BS: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks

Subject: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 09:19 AM

Just a friendly warning, if you have one of those bike racks on the back of your car that has horns that stick out like a triceratops' - don't back into trees, even very gently. The rack slid and blew the rear window completely out of my new car. Well, completely INTO my new car, actually - gotta love that safety glass, the twins were COVERED in broken glass and nobody got cut at all. I had no idea glass could weigh that much in little tiny pebbles that we'll be finding in the seat cushions for the next 10 years...

Subject: RE: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 09:41 AM

Yup! Backing with a rear rack should be done most cautiously. Consider the car top rack. Of course then, if you forget it's there and the bikes are attached, you might try to enter your favorite parking garage and....! Over the years I have had both kinds and the rear rack is best despite goring the odd tree or you, walking into it at night! The reason no one was cut is you have (or had) safety glass, so called because it shatters into tiny fragments when impacted. Use a shop vac. The glass is easier to deal with than the 'urpage' my daughter decorated the inside of our Opel wagon with. Seems that miles of coastal highway mixed with chocolate chip cookies, didn't.:>)

CB

Subject: RE: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 10:12 AM

Indeed - my sister once barfed INTO the door, down between the door and window... luckily, it was a rental!

Subject: RE: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 10:17 AM

Oh yeah, and another use for duct tape - getting plastic wrap over something that used to have a window in it!

Subject: RE: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 11:20 AM

Duct tape! along with JB weld what marvelous inventions!!

CB

Subject: RE: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: weepiper
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 02:08 PM

And while we're on the topic of unknown risks from bike racks, don't hang bikes on a rear rack in such a way that the tyres are close to the exhaust pipe; you will get halfway down the motorway and the bike tyre will explode because of the heat from the exhaust. And don't forget to take the bikes off the roofrack before you drive into the garage...that one seems obvious doesn't it but the number of sorry looking people who bring mangled bikes into my shop to get insurance estimates after doing just that... :-)

Subject: RE: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 03:16 PM

Ooh, I hadn't thought of the exhaust! What ELSE can go wrong?

Subject: RE: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 03:22 PM

Reversing into a parking space and forgetting you've got the rack on..... I nearly lost a windscreen like that - silly git wasn't even checking the mirror.....

The best thing for getting glass out of cars is one of those hand held dust buster things. Pick up one as cheaply as you can, vaccuum up your car and then bin the whole thing.... far safer that way!

LTS

Subject: RE: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 03:35 PM

"bin the whole thing?"

Subject: Car Bike Racks...What Else Can Go Wrong
From: saulgoldie
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 05:19 PM

I often see people with the bikes draggin way too low to the ground. If the bike scrapes while you are moving, you can pretzel a wheel or a whole bike. Or if you are carrying more than one bike, the damage could cascade to the others. Solution: don't port your bikes; ride 'em! Your "Mother" (Earth) will love you for it.

Oops! Guess I got off on a bit of a rant there. But speaking of music...

Subject: RE: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: SharonA
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 05:53 PM

I'm guessing that "bin the whole thing" means dump it in the trash bin, DustBuster, glass and all.

Either that, or it's some obscure Taliban member... bin Daholethin.

Add my name to the membership in the Safety-glass-in-the-seat-and-up-the-a** Club. I had a car that was broken into 6 years ago; some kids broke the driver's-side window and attempted to pop the lock but only succeeded in breaking off one of the plastic phlanges. So they popped the hood instead and made off with my battery. Insurance paid for that, but I never did get all the glass out of the seat and floor of that car before I sold it to a junk dealer 4 years later.

The thing that really steamed me, though, was that those punks stole my case of cassette tapes! Car insurance didn't pay for the car's stolen contents (that's how I found out I needed renter's insurance to cover my possessions, whether in the apartment or the car!). I mean, okay, you'd expect that thieves would steal music... but I'm willing to bet that they just threw it away somewhere as undesirable and unsellable, and that's what angered me. After all, what underground dealer would buy tapes of traditional tunes on hammer dulcimer?

Subject: RE: BS: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 02:45 AM

Yeah, I meant bin the dust buster... much easier than trying to empty bits of glass out of the bags....

I had my rear windows broken a couple of times, still had glass appearing from the back of the seats when the car finally died last year, 6 years later!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Chip2447
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 03:02 AM

A typical midwest american solution that I use...but the bike into the back of a pickup truck...works for me... Chip2447.

Subject: Bike Racks are ruinous
From: Watersong
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 09:43 AM

I've made all the bike & rack mistakes possible. Good bikes are expensive, they hate rain and road dirt, and are very desirable to theives. So, I figure "the rack is the ruin". I bought a Ford Taurus station wagon and we remove the bikes' front wheels and stack them inside.(rear seats folded with an old blanket between bikes). Loads of room is left for bags and guitars. The great part is that it is cheaper, easier and faster than using exterior racks and there is no wind drag or noise. 2 other wagons that will hold 2 bikes are VW Passat and Subaru Legacy / Outback.

Subject: RE: BS: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: GUEST,celtic cousin
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 10:22 AM

Hey Chip2447 you stole my line! lol The best way to transport a bike is to pedal it. A pick-up works 2nd best, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 11:19 AM

Wow, I feel a lot better, knowing I'm not the only dunce on the planet!

Subject: RE: BS: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: SharonA
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 08:56 PM

Watersong: How do you know which other station wagons will hold bikes? I'm picturing you walking into a car dealership with the front wheel of your bike in one hand and the rest of the bike in the other hand, and saying to the salesman, "Whaddaya got that'll carry this?" *BG*

Of course, the problem with putting bikes, bags, guitars, etc., into the back of a station wagon is that you might end up with a station wagon full of glass because some thief broke a window to steal all that stuff! Give me a car with a trunk any day!!

Subject: RE: BS: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 09:05 PM

The morons who leave the rack on the back and park next to you at night in the parking lot.

Subject: RE: BS: Unknown Risk From Car Bike Racks
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 04:03 AM

Horns of a dilemma