, must be difficult to get to sleep on the side of the motorway.
Did the Highways Agency not move you on ???? 😉

Well sounds pretty impossible! LOL

I would be binning any aluminium or carbon parts, forks, frame, bars stem, seatpost etc…..

Same thing happened to a mate of mine but off the rear of the car. He was telling me how lucky he had been. Got to some traffic lights, we stopped and his bars snapped in half. Pretty luck considering we had been doing 40mph downhill moments before.

Oh boy, it gets better.

Today is clearly Karma payback day. I thought I'd go for a ride to try and stop thinking about it, and then what I'd seen before I went on the ride came flooding back to me. Bike number 2 had its top tube cable mount hanging off. The "glue" looks like it's given up the ghost, but what I don't get is that the wheels were straight ahead – so it was under no real pressure. So that's two bikes out of action in a day – neither of which involved an riding accdent! Time for me to go sit in a corner and not move for fear of anything else happening.

It's the Foes – but there's not a scratch on it or on the forks thank God. It's still going to be expensive though 🙁 Pics are uploading now so I'll link them in a bit. The wheels and controls though are a bit worse for wear. When you see what looks like an end-on whack that the carbon bars took any worries about carbon not being strong go out the window.

Re the questions about the rack, sorry but I don't really want to go in to it on here. It's just really hard to work out how it could have happened, but at least one part has failed. Whether it's the cause though I have no idea.

I once hadn't got the fork 'locked' properly, but the rear was strapped on – so 'all' that happened was the bike rotated on the rear wheel scratching the roof and side of the car as it went…

What kinda carrier was it?

This should true ? The front's buckled but looks like it's at least fixable. Funniest thing is the tyre is still inflated!

It looks like the bars then took a big hit. The have rotated 180 degrees, and been punched up through the stem by about 50 cm. The grip should be at the end, and the brake lever closest has ripped clean off at the clamp.

Full on 180 degree flip.

The brakes took a fair hit.

I like the tag. I can rely on STW for comedy 🙂

🙁

Deffo scrap the bars and stem.

That'll polish out with a bit of t-cut

My mate went under a low bridge last week with 2 new bikes on top 😯

£1500 damage to the car and amazingly only a couple superficial wounds to the bike!!

I don't really want to go in to it on here.

Not quite sure where you're coming from here; if it's something that might help someone else avoid the same fate, isn't it worth sharing?

Sorry for the loss anyway, I'd be heartbroken if it were me. We retrieved someone else's bike from the first lane of the M65 last week, poor girl looked devastated. It'd come loose from a tailgate carrier, wouldn't have liked to have been the bloke driving afterwards.

You poor bugger – could have been worse. Imagine driving into an on comming bouncing bike !

Im glad Ive got a van.

Can you claim on insurance ? It was an accident afterall.

Exactly. I think I'm still in shock, and keep going through the what ifs. The tour was local to us today so lots of roadies around. I'm just so pleased no one else got hurt.

Cougar – Member

I don't really want to go in to it on here.

Not quite sure where you're coming from here; if it's something that might help someone else avoid the same fate, isn't it worth sharing?

Cougar, it's more a case of I'd rather let the manufacturer take a look at it all first. I'm not one for public outcries, and it may have been something I did or didn't do (though I'm struggling with that notion); in which case I think it would be a bit unfair.

Trimix, I doub't the car or home insurance would cover it? Funnily enough I'm probably going to go down the van route as well.

I've followed loads of cars with bikes on the roof – uneven road surfaces make them waggle from side to side a frightening amount. No way I'd use one. Boot mount or in the car

you are no more likely to have damage done to your bikes with a roof rack than any other type of rack, product or human failings can happen with either. For the record Crell i think you're doing the right thing before assigning blame.

For the record i've had thule roof racks for nearly three years covering literally thousands of miles with not a hint of trouble, the same can be said for my mates that have the toe bar alternative.

