I crushed my roof at the right rear tower when I pulled into a drive-in and the overhead awning and the nose of my saddle collided causing the rack to slide back and down into the roof of my car. Did about $600 in damage to my car and had to replace a couple of Yakima components that were damaged. I now only use the rack to carry a kayak.

One friend of mine forgot about his bike being on the roof and drove into his carport and snapped the fork on his bike and damaged the frame head tube also causing scratches and damage to his roof. He bought a new frame, new fork, and a new hitch rack.

Another friend has crashed his bike into various overhangs on three separate occasions when it was up on his roof. He is now a devout hitch rack user after spending so much money fixing bikes and roofs.

It is difficult to remember "BIKE ON ROOF".

Does anyone have similar stories and/or pictures of damage?

I have been using roof racks for 15 years and never had a problem. I have backed a rear rack full of bikes into another car in a parking lot because I could not see behind me.
Much prefer the roof!

 

The first day I owned a Yakima (which I put onto an Audi 4000), I stupidly thought I could drive into a parking garage with my bike on top. I used to drive a VW Vanagon, and I reasoned that the Vanagon is taller than a medium-sized bike on top of a lil 'ol Audi.

I drove into the entrance and I heard the saddle rubbing against the concrete overhead. I immediately stopped, went into reverse, and BANG! The bike with the whole roof rack detached itself from the car, and landed on my hood.

The only damage was to the raingutters, and my pride. I've been very careful since.

 

A friend of mine is getting a crash-replacement Heckler from Santa Cruz because his garage won the battle.

 

I'm no longer allowed to own a roof rack.

I drive too much on autopilot, and autopilot has too many years of programing with a naked roof. I nailed mine twice in 4 months. Both were while I was in the middle of my divorce and I had a lot of stuff on my mind (bikes on roof unfortunately not being one of them). Nevermore.

Episode #1: The most embarassing. It was my first time with the rack on my car's roof. When traveling to trailheads, we always took my husband's car, which always parked outside. We'd just decided to split up, and I'd gone alone to ride with friends. It was a long ride, and I was exhausted and was thinking of all the stuff me and the soon-to-be ex would start sorting through now that I was home. Pulled up to the garage, got out (yup, you read right - no garage door opener) opened the door, got BACK IN THE CAR, and drove in. Crunch!

Damages:
1 carbon seatpost
1 Yakima x-bar
1 Yakima Wheel tray
2 Yakima Q-towers
2 Yakima Q-clips
Window trim on car

Episode #2 Four months later, it's moving day. Spent the morning having my half the furniture loaded into the moving van. The van and I head to the new house. On my repaired roof rack is my Litespeed Tuscany (the mtbikes having been moved earlier). I didn't want the movers to scratch it. I usually run a thin cable through the roof contents, but couldn't find it, so I went without. I took a shortcut to the highway I knew the moving van couldn't take, hoping to buy myself time to grab a sandwich to quiet my growling stomach. I'm toodling down the highway at modest speed because I've got this extra time.

Suddenly, I hear a loud "whump!" and look into my mirror to see my front wheel boogying down the highway behind me. Aaaakk! I pulled over to the shoulder, stopped, got out and started running down the shoulder toward my wayward wheel. Traffic was light, the wheel stayed in my lane, and no one had been hit. The wheel came to rest in the righ-hand wheel track, touching the edge of the road. Easy to avoid for the two cars which were now approaching the scene. I waved my arms as I ran, trying to motion them into the other lane. The second car moved over. The first one didn't. I kept waving and running. No response. "Whump!" My clearly-tacoed wheel went flying into the ditch. #@%$$%$@! The car was undamaged and never stopped. I threw my dead wheel in the car where I should have put it in the first place and kept going.

I was no longer sure of how much of a lead I had on the moving van, and I needed to get there first to open the house. I made a quick stop for a sandwich that took a lot longer than I expected. Now I was getting flustered. I pulled into the driveway ahead of the van. Ok, now I needed to get the car out of the way so the van could turn around. Why not put it in the garage? Crash!

Damages:
1 Spinergy SPOX R2 front wheel
1 Litespeed carbon fork
1 Terry Fly Ti saddle
2 Yakima wheel trays
1 major crease in car roof.

The clutch failed on the car the very next day, so ditched it (170k+miles) and bought a CRV and now my bikes ride inside.

