Check your roof rack.

Wise words. Thankfully haven't ever witnessed a bike physically fall off a vehicle, but have seen plenty just waiting to happen. This was in the news a couple of years ago, happened on M9 between Newbridge and Linlithgow.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-58450663

For clarity fatal for the bike.

We were travelling the other direction. We definitely had stuff hit us.

Did the bike come off the rack, or the rack come off the car?

Indeed, mechanism of failure needed.

And check your straps too.

My best mate will never forget the immortal lines, Jon... your bike... it's gone. Like GONE -GONE "

(It hadn't- still attached, but had tilted backwards on the tow ball bike rack and had dropped out of sight in the rear window.

Double up with an extra canoe strap folks to be sure 👍

(I've never had a kayak come off a car or trailer either. But believe me I've seen PLENTY strewn over the road / in ditches / fields etc in my boating life from other people's)

I have been driving behind a car when it shed a bike off one of those strap-on rear door types. It was a bit scary seeing it cartwheel into the central Armco.

Tip: you know that advice about maintaining a 2 second gap to the vehicle in front? Follow it!!

Indeed, mechanism of failure needed.

No idea. But it's kind of irrelevant isn't it? You check the rack and you double check the bike security each and every trip surely?

If a catastrophic failure happens with no warning like cracks, broken welds and plastic, rust or faded (brittle) plastic. You can't do much about it.

I have felt uncomfortably with some of the clamps used on down tubes. Like it's not much redundancy and if you clamp onto cable in noticed that subsequently moved you're at the least going to have shakey bike.

I've lost a bike off a rack on the back of a car. It was late at night and we should never have been out riding in the first place as the weather was probably too extreme for both riding (we abandoned it before getting far) and bikes on external racks. Looking back, the whole thing was bloody stupid!  It was howling gale force winds and torrential sideways rain, which were rocking the car and which must have lifted a bike and snapped the retaining straps on a pretty sturdy Thule rack.

As soon as we realised we'd lost a bike my initial thoughts were what potential damage it could have done to any other vehicles and drivers behind us. We didn't give a toss about the bike. We immediately phoned the police to report it and were told that (luckily) it had been run over by an artic and there was absolutely nothing left of the bike.

I have never used an external rack again and the bikes always go inside the car

Coming down the A9 just south of House of Bruar a couple of weeks ago there was a rack and two bikes on the grass verge.  No safe stopping places nearby so I didn't investigate further.

Why I like a big estate that fits 2 large bikes inside.

I used to regularly drive back from the likes of John O'Groats with 6 bikes on the roof and up to 4 on the back. Every single trip I'd be looking at the shadow of the van to see if the bikes were still there 😂

I'm always nervous about this, even after checking it thoroughly.

I have a Thule rack (one of the cheaper Volvo branded ones off eBay) and double check everything, even have a little mirror blu-tacked to the dash so I can check it's still there every 5 seconds 😂

Seeing it wobble about in the wind is nerve-racking (ha)

Driving from Manchester to Cairngorms area this summer, wondering if a rear rack would be better, not sure if I can even get one for my car (no towball)...

I agree there's some crap racks around.

I agree that some people are not great at really doing things up well. See how many wobbly bikes you see.

But fundamentally, if used correctly, racks are safe and secure.

Like scotroutes I still find myself peering through mirrors at shadows or counting tyres in mirrors...

I'm sure the reason Thule put a torque limiter on the 598 was because people weren't doing the previous ones up tight enough.

I stopped using roof bike carriers after a particularly strong cross wind caused one bike (with a very square profile down tube) to make a bid for freedom from the clamp. It dented the roof a bit but was held on by the wheel straps.

I know various brands do full straps round the frame rather than old Thule style clamps, but that's not enough to get me back using them. I'll stick to a full towbar mounted rack and avoid all that thank you.

I'll admit I don't always have total trust in my cheapo suction mount roof carrier I'm tempted to do a halfway house option with a front axle clamp on a T-slotted bar and the rear wheel secured using the suction mount.

That feels like less faff to fit than a full roof carrier (only one bar to bolt on) but marginally more secure than suction cups alone would be.
I could shove two bikes on the roof that way with minimal bother.

I always tie my bikes to the rack as well unless it's a very short distance. I just have a fear ot this happening.  I did once have the upright part of a roof rack slip off the frame of a stupid Y shaped mountain bike but because everything was tied together it wasn't an issue

On the subject of rear racks.

Jesus some people are clueless about how much their tyres stick out? I have very nearly been clipped trying to get in and out my car on the road out of Peebles.

This is why I like my Aiston rack so much. Yes it doesn't tilt or lock, or cost more than some of my bikes, but there's no straps to come undone and there's zero chance of a bike coming off it.

TBH, I am surprised it doesn't happen more often with bikes on roofracks. Watching how much well secured bikes move,it's not going to take long to find the weak points on a bad setup.

TBH there's a surprising amount of flex in the roof bars themselves, so a lot of the wobble you see is just from that.

there’s a surprising amount of flex in the roof bars themselves, so a lot of the wobble you see is just from that.

True,but I suspect(at speed) there is a lot of extra loading through the wind action on the bike.Once that hits a wee magic frequency, it will soon find any weak points .

😃

We have regular "conversations" post kayak trip on a similar theme

My multiple points of failure arguement doesn't fit with hungry / tired wife and child

However I persist in mummifying the kayak with straps

Never liked having bike on roof rack for the same reason. Ebike put an end to that

Never had an issue and I use the cheaper Freeride Thule racks. I always add an extra strap to the front wheel to stop any steering shimmy at speed.

Had a close call years ago en route to Degla on the M62, cheapo halfords rack collapsed leaving my bike bouncing off the side of the van (Luckily I bungee corded the wheels on as a backup) Bought a Thule jobbie after that, though these days bikes go in the van not on it!