I'm sorry for your loss with the bike stuff, but try not to think of the what ifs, there's nothing you can do about that now. Its sounds like you're doing the right thing and trying to learn what caused it and avoid it, thats all you can do.

I use the thule roof mounted bike racks, and on the way to llandegla once the arm that clamps to the frame came away from the frame, the bike fell sideways but still attached by the straps, we stopped, put it back upright and carried on. No damage to car or bike.

I reckon we just hadnt done the clamp up tight enough, it was a tapered frame , and I think the clamp slid off. I think thats the only thing it could have been. Never had a problem before or since, done thousands of miles.

my son and our bikes on the roof

That is downright irresponsible mate!

That wheel btw is not even remotely fixable.

Molgrips it's one way to stop the "are we nearly there yet Dad?"

Gutted for ya Jay….moral is stick with the antiques you normally ride and carry them in the boot 😉

Accidental cover on your contents cover may be worth investigating if you have it? email me fella as still not got your moby no

I use the thule roof mounted bike racks, and on the way to llandegla once the arm that clamps to the frame came away from the frame, the bike fell sideways but still attached by the straps, we stopped, put it back upright and carried on. No damage to car or bike.

I reckon we just hadnt done the clamp up tight enough, it was a tapered frame , and I think the clamp slid off. I think thats the only thing it could have been. Never had a problem before or since, done thousands of miles.

this happened to a mate twice. first time the bike dropped and dented the passenger side roof with the pedal ( wheels still attached ), second time i watched as his GF drove out of a car park doing no more than 5 or 10 mph, and the driver's side bike dropped and put a matching dent on that side too. this was the thule ratchet type jaws that fit the downtube. on that second occasion said mate was a bit miffed ( understandably ), and said that he was sure the jaws were tight and also that the mechanism was locked. i watched as he had to unlock the mechanism with the key, then release the ratchet, to refit the bike in the jaws. steel framed bike with parallel tube ( no taper ).

he now uses additional straps around the arm/frame.

i imagine if a bike falling off a roof caused a serious accident the penalties would be severe.

Many people I know now use an extra toe strap to supplement the jaws of the new Thule carriers after having a bike wriggle itself use.

That is not good but dont worry yourself about what could of happened as it didn't .

Shame you never used that tyre on our Peak's ride last year as that one wouldn't hold air under normal use never mind Redbull Rampage style ridin

Heading to Llandegla today with my son and our bikes on the roof and there was an almighty bang.

I use the thule roof mounted bike racks, and on the way to llandegla once the arm that clamps to the frame came away from the frame, the bike fell sideways

Something about going to Llandegla? 😛

My bike had an interesting exit from a mate's car a couple of months back – front strap might not have been done up and it lifted and pulled out…apparently bounced over an oncoming car and the car behind didn't stop…bike is ok but needed a few parts replaced…can't be a good experience to have…

I've had Thule and Atera Giro roof carriers. Never had a problem with either, other than having the (locked) Atera ones smashed to crap by a couple of pikeys in the process of removing our bikes from them. The little scamps.

The Thule seem to be more solid than the Atera, though that could be just my perception; however, the Thule seem to be marking the bike frames where they clamp. Not quite sure what to do about that, TBH.

Interesting that people are having bikes ping out. Assuming we're ruling out user error and driving like an arse, I might have to start backing up the fittings with a strap or three. I haven't done this previously as I was concerned that I might cause problems; ie, the carriers move and flex by design rather than breaking, and adding non-standard forces might not be a wholly great idea.

Hmm. Interesting, cheers.

We had a close call with a boot mounted bike rack in Bwlchgwyn, bikes grounded on speed bumps on Brymbo road ( I think thats the name of the road) in front of the stone cottages.

Bikes lifted of rack and only bungees saved the day!!

Aparently the speed bumps had already been lowered at this point according to resident who came out to see what all the shouting was about!

Be warned

I'm pretty sure my mishap was due to user error rather than some inherent weakness in the way the racks work.

I just make sure I do the clamp up very tight now.