BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

For those who don't know Woods 1, he is the President of the Major Taylor Bicycle Club and leader of the Wednesday OTB rides. He and his wife are huge supporters of all things bike related and an all-around great people. If anyone can aid locating these bikes it would help repay him for everything he contributes to the bike community.

Unbelievable. Really, really hope they turn up. I'll definitely keep an eye out.

Bruce, if you have images of your bikes, I can post them here for you. Let me know.

Sorry to hear, Bruce. We will keep an eye out for them.

That sucks. Were they locked to the bike rack?

I take my bike into bike shops. If they frown upon it, I don't go back.

I sent you an email about a bike that I saw laying around not too far from there around 12:30am (about 45 minutes ago). I didn't make the connection and realize that it might be yours until I got home, so I didn't get a really good look at it while I was there, but I know it at least vaguely fits one of those descriptions, so I wanted to let you know ASAP on the off chance that it really was the right bike. Best of luck!

Gugh, that sucks Bruce. I'll keep my eye out.

Bruce's Bike - dark grey with a red seat & red hubs.

Sheila's bike

That is butt. Hope they're found safe and sound. That is really lame - you'd think there'd be parking lot cameras or something?

Does that mean I should lock my bikes to the rack when they're mounted? I can't think of how to do that securely since it can easily be pulled off the car with just a snip of the straps, so you could pull the lock off in most configurations I can think of (or at least take the bike home to your angle grinder to take care of it).

That is really rough.

@ejwme thats why trunk racks are stupid. that and the possibility of shattering your rear window. roof racks are not removable when the door is shut and have locks for the bikes. my hitch rack has a cable loop that passes through the bikes and then locks to the hitch pin, locking the bikes to the rack and the rack to the hitch all at once.

Ok, noted. Order of bike safety and racks seems to be trunk

I don't like leaving the bikes on the trunk rack very long. But when I do I'll run a cable thru the spoiler on the trunk of the car and the frame of the bikes then I'll U-lock my wife's bike and mine together. Its still not impossible to steal, but they can be ridden off because they are U-locked together facing opposite directions. I've only done that when absolutely necessary. Also If it's just my bike maybe U-lock the back wheel to the frame and cable to thru the spoiler or rack.

Depends on the hitch rack. top loading ones are very meh. tray loading ones like mine are the bee's knees. way better than a roof rack, and no worrying about ripping your bike off in a parking garage or low drive-thru lane.

my rack and the optional two bike extension. the below photo is what it looks like full of awesome.

^ Looks heavy do you know if it would work with a little compact car. I does look like It would be the bee's knees.

I don't know about THAT on a compact, but I had a roof rack on my Aveo (now rusting away at my buddy's body shop) that worked out. The hatch back model anyway. Would probably work on a sedan though after looking at my mother's Aveo. Of course, now they're making much smaller cars, so it's hard to say what's possible now.

The two bike 1 1/4" receiver one should be cool on a car.

First off, Bruce and Sheila, I am very sorry to learn of this unfortunate turn of events. I hope the bikes are recovered in good shape, and quickly.

Second, I just bought a new car, and needed a new (trunk) rack. I did some research and bought one that I recommend highly. The Thule Raceway. Mine holds two bikes. The rack locks to the car, and the bikes can be locked to the rack. Reason number one for the purchase. Reason number two is that instead of using webbing straps to affix it to the car, it uses metal cables in a plastic sheath. The straps rachet down, making them really tight, and the metal vs. webbing means there is no give. The day of the big floods on Washington Blvd., I had two bikes on the back of my car, on a 200 mile drive. No loss of tension in the straps was noticable on the ride.

But, regardless of what trunk rack you use (mine will really only thwart the most casual of thieves, I realize), I try to BACK tight to a wall when I park my car with the bikes on the back. I realize that doing so give a thief additional cover, but it also makes the bikes slightly less noticeable, and makes it slightly harder to steal the bikes from the back of the car.

Again, sorry to learn of this unfortunate experience, Bruce and Sheila. May we all learn from your hard lessons....

P.S. on a somewhat related question....