Kathy

 

2nd week of ownership of my Yakima setup. Drove into carport - damage:

- Bent Steelhead tray
- Roof Rail on Passat lifted up at front and broke the epoxy bond at the front of the rail. This was the scariest part because the rail was lifted up an inch and I thought I might have bent the rail or the mounting point
- Broken Titanium saddle
- Angry wife who came running out when she heard the horrible rending noise
- 2 gouges in car port cross-beam

I was incredibly fortunate on this one. Between the tray bending and the rear suspension of the bike I avoided any frame or seatpost damage. All the damage to the car was repairable w/a $4 tube of epoxy and some tlc. Damage to the bike was limited to the saddle.

I now have a pair of traffic cones that sit in my driveway every time the bike is on the roof. This won't save me from parking garages or other peoples' carports but knock on wood my house is still intact.

 

sounds like its just a Yakima problem to me.

 

This was a while ago... 1997? I was in Moab for the second time. My wife and I were going into town in the morning to get some coffee for the other campers. I turned down 4th street instead of 3rd street on the way into town.

Big mistake. There was a tree limb that was just low enough to hit the saddle on my bike. The bike was facing backwards. The tire tray ripped off of the rack, and the bike was slung through the right rear window.

Damage included the window, a bent seatpost (original seatback design), and the tire tray. I called Saris Racks and they fedex-ed a spare tray to chili pepper the next day. I Replaced the window for $100 when I got home, it was duct-taped for trip .

The before picture-ready to ride. The after picture--cleaning up the millions of shards of glass.

 

not quite the same, but one morning as i was driving to the shop i was working at, i noticed that one of our regulars was right in front of me with his bike on his roof. just as he turned into the shop parking lot, his thule tray just decided to fall off the bars, and the bike fell into the pavement (in the parking lot and not in the main road, fortuntely)
luckily there was no bike damage, and i was far enough back to not run it over. just a strange thing to see happen.

 

several years ago, i was coming home and started to pull into the garage and i heard this funny sound like the plastic antifreeze bottle i thought i was running over start to crumple. so i just kept driving into the garage and i heard this crazy loud pop as the rack came flying off and crashed down with 2 bikes on it, right into the driveway.

no bike damage put i really effed up the roof of my car. when the front popped off first the rack tilted back and the trays dug huge holes in the roof as it flipped over backwards before the back feet came off. mangling my raingutters in the process.....

chalk one up to experience. the funniest part is that just about a week earlier this lady came into the shop with her bike all bent up from doing the same thing. of course we made fun of her after she left. i guess that's what i get.

 

After crashing

on the trail and breaking a few ribs, I drove myself home in pain. I guess I wasn't thinking too clearly because I drove into my garage at a pretty good speed with my bike on the roof rack. The whole rack slid back about a foot and totally mangled the rain gutters on my previously mint condition Porsche 944. The bike (a 1996 Specialized M2 FS Comp)and Yakima rack were fine. I remember walking into the house, bleeding from the bike crash, doubled over in pain, holding my ribs in total shock at how stupid I was.

 

Well you guys need a Honda Element I love mine and the bikes fit inside nicely.

On a related note, when I used to have my boat, my friend and I were coming back from a 2 day fishing trip. We got to a very low bridge and we proceeded to head under it. The bridgetender waved at us, and we just waved back. Moments later we heard a Thwack! then Thwack, thwack, the t-top had 6 fishing rods in it! The bridgetender was trying to warn us. Everytime the rods would be bent down by the crossbeams and then snapped up and hit the underside of the bridge, rusty metal pieces rained into the boat. It was a huge mess, and I only busted one rod! I never forgot again.
SB

 

I was with a bunch of friends on the Oregon coast, had my bike on the yakima roof rack along...well becuase it went everywhere with me back then. So we get hungary and pull into a A&W...one of the old ones with the old covered drive in...so I pull in and and hear a bit of a clank....and the next thing I notice is my bike flying off the back of my car. My stomach sank....at the time I was riding a Specialized M2 team eddition, the same bike Ned rode to the word championships (best bike I ever owned IMO). I think I sh1t my pants....I just sat there for a second horrified, the car was full...and all of a sudden one of my friends starts laughing, until I shot them a glance. I got out and picked up my bike....not a scratch, WOW. The only real damage was that my toof rack was bent to sh1t. So I took the bike apart and put it in the hatchback along with what was left of my rack....

It could have been worse....the rack was easy to fix and my bike was perfect....

