Originally Posted by
Hermes
FWIW, bikes on a roof rack expose the bikes and the car to damage when one drives into the garage or other low hanging objects such as tree limbs with the bikes on the top. It has happened to a lot of my cycling friends and sometimes the roof of the car is damaged which may not be an easy fix along with the bike.
I went to the "Great Western Bicycle Rally" and we camped at the fairgrounds. A guy camped near us with his family and he had a roof rack with 4 bikes and the rack was secured to the plastic roof rails that came on the car, a Taurus wagon.
There was a thick wire about 6 or 7 feet high that the rally used to hang banners on. It was strung across one end of the area where we parked and when he left the wire ripped the roof rails off of the car and the whole rack with 4 bikes on it slammed to the ground. People offered to carry his bikes home to LA because he had no way to do it.
Two friends were driving on hwy 101 with 2 bikes on a very old roof rack. The rack broke and my friend's Orca took flight, sailing over the divider into the traffic going the other way where it was run over by numerous cars and trucks. Here is the biggest piece he found.
A friend went to Solvang to do the century and he had his 50th Anniversary Paramount on the roof rack and of course he drove into the garage at the motel. Bent the fork and tore up the seat but the frame was ok. Richard Schwinn at Waterford got him a matching fork. Also, another friend who was coming up in the morning brought him a bike to ride for the event.