Seasucker Talon Rack Failure
 

Has anyone had issues with the Seasucker Talon bike rack? In late June 2020, the rack failed causing my bike to fall off my roof at highway speed, damaging both my bike and car, but fortunately not injuring anyone. At the accident scene, I noticed the velcro of the rear suction cup of the Talon bike rack was ripped away from the base. Before use, I carefully followed and double-checked the instructions, and checked that the bike was secure at each mounting point several times before driving. I drove for approximately 80 miles on a smooth interstate highway, below the speed limit, and in clear early summer conditions, before the bike crashed off my car’s roof. I only used the product twice since I bought it in 2016. It failed on the second use and caused about $1000 of damage to my car and another $1000 to my bike.

Bicycle rack for a moving motorized vehicle. You had me laughing at "velcro" and "suction cup". Are you kidding me?

You might have had that one coming.

It's a rather expensive, highly marketed rack, but you might have a point. There was another thread on here where someone cracked the glass on their Tesla roof by affixing one of these to it.

Yeah, any bike rack that relies on velcro and suction cups is not one I'd want to use. Velcro doesn't last forever, it's only got a limited number of uses before it wears out. And I don't trust plastic suction cups to last forever either.

Wouldn’t use one if it were the only rack on the planet.

Spot on.
And I’m thinking he forgot to mention the duct tape...

I wouldn't buy a car that didn't have roof rails or a hitch receiver.

Well this thread dredge from last month was worth it just to be hard on a guy with a damaged car and bike from using a well-reputed car bike rack.

It's physics. The very design will "work" within pretty narrow parameters. Surface finish (host), expansion/contraction of automotive surfaces, shear and tensional forces exerted on the rack by basically a sail (the bicycle) etc. etc.

A suction cup is optimized on a flat surface, and any curvature will have an effect, as to what degree is conditional. The surface must be non-porous and smooth enough to minimize any pressure equalization. Once it's equalized..........boing! there goes the system. Not only do you have a design that relies on some pretty ideal conditions, you also have to factor in end user error.

No thanks. From experience, I will stick to the classic mechanical means of securing my expensive bicycles.

The marketing sure is slick though!

Well, one post was kind of harsh towards him/ her. But I took the whole point of the OP to be questioning whether the product deserves its well-reputed status. OP is describing a total product failure while it was subjected to normal use.

I think OP isn't describing a suction cup failure. Sounds more like a failure of the strapping system. Either way, I'd avoid this product.

The only times I've witnessed Seasucker racks in use have been on cars that would tend to indicate that the owner could afford to cover the costs of any catastrophe, if you get my drift. Like, that kind of incident would barely put a dent into their monocle and top hat budget.