[Closed] You’d think you’d notice if...

Depends on what they were driving.. If the rack was hanging from the back of large camper it’s quite possible that you wouldn’t hear or feel anything whilst driving

Or they did notice , didn't know what to do about it and realised that like most bike racks I see these days...... No identifying marks (reg plate) to tie it back so just scattered.

Or they did realise, and also realised that there was no safe place to stop, and running across 3 lanes of a motorway ain't a great idea anyway, so instead headed to the next exit and called police?.

Just sayin'.... 🙂

Be honest, was it yours? 😀

I did think it might be easier to not notice it happening on a camper or caravan.

The police said that someone rang in as we did. It’s be a “bit stressful” I imagine to get to your destination and wonder where your bikes are and whether any baby robins were injured as a result ..

Were the bikes ok?

Were the bikes ok?

Nah, they were Halfords rubbish 😀

Embarrassingly I was conflicted for the few seconds I saw them - part of me wanted to steer my car and my family safely away from them.

Part of me was trying to see if they decent bikes and more importantly, better than mine ...

A number of years ago I was told of a story of a chap losing a 10m yacht mast somewhere on the motorway, overnight whilst driving down to a Solent regatta from Edinburgh. It was on the boat when left Scotland, not still there upon arrival...

I know of a chap who was trailering his Lamborghini Murcielago to an event, or not, as he watched it roll off the back off the trailer while at motorway speed. least he noticed i guess?

I had a summer job in a builders merchants many years ago. The official line (family business) was that if you lost part of the load you shouldn't stop and report it - just carry on. The principle behind it was that you could be done for an insecure load and it was better to take the hit on the cost of replacing a couple of bags of cement than take the points and associated fine.

1. This was before mobile phone cameras  / dashcams were everywhere so there was little risk of being photographed / identified; and

2. I didn't agree with it at the time, but sort of got the logic/motivation.

Its amazing what people don't notice 😯😯

Part of me was trying to see if they decent bikes and more importantly, better than mine

Was a further part tempted to tell your family to hang out the window and try and grab them if they were better?

One of our dive club 'lost' a 6m inflatable boat + trailer off the back of the minibus while driving from Queen Anne's Battery in Plymouth back to our accomodation.  He didn't notice until he arrived, but went back and found it on the first road he'd have driven down after leaving the harbour.  So rather worringly he'd driven through Plymouth for about 20 mins without noticing that there wasn't a large orange boaty thing filling his mirrors, or that the van was surprisingly spritely that day.

Not just a mast, I know someone who lost a boat on the M4! The boat was secured to the trolley, trolley onto trailer, but nothing from boat to the trailer, so when one rope came loose the boat went straight off the back.

Insurers wrote it off as the back 1/3 of the boat was reduced to splinters, but the builders took it back and stuck it in the mold and rebuilt it.

Not sure about others but I use a towbar rack and spend at least 50% of the journey looking in the rear view mirror to see if the bikes are still there, not moving and not rubbing the paint off each other if they have moved around and end up touching.

Those "universal" tailgate bike racks really are toilet.  It's far, far too easy to fit / load them badly, I'd cheerfully see them banned.

I too have seen one shed its load, up in front of me on the M65.  We stopped to help them retrieve their bikes onto the hard shoulder (the motorway was fairly quiet).  They at least managed to notice they'd lost the load, sadly the same wasn't true of us noticing an iPhone which fell out of our car when we dived out to help.  Arse.

A few years ago I had been coming up behind an army truck that seemed to be having a bit of an issue with control on a dual carriageway using both lanes when the trailer became unhitched letting the large tank on the 4 wheel trailer loose. The trailer did come to rest a little way further down the road fortunately, as I assume the trailer brakes operated upon release from the towing vehicle. I didn't wait to help.

Mate of mine dropped his kayak off the roof in the middle of the M8.

To be fair though, he did notice!