Posts
2102
Joined
8/1/2009
Location
Durango, CO
US
Edited Date/Time
12/27/2017 5:12pm
Picture this. I had just flown into Grand Junction, Colorado for a riding trip in nearby Moab, Utah. With a few hours to kill before others in our group arrived, I decide to build up my bike. I pull it out of my Evoc bag, throw the wheels on, bolt up the bars, and pop some wheelies in the parking lot. All good. The shuttle arrives, we load the bike on top of the van, cram several bike bags inside, and set off on the hour or so journey to Utah's riding mecca. Some of our crew hops in a truck and follow not far behind.
As we're driving along we feel several strong gusts of wind smash into the car from the side, but don't think much of it. Around the same time, one of the guys in the truck behind us jokingly says, "How crazy would it be if that thing flew off?"
Right at that moment, inside the van we hear and feel a loud "THUNK!" I turn around to watch out the back window puzzled by what happened and my jaw drops as I see my ride tumble off the top of the van. Next thing I know the thing is 20 feet in the air, BOUNCING down the highway at 70 miles an hour. It spikes the ground once, starts spinning wildly, bounces again, spins even faster, then slams into the ground a third time before sliding to a mangled stop on the shoulder.
The whole time I'm clutching the back of my seat, eyes wide open, hoping with everything I've got that it doesn't hit anyone, get hit, or break.
As we veer to the side of the road, we see our friend's truck pull over just behind the piled heap. They hop out, pick up the bike, and assess the damage. The incredible part? Besides a minor dent in the swingarm, the only parts that needed to be replaced were the handlebar and saddle. Oh, and I had to pull out the old smash the wheel on the ground like Hulk Hogan with a folding chair to straighten it technique.
Here's the Diamondback Mission Pro after the fall. How's that for a durability test? Who knew this thing could fly? And yeah, Moab still happened. Then I found $20...
What's your best bike rack failure story? Why is it that everyone has a horror story? Did it end well?
As we're driving along we feel several strong gusts of wind smash into the car from the side, but don't think much of it. Around the same time, one of the guys in the truck behind us jokingly says, "How crazy would it be if that thing flew off?"
Right at that moment, inside the van we hear and feel a loud "THUNK!" I turn around to watch out the back window puzzled by what happened and my jaw drops as I see my ride tumble off the top of the van. Next thing I know the thing is 20 feet in the air, BOUNCING down the highway at 70 miles an hour. It spikes the ground once, starts spinning wildly, bounces again, spins even faster, then slams into the ground a third time before sliding to a mangled stop on the shoulder.
The whole time I'm clutching the back of my seat, eyes wide open, hoping with everything I've got that it doesn't hit anyone, get hit, or break.
As we veer to the side of the road, we see our friend's truck pull over just behind the piled heap. They hop out, pick up the bike, and assess the damage. The incredible part? Besides a minor dent in the swingarm, the only parts that needed to be replaced were the handlebar and saddle. Oh, and I had to pull out the old smash the wheel on the ground like Hulk Hogan with a folding chair to straighten it technique.
Here's the Diamondback Mission Pro after the fall. How's that for a durability test? Who knew this thing could fly? And yeah, Moab still happened. Then I found $20...
What's your best bike rack failure story? Why is it that everyone has a horror story? Did it end well?
Thankfully no real horror stories from me. Even when we do dumb shit like testing the limits of a 4-tray T2 rack and a minivan.
Upon inspection the rear wheel is tacoed (though it's a POS Crankbros Iodine anyway), the derailleur is toast, and the bar ends have been ground down to 45 degree angles. The frame however is almost spotless with the exception of a few small scrapes around the dropouts. Pivots are still tight, no serious damage to the frame at all. I will be a Transition customer for life.
