When we need to put our bike(s) on or in our cars or trucks to drive somewhere to get to a ride site, we have three choices: Put the bikes on a roof rack, put them on a rear-mounted rack, or put them inside our car or truck.
As for roof racks, I’m pretty much over them for a couple reasons. One, it’s really easy to forget that you have your bikes on a roof rack. And that’s really not good. Because you have a lot less clearance with a bike on top, you can drive into low clearance areas with the bikes on top and BAAAMMMM!
Once I went on a group mountain bike ride and met at a foothills trailhead. One of the riders in the group, a guy that worked in the same office with me, was climbing a rutted pitch on the trail fairly early in the ride when his seat post suddenly broke off, seat and all! He got off the bike and saw that there was no fixing it, the post had snapped. He was faced with riding the rest of the super technical trail with a piece of round broken metal for a seat, or ride slowly, standing up, back to the parking lot and just wait for everybody to finish.
Which is what he did. The rest of us who rode on, couldn’t figure out how in the hell a seat post could just break off seemingly out of the blue like that without taking a sledgehammer-like hit.
When we got back, we heard the story. The week before, they guy had his bike on the roof rack of his buddy’s truck when they were on the way to a ride. They decided to stop to get a cup of coffee, and that required driving into a parking garage. The guy driving remembered at the last second that there were bikes up top on the roof rack, and hit the brakes. My buddy’s bike’s seat got wedged and torqued by the cement header over the garage entry. They backed out, checked the bike, and everything looked OK. But my friend’s seat post took on some serious force, and even though it seemed like no damage had occurred, the post’s tensile strength had been seriously compromised. Still, it made it through his ride that day, without a problem, so he didn’t know there was a looming problem.
But on the second ride after the stem was hit, when he sat down on it – the dude is 6 foot 7 and well over 200 lbs. – the seat post couldn’t handle the stress. Snap.
Then it happened to me and another buddy, after we had gone on a mountain bike ride and were almost home, coming off the freeway exit. A lane was closed off, but I told Kevin, hey, we can take a shortcut right through that parking garage.
Neither of us remembered we had our bikes on the roof, and BAAAAMMMM! He hit the brakes but the damage was done. The impact on the bike rack, bent one rail into a 90 degree angle and tossed my bike off. A cable lock kept it dangling, so it didn’t hit the ground. Kevin’s bike and rail was forced down onto the rear window, which popped on impact, turning the safety glass into gravel-like chunks.
We lucked out, both bikes were OK, no damage. The one rack rail was toast, as was Kevin’s rear window, which his insurance eventually replaced.
The cop that happened by while Kevin was on the phone to his insurer told us he’d seen roof-racked bikes get low bridged fairly regularly. So, no more roof racks for me. Plus they’re a pain to put on and off the roof. No longer happening.
Then there are the rear-mounted racks, which I’ve used on a buddy’s truck many times. He always put the rack on and took it off, so it was never a hassle for me, and it handled our bikes fine. But I also know that they’d be destroyed if ever we got rear-ended. So I’m about 50-50 on them.
Then there’s the put-it-inside-the-vehicle method of bike transport, which has become my favorite.
Why, you may ask? Mainly it’s safety and convenience. My buddy recent came to town to do some rides and my car was our mode of transport. I could have put one of the bikes on my roof rack and the other in the car’s expanded trunk with the rear seats folded down.
But hey, putting on the roof rack takes too much time, and then there’s the real potential of a low bridge smack-down of the bike. So no and no.
We took off each bike’s front tire, and laid one bike on its side. Then we spread a blanket over that bike, and put the second bike on top, reversed, back to front. We did so gingerly, so as not to bend derailleurs or spokes. And in very little time, we were good to go.
It worked out well. It’s my go-to bike transport solution. And the other good thing is the bikes are more secure covered up and locked inside the car than on a cable secured rack. Yep. It’s nothin’ but a win, win situation.
My bike computer’s battery died? Whaaaat?
Somehow when I was recently recharging my Garmin bike computer, the thing was unplugged too early and it wasn’t fully charged when I took off on my next ride, a 32 miler.
The thing warned me the battery was low, but I figured I’d see if it would last for the length of the ride, then I’d recharge it. But it died with about six miles left in the ride. No biggie,
I rode home and plugged it in. But it showed my how much I look at the thing while I’m on the bike. When there’s just a blank screen, it’s pretty different. You can’t be preoccupied with the numbers on the screen. You tune into seeing surrounding landscape and ribbon of trail, you’re more present. But hey, I still can do that and check my speed and mileage on the computer. It’s a pretty well worn habit. So yeah, want the computer fully charged and working at all times! Isn’t that sort of like a weird addiction?
Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and don’t forget: Have a blast!
-- Mark Eric Larson
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