Was just on my way home on the xpressway and had my bike on a hitch-mounted carrier. As I was rounding a corner I look into the rear view mirror only to see my bike flop backwards and disappear.
..wtf..
..at least I didn't see it under the car behind me, so there's a plus I guess. I was in the left lane on a right-turning interchange. Only about a 3/4-sized shoulder...perfect. I pulled off the road tight to the wall and sort of climbed out of the car. Around back I see my bike hanging off the rack by the rear wheel tray-strap. It looked like it was sliding down the road on the right shifter.
Cars are blowing by me about 3-4 feet away at 70ish mph and they are all a bit surprised to see me as they come around the bend. As I released the rear tire from the rack-tray strap I'm noticing the multiple layers of rubber and paint the concrete wall next to my car...perfect. I'm in place where human beings don't usually stand. Scotty..beam me up..
I put the bike on the second tray of the bike carrier, climbed back into my car, and headed for an off-ramp.
Looks like the bolt that held the fork-mount to the aluminum rail on the bike carrier failed. The fork-mount remained connected to the bike/fork. Fortunately the rear tray-mount held onto the carrier frame as did the strap holding the rear wheel to the tray. The entire tray with my bike attached was hanging (upside-down) in space held to the car-carrier by the rear tray mount...my nice, perfectly functioning Ultegra shifter supported the front of the bike as it dragged on the pavement behind me at 65-70mph..perfect.
The bike frame & fork seem to be fine. The shifter also seems to work perfectly. The bars..also look ok. No idea if I can source-replace just the shifter hood...never faced that question before.
Word to the wise...check your bike carrier hardware and replace any fasteners that are old...even bad ones may look good. Nuts and bolts are cheap..even SS ones. Bikes cost the real money. I got lucky.
Now to put humpty-dumpty back together. I may or may not replace the bike carrier. Depends if I can find the right parts. As for the shifter(s). This is my favorite bike and it and the shifters work(worked) perfectly. If I can find a set of shifter-boots I may put up with the remaining shifter appearance..though in reality, probably not. The bike is scheduled for a repaint soon and I'll look around for some new(to me) (3x9) shifters ...$ouch.
Given what could have happened..I got off light.