-2014 Rocky Mountain Altitude Carbon that I had just bought half fell off the back of my car. My tray had cracked and I didn't notice it. A car came running by honking at me. It was dragging by the part that holds the wheel on. Only the grip was ruined. I was kinda surprised bc the whole bike was carbon(wheels,frame,bars)
-2013 Santa Cruz V10 Carbon...Did the idiot thing and ran into a garage when i had a roof rack. Just the roof rack got broken. I was kinda stunned.
-Last year I was coming home from school on the train and noticed a homeless looking dude with a morpheus hardtail. He claimed to have found it after it bounced out of a truck going on I-80 west past park city. It was full spank parts so I figured it was a Morpheus pro riders bike. Dude had just got out of jail and said he was commuting on it. I called my buddy who knows the morpheus guys. Apparently one of them lost the bike and just used insurance to replace it. I had just paid for a semester of my MBA so I was broke and couldn't buy it off the guy. I still am waiting to find it in the area.
Mine wasn't as dramatic as your bike taking flight, but an ugly, tragic trip-ender, no less.
Back in '97, after college graduation, I loaded my van (AKA "Hotel Chevy") to get away from Houston and spend a couple of weeks riding CO, UT and AZ. I had built a rack that held the bike vertically on the ladder on the back door of the van...
After a few days of riding in Moab, I headed down to Flagstaff for my next stop. I met some cool locals at the trail head at Mt Elden that showed me some incredible trails, followed by live jazz at some dive bars downtown... I headed back up Schultz Pass Road to find a good spot to camp for the night; it was dark, especially in the forest, and I was tired for the day... I drove by what appeared to be a perfect spot, I put it in reverse and backed in.
The van came to a loud, crunching, popping halt...
Of course, it wasn't long before I realized what the crunching sound was, so I rushed to the back of the van to find my beloved, custom-built Giant AL1.75 and the back door in a mangled mess, sandwiched into a very large, and obviously immovable boulder.
That ended my trip, and now very awake and sickened, I headed home for Texas that very moment. I couldn't bring myself to walk behind the van for rest of the 1000 mile drive home...
The good news is that the frame ended up somehow surviving, so after some new wheels, seat, and seat post, it was back on the trail.
The bad news is, 4 years later it was stolen... on my birthday (at this time, I was now living in Phoenix, AZ; the riding in Flag had that much impact on me!). That was my favorite bike ever, and to this day, I still fantasize about what I'd to the guy that took it.
been there, done that. I've had two hitch racks fail on me - one catastrophically. Like you I hear a loud "SNAP/THUNK" then I watched out of my rear view mirror as my bike tilted over and started tumbling/sliding across multiple freeway lanes. ugh....
I'm pooping my pants as I pull over, he bails out of the back door and runs toward the intersection, stops, then runs back to the truck. Turns out the bike was still connected by the strap through the back wheel and swung down to a 90* angle until the cable lock caught and held it there. Didn't even touch the ground.
We decided that maybe that last tray should stay empty for the rest of the trip.
Next morning get into the car to drive home and enter the German Autobahn and put the foot down - luckily only got up to about 150km/h (93mph) - before I heard an almighty CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK and looked in rear vision mirror to see the bikes "folding down" from the bike rack - HOLY CRAP!!! Dive off in a rest stop which just luckily was right there and got out to inspect - luckily I'd just forgotten then hinge bolts on the rack - so no danger of bikes falling off
But it sure woke me up better than an espresso
Pictures of the weld...
Before I powder coated it, it fell off my thule t2 rack shuttling the trail across the street from North Star resort on the dirt road up top. Luckily no real damage just some scratches and scrapes.
I do have an old story of someone else's mishap though. Years ago, when I worked at Another Bike Shop in Santa Cruz, someone came in (I can't remember who.) to tell the tale. Pat McCall (Saintly father of TMac and Cam.) Was taking the boys and friends down to a collegiate downhill race in Parkfield, CA and had one of those "Strap on the back." type racks fall off of the back of their old van full of DH bikes. Needless to say the shop made a pretty penny repairing all of the damaged bikes.
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