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(I was going though a stickers phase)

I’m sure the reason Thule put a torque limiter on the 598 was because people weren’t doing the previous ones up tight enough.

I think you’re spot on there! Because the torque limiter clicks waaaaay tighter than I’d have thought was sensible.

I had a rack fail in high winds, pretty sure the plastic had degraded from UV type exposure as it lived on the roof. The kayak stayed on but it wasn't a pleasant experience

Always take the rack off now when not needed

Would love to be able to get the bike in the car but it’s an i10 so short of a full strip down/rebuild every time not going to happen. Now it’s on the roof with one of those axle adapters and 2 cargo straps over the bike and roof rails - just in case !!!!

A friend had the wheel straps break on his Thule rack and being “careful” with his money replaced them with some webbing straps.

One night when returning from an evening ride we heard a bang and quickly pulled over on the A50. We were missing a bike off the roof, and it had gone under a following  truck. Fortunately it was his relatively cheap Voodoo Bizango and not my Carbon Jeffsy. We had to get the police to close the A50 to retrieve it.

Turns out he’d forgotten to use the webbing to tie down the wheel.

I once attached my Halfords bike rack plus bike to my old Ibiza in the dark. Drove off the next morning and the thing came flying off on the first sharp turn a few hundred yards up the road....

Bars were bent TF but otherwise no damage to the bike nor the bike rack. The rack was still attached to the bike!

Oh.... Forgot about the time my mates came down from Berlin and one of them attached his bike to the rack on the T5. I day assumed that he had done it correctly...didn't bother to check.

We drove south and stopped somewhere for a beer and a smoke. Dropped the tailgate from the inside and drove off. Thought it of that the guy behind me kept flashing his lights. Assumed he wanted to pass. Slowed and pulled in many times, yet he kept flashing. Stopped and matey's bike was hanging on my just the wheel straps. Obviously came loose when we dropped the tailgate.

Ooops.

Bikes now live IN the van, not on it.

Car in front on the M4 had a bike fall off the rack. I knew it wasn't going to be a good outcome so emergency braked and changed lanes. Bikes can bounce really high and in all sorts of random ways. More by luck than judgement I avoided being hit. Matey boy who'd lost the bike was wholly unaware of what had happened until I caught up with him and flashed my headlights to stop him. In the meantime Mrs Ambrose had called 999 and they lit up all the warning signs.

It turned out that the signs were not enough to warn the three builders in a (now very mashed) Transit who arrived a short time later.

Whilst I'd been lucky enough not to collide they weren't so lucky. They were angry. VERY angry. It's probably for the best that the Police arrived soon after.

Before I had a proper rack for the roof bars I had the bike upside down and the grips and saddle strapped to the roof bars. There was no movement at all, the fancy Thule thing has loads more play.

Sorry did someone say suction cups??

We partially lost a bike going down the A42.

My mates Orange with its chunky downtube was too much for the pinch from below Thule carrier I had at the time.

Luckily I always used tie-down straps on the wheels because the supplied straps were too short (and because I had a nagging 0.01% doubt about the clamp).

The conversation went:

Me: I don't think I like the noise I just heard.

Him: Oh shit, my ****ing bike is here, literally here.

As he was looking up out of the window his bike was laying flat - held on by the wheels alone.

We got onto the hard shoulder, took the wheels off and in the back it went.

Very embarrassing and it really did shake me up a bit. Any bikes went in the back after that until I could get a better carrier.

I've always preferred the front axle holder to the full bike holders- always seemed a bit safer to me as it would have to go catastrophically wrong to lose a bike, rather than just forgetting to do something.

Does mean you have to deal with a dirty wheel inside the car though.

Does mean you have to deal with a dirty wheel inside the car though.

Rest the wheel on a pedal, then a couple of straps to secure it to the frame. Boot was too small to fit the wheel inside on my previous car.

A11y +1

Tidy! 🙂

I've had the bolt snap on old Thule bike carriers, the rack then came loose off the bars.

After that I always drove with a cable lock running under the roof bars.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/9/82172892_82f091f797.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/9/82172892_82f091f797.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/8ga91 ]Return to England[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

While you're checking your roof rack bolts, also make sure your wheels are on nice and tight.

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From here

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/bmw-driver-very-very-lucky-28780508.amp

Coming back from Mountain Mayhem one year, we were behind a car with a roof-mounted bike in the middle lane and it suddenly just leaned outwards then stopped at 45°.

We were frantically flashing and hooting the guy and, desperate not to be behind the thing if/when it went, we managed to get into lane 3, get alongside him and my partner was waving and gesticulating at the driver. I think he thought we were joking at first - took us a while to get his attention, then he just waved back. 😳

Finally he grasped the severity of the situation and got it into the inside lane, then hard shoulder.

Oh and a couple of months ago on the M61 - an empty skip had come the back of a skip lorry. It has made a very significant mess of the two cars that it had bounced into.

I hate being behind things like that on motorways. I've seen cars fall off the back of a car transporter too. It looked to be a very expensive mess.

I've got a couple of Atera GIRO AF roof racks and have never really trusted the down tube clamp.
Even when they are secured & locked, I always secure the bike to the clamp with a bungee strap wrapped around the clamp & the downtube/BB. The tension in the bungee cord means that the clamp can't come undone.

I also grab the bike rack by the main rail at the bottom & heave on it before driving off to make sure it doesn't move.

Still get the heeby jeebys driving with them, though 😄
Our old Shitroen C3 Picassso had a panoramic sunroof , which made it even more apparent how much the bikes wobble about, although I suppose it was easy to confirm they were still there!

Worse than losing a bike?  How about an armoured vehicle?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/12/transport.world