I have a rack on the roof of my car (a Subaru hatchback). I could get bike mounts for it. However, to use the roof rack, I would have to be able to lift the entire bike above my head, and then another foot or more forward. I lack the upper body strength to feel confident doing this, and I don't really want to drop the bike on my roof, or on my head in the process.

I can't be the only one with this problem. Are there easy solutions out there? I've seen people open car doors and step up into the back seat of the car to gain height, but that seems to work best with SUVs. I can't seem to figure out how to make it work for me in my smaller car. Any and all ideas are appreciated.

^ Step ladder in the trunk.

The two bike 1 1/4" receiver one should be cool on a car.

Not necessarily true--there was a pretty good discussion about then when Todd installed the hitch on his Mini.

If I put those bikes on the hitch designed for my car, it would most likely do some decent damage. Though that same hitch can pull a [balanced] loaded motorcycle trailer without issue.

On trucks and SUV's there is no way a bike rack would be able to do damage--the hitch is pretty much always attached to the frame. On cars this isn't always true, so I recommend checking with a reputable source first.

Personally, I prefer roof racks because I don't like having the bikes behind the car. It makes parallel parking hard and takes what may have been a minor bump from an inattentive driver and turns it into a wrecked bike and probably a hole or dent from a pedal in your car.

Also, plenty of roof racks an be removed without opening the door.

SW, sounds like your car has the bars, and just needs trays to mount? If you got one tray, it wouldn't be a huge investment to try it. So if you went with a fork mount type, as opposed to one of those arm types, you remove the front wheel, which reduces the weight somewhat, and all the actions of putting the bike on happen low, right at the tray height. Then all that's left is figuring out a technique, without purely muscling it up. I was thinking some kind of step stool too, but then thought that trying to balance and lift a bike while standing on a stool might require more circus skills than you may have.

BMW made a rack for a while for x3/5's that came down to load up bikes and then it would swing back up. I don't know if any other manufacturer offers anything like this, but it may be worth checking out.

There are kayak ones that work like that, haven't seen a bike one, though.

Atoc makes a swinging one for tandems and long 'bents. I suppose a standard bike would work, too.

Why cable locks are not that good : 8 second video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0xF_y1tqOQ

Why you are never totally safe: 39 second video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3bUPCa7Buw&feature=related

When I thought about getting a roof rack, I also realized I was too weak to lift some of my bikes up like that. I have a Honda fit, and I can fit my bikes in it with the back seats down without having to remove the front wheel anyway. Probably not the safest option. But I don't leave the car unattended often, and when i do, it is in a parking lot that is busy, so it would look suspicious having someone smash my windows in to remove a bike.

I don't generally like raining on parades, but the cable being cut appeared to be mostly cut through before the video started, and the rebar cutters retail for $750.00, so unless the user was in business reselling stolen high end bikes, most bike thieves would not have one.

All that being said, be careful out there.

Quality roof rack load carrier bars with a means to make removal difficult. My bars are "locked" when on the car. Then you want a bike carrying device that can be locked to the bars. It should also have a means to lock the bike to it.

I use, currently, VW OEM bars that require a special tool to remove the bars. My bike carrying device is a Thule Sidearm. It works with the Cannondale Lefty and most importantly to me, does not touch the frame on any bike. It is lockable, but I will use additional locks if I leave the bike on the vehicle somewhere.

http://www.rackattack.com/product-pages/thule-594-sidearm.asp

@Edmonds - yes, you have the physical layout and the physical dynamics concept/issues right.

I thought of a step stool, but it is a tad precarious, as it requires twisting with the bike, from pick up to positioning on the roof rack. A small overturned cooler was more stable, and was lightweight, but requires a level space next to the car. I think that might work.

I hope to get to REI at their next rack components sale and try a roof rack. (Picking REI for the their generous return policy.)

In the meantime, keep the lift dynamics discussion going. It's a problem for more than just myself.

Any word on whether they got the theft on video? I also heard that there was a theft one block away.

You could always lower the car...

Also, watch used roof racks on CL. I've picked up a few for well under $100 with carrier(s).