Garage 1 Madone 0

[mfuchs]

A neighbor bought a new Trek Madone about three months ago and while getting ready to go out of town on the 4th of July he put his bike on top of his van. He usually carries it on his car but since this was a family trip they were taking the van. He ran out to pick up a few things that they needed before they left and upon returning home forgot about the bike and quickly whipped the van into the garage. OUCH!!!

[cityeast]

I've got bike racks but since moving to a appartment with an underground carpark I refuse to put my bike on my car because I know myself that I would do exactly this.

[Akirasho]

... not an uncommon occurance with roof racks... and in some cases, rear/hitch racks...

From a logistics POV, the roof is generally a great space for transporting non passenger goods... bicycles... but it comes with your abovementioned risk... along with extra fuel costs... and the potential for damage from other sources (from road debris thrown high to bird strikes!), but rear racks ain't immune.

In case #1, while backing with a bike on a rear rack, I accidentally hit a utility pole guy wire and taco'd the front wheel... I knew I was clear of the pole... but didn't even think of the wire till I heard that metal on metal sound!

In case #2, I got lucky. Bike was mounted high on the back of SUV... when some a$$hat rear ended... his bumper hit just below my ZIPP 404s! Vehicle suffered relatively minor damage.

Any more... I've got room for one passenger in my old truck... the back is reserved for bicycles!

[wayneanneli]

Posted like a true cyclist: first describes lucky lack of damage to bicycle, *then* describes damage to automobile....... ;-)

LOL! good observation Nigel!
Cheers, Wayne

[Nigeyy]

Posted like a true cyclist: first describes lucky lack of damage to bicycle, *then* describes damage to automobile....... ;-)

In case #2, I got lucky. Bike was mounted high on the back of SUV... when some a$$hat rear ended... his bumper hit just below my ZIPP 404s! Vehicle suffered relatively minor damage.

[wayneanneli]

Oh man, just looking at that Trek makes me uneasy. I remember backing our car with my wife's commuter on the rear hitch rack and backing into a lightpost, a very sturdy light post. Don't really remember what happened to my wife's bicycle, but luckily insurance covered most of it
Cheers, Wayne

[rule]

::: Removes hat and bows head in moment of silence. :::

[mfuchs]

He told me that as soon as he heard the "POP" a really bad feeling along with tears and a few choice words came over him. Luckily his homeowners insurance coverered it. The crash also collapsed the roof of his Honda Odyssey to the tune of $2500 in damage.

[FatTireFred]

will that be covered under a crash replacement warranty?

[onrhodes]

Is this the same type of person that would leave his kid in the car the day his wife couldn't drop junior off at Daycare?
I'll really never understand how people do things like this. It isn't that hard to forget that you have a bike on top of your car. Especially when you're talking about a Madone!

[mtbcyclist]

Is your neighbor drinking heavily? He should... thats what I would do. Nothing like a good beer to drown you sorrows.

[mfuchs]

No, just in a hurry and since heonly had the rack for a couple of weeks he was not really paying attention. Had his mind on getting everybody ready to go to the beach. Like I said he had it on a vehicle that he doesn't usually carry it on and just had a brain fart.

[omniviper]

ouch!... that seriously has to hurt...

let us remember the trek frame that has passed away yesterday,...

[cdmc]

Is this the same type of person that would leave his kid in the car the day his wife couldn't drop junior off at Daycare?
I'll really never understand how people do things like this. It isn't that hard to forget that you have a bike on top of your car. Especially when you're talking about a Madone!

Any one want to bet how long until onrhodes posts about ripping his bike off the roofrack by accident??

P.S. Glad to hear your are perfect and never forget anything.

[onrhodes]

Any one want to bet how long until onrhodes posts about ripping his bike off the roofrack by accident??

P.S. Glad to hear your are perfect and never forget anything.

Um, yes, I am perfect and also a genius to boot.
Since I've been doing this for 17 years I can also say without a doubt that I would never do something that foolish. I'll bet you $1,000 I'll never ride my car into my garage.
Forgetting your lunch at home is completely different then spacing a $3,000 bike is on top of your vehicle.