 

"bike on roof!"

About two years ago, my girlfriend and I started dating. Shortly there after, she took a liking to mountain biking. Stoked! Anyway, since I bicycle commute everywhere, I dont own a car, which at times has made it a pain in the ass to get up to the trails, but whatever. She's got one of those new VW Beetles, and for about a year, we would just put the back seat down and huck the bikes in the back. After sort of trashing the trunk of the car, we decided to get a roof rack. Sure enoeph, on that first ride, getting back to our place, we were just talking about the ride when WHAM! She drove right into the car port. Of course it was my bike that got nailed and not hers, but luckily, no damage was done to either the bike or the rack. Which after reading all of the posts on this, we really did get lucky. Not two weeks later, same thing happend again....WHAM! This time, my fork bent, my shifter and break lever snapped, and the wheel bar, or what ever its called, got all bent up. Since then, we have moved to a new place where there is no over hang to park under, and we still both say "bikes on roof" or "no bikes" just outta fear and habbit every time we get home, with or with out having gone on a ride. Ah..., to be controlled by your bike.

 

i went to the black hills a couple years ago and met some canadians there - about 10 hours from their home? anyway, they went to see that great american icon mount rushmore one night and went into the parking garage.

didn't break their bikes, but bent a tray into the back window of their brand new jetta - denting the rook around the rear window frame. the rear towers sunk about 1/2 an inch into the roof. they had to drive those 10 hours home with plastic on their rear window...

 

Have yet to crush a bike (knock on wood)...

I had the fortune or misfortune depending on how you see it of seeing a really good bike/rack crash last summer. I was sitting on the patio at the RIO in Boulder sipping a margarita when all of a sudden I saw a Ford Explorer entering the parking ramp accross the street. Just as I let out some kind of explative like Holy .... ! there was a sickly, loud grinding, crashing, screaching noise as the two bikes on the roof rack were sheared right off the top of the truck. I don't thing either bike survived the encounter. I couldn't help but laugh, now I know I probably have some bad karma floating around me.

 

There's an easy solution to avoiding bike/roofrack damage- Get a truck ; great shelter from the elements and piece of mind
I know if I had to use a roof rack, my bike wouldn't last one trip into the garage

 

No story here, but Lucky and JohnnyA get my votes for the most heart-wrenching stories. Either one would have had me sitting on the side of the road sobbing.

Except for JohnnyA's...my ribs would probably have been hurting too damned much to cry.

 

*gasp*

i cruised to Vail from fort collins one early fall evening to catch the B-Side Players at a club. put the IF on the rack and hit the road to ride some sweet ass trails on Vail mountain. got there early...wanted to 'change head' and chill in the car...where to park??? headed straight for the parking garage at Lionshead and then KABLAM!!!!!!! my seat was barely clipped by the overhang of the garage structure. Damage: scuffed up seat, slightly bent yakima bike tray and a slight dent where my rear tower was.

it could have been a lot worse.

thrive,
josh

I crushed my roof at the right rear tower when I pulled into a drive-in and the overhead awning and the nose of my saddle collided causing the rack to slide back and down into the roof of my car. Did about $600 in damage to my car and had to replace a couple of Yakima components that were damaged. I now only use the rack to carry a kayak.

One friend of mine forgot about his bike being on the roof and drove into his carport and snapped the fork on his bike and damaged the frame head tube also causing scratches and damage to his roof. He bought a new frame, new fork, and a new hitch rack.

Another friend has crashed his bike into various overhangs on three separate occasions when it was up on his roof. He is now a devout hitch rack user after spending so much money fixing bikes and roofs.

It is difficult to remember "BIKE ON ROOF".

Does anyone have similar stories and/or pictures of damage?

 

Here's my setup. It clears every garage I have found. In the winter I add a second crossbar and carry snowboards back there. The socks on the grips are to keep the bugs and dirt out of the shifters and brakes on the 1000mi trip back from whistler. The second cross bar lets me hold 5 bikes but usually means raising them up higher.

 

At the Waco, TX NORBA NCS race...

I watched a Subaru/Gary fisher car from their expo try to drive out of the expo area with 4 bikes ont he roof. They nailed a low hanging branch of a tree on the way out. I'm not sure how the bikes fared- but the left half of the rack was ripped off of the car in a most hideous fashion.

I have a big sign in my garage-

BIKE ON ROOF!