[FLbiker]

I knew a guy at an LBS that ran his bikes into his garage on three separate occasions. After that, he went to a trunk rack.

[JCHAIN]

Last year I was on the way home with a new C'dale on top and deciced to stop for some fast food never considering the high overhang at the drive-thru. About the time I got to the window, I decided to look up and saw the seat about 2" from disaster. Needless to say I lost my appetite but also learned a valuabe lesson. Sorry to see a nice bike in that kind of shape.

[road_kill]

Holy mother of God...

I did a similar thing last week, the only thing that saved me is I'm really short. I clipped the warning bar coming into my office and took a large hunk outa my saddle. If I'd of been riding a 58 or taller it would have been a dupe of this poor souls crunch.

(my bike is old and it would have given me an excuse to spend obscene amounts of money to console myself ~ sigh maybe next time)

[Spunout]

Better yet, there is a great old story on this board of the fellow who put his bike on the roof rack while INSIDE the garage and proceeded to exit garage and destroying said bicycle.

[fred]

Is this the same type of person that would leave his kid in the car the day his wife couldn't drop junior off at Daycare?
I'll really never understand how people do things like this. It isn't that hard to forget that you have a bike on top of your car. Especially when you're talking about a Madone!

Great analogy. Getting out of the car and forgetting your flesh and blood inches away in the back seat is just like forgetting about a hunk of carbon and metal on the roof as you drive in to a garage. Congratulations on being perfect.

[onrhodes]

Great analogy. Getting out of the car and forgetting your flesh and blood inches away in the back seat is just like forgetting about a hunk of carbon and metal on the roof as you drive in to a garage. Congratulations on being perfect.

First of all, it wasn't an analogy. I'm just saying if this guy is foolish enough to forget about a rather large investment on the top of his car, then perhaps he is foolish enough to forget about his child in the back seat.
Perhaps you guys just have money coming out of your A$$es or something, but it seems pretty idiotic to me to not be aware of the height of your vehicle. Hopefully none of you drive 18 wheelers for a living. Otherwise you'd all be smacking into low bridges.

No need to congratulate me on being perfect. I already know that.
I'm pretty sure if you're taking offense to my comments that you're probably one of those people foolish enough to have done what this guy did.
It's hard to feel sorry for the guy. Perhaps if he was driving down the road and hit a low hanging tree limb I could feel some sympathy, but since he was driving into his own garage, you'd think he would be aware of his height restrictions. Regardless of how much was on his mind.

[fred]

I'm pretty sure if you're taking offense to my comments that you're probably one of those people foolish enough to have done what this guy did.

I wasn't taking offense. Only making an observation.

And yes, as if to prove that you are in fact a genius, as you say, I have done it, and my wife's done it.

It was 10 or 15 years ago, and we did it once in to our own garage and once into a motel overpass. She had a steel 531 Trek and I had a custom Eisentraut. The 'traut never suffered a scratch - the bars and the car took the hit fortunately ;) On the Trek, my wife bent the fork, but otherwise all was fine (after a new fork of course). These days we have a hitch rack.

What can I say? We are freakin' idiots, and enjoy wallowing in our own stupidity.

[CycleBatten]

I have a trunk rack now and I really don't like it. I trust myself not to back into anything (most of the time), but I don't trust the idiot behind me today at 70-80 mph on the Penn. Turnpike who's sitting like 2 feet off of my bumper.

I'm actually just about to get a used Yakima roof rack, I have no garage and my car is pretty low (no vans or SUVs here) and I'll feel a lot better with that.

Sorry to see that Madone, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little when I saw that.

[olds_cool]

pulled into a parking garage in philly going to interbike. peeled the leater off the seats of the two bikes on the roof.

sucks for neighbor. if he had bought a steel bike, it could have been repaired....kidding. thank God for homeowners insurance.

[Tim M]

I've done that. Took the squashed road bike off, put mountain bike on, and went for a ride.