BIKE RACKS AND CARRIERS FOR CARS MEGATHREAD - all questions asked and answered here

fatboyonabike said:
I dropped the cash on one of these in the week
basically a kit with the main parts all laser cut ready to put together and then you paint
still requires the main box tubing...but at least I can be comfortable in the quality of the welds once completed
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I saw those kits and in the photos it looks like the hoops that hold the front wheel make it sit almost upright. Most of the vert. racks have the wheels on an angle so that you minimise handlebar interference and can put your bikes closer together...
 
PJO said:
I saw those kits and in the photos it looks like the hoops that hold the front wheel make it sit almost upright. Most of the vert. racks have the wheels on an angle so that you minimise handlebar interference and can put your bikes closer together...
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Seem ok here -
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Stredda said:
Welds should never run crossways on a longitudinal member, it creates a stress riser and will cause it to crack and fail.
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Huh? The structural standard dissuades welding across a tension member for temporary attachments though that is for other reasons. How pray tell do you join something? Butt welds are fine and a joggle weld with the horizontal section (in this case) on the neutral axis is fine. That weld is the cap over a root run. Both sides single vee prepped and the undercut where it appeared filled... not to mention that is an unbraked box trailer with a gvm of 750kg. I did the calcs when I first built it, stress was just about...







...




fuck all.
 
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PJO said:
Yep, look fine there, maybe just the angle of the photo that I saw on FB.
I haven't yet seen a photo looking directly at the rear of the car.
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I don't think there's a 5-6 bike upright on the market that doesn't at least need placement considered to stop potential rubbing. Too angled, bars can touch TT, not enough, bars can touch bars. On the singletrail, if you have all identical bikes, you could have issues. They work best if you load biggest/stackest to smallest/steepest.
 
flamesuit on

Why does no-one use Tailgate pads anymore? The amount of utes I see these days with $1500+ bike racks hanging off the back is astounding. So many of them need additional strapping and padding to prevent movement and damage and not to mention the failures. So many stories about bikes hitting the bitumen at Highway speeds.

I'm finally in a position to purchase a ute again and have been looking at racks, but just can't see a reason why I would need one? For many, many years I never had a problem with piling up 5 bikes, blokes and a weekends worth of gear into the back of the triton with the bikes hanging over the tailgate. A camping family holiday would be a different story obviously.
 
moorey said:
I don't think there's a 5-6 bike upright on the market that doesn't at least need placement considered to stop potential rubbing. Too angled, bars can touch TT, not enough, bars can touch bars. On the singletrail, if you have all identical bikes, you could have issues. They work best if you load biggest/stackest to smallest/steepest.
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XL's or DH bikes to the left ;)
 
nathanm said:
Why does no-one use Tailgate pads anymore?
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I see plenty of tailgate pads, but if you want to carry anything else they are a bit of a pain.

As a person who has; Roof Racks, Tailgate pad (OK a bit of cardboard) and vertical rack and uses all three fairly often I'd say it's due to what the hell your doing and what state your car is currently. I'd use the vertical rack all the time as it's the easiest, but I use the ute for other stuff that makes me take the rack off. If no rack and I'm just doing 2-3 bike without other stuff I chuck a bit of cardboard over the tailgate and off I go. If I'm doing full trip with camper then they go on the roof.
 
nathanm said:
flamesuit on

Why does no-one use Tailgate pads anymore? The amount of utes I see these days with $1500+ bike racks hanging off the back is astounding. So many of them need additional strapping and padding to prevent movement and damage and not to mention the failures. So many stories about bikes hitting the bitumen at Highway speeds.

I'm finally in a position to purchase a ute again and have been looking at racks, but just can't see a reason why I would need one? For many, many years I never had a problem with piling up 5 bikes, blokes and a weekends worth of gear into the back of the triton with the bikes hanging over the tailgate. A camping family holiday would be a different story obviously.
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Tailgate pad rubbed the cuss out of my bikes, nothing touches on my upright rack.
 
moorey said:
Tailgate pad rubbed the cuss out of my bikes, nothing touches on my upright rack.
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as I've even had premium quality professional racks crack at a weld with the constant weight of bikes. He went off on his engineering and flat pack experience, and that most rack builders are essentially cowboys. I reiterated I wasn't questioning his engineering, just the welding skills of the average guy buying them then using a $50 Supercheap welder to assemble it. I said I'd had a premium rack snap a few years back, and the company replaced and fixed the bikes.
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Your experience (and many like yours) is a bigger deterrent than "rubbing" which I personally never had an issue with. Each to their own I know but hearing this sought of thing, constantly, has put me off.
 
nathanm said:
Your experience (and many like yours) is a bigger deterrent than "rubbing" which I personally never had an issue with. Each to their own I know but hearing this sought of thing, constantly, has put me off.
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Probably also dependant on the amount of time in there and the terrain being driven on. Was always the crown that lost its paint after a while.
 
Dales Cannon said:
Huh? The structural standard dissuades welding across a tension member for temporary attachments though that is for other reasons. How pray tell do you join something? Butt welds are fine and a joggle weld with the horizontal section (in this case) on the neutral axis is fine. That weld is the cap over a root run. Both sides single vee prepped and the undercut where it appeared filled... not to mention that is an unbraked box trailer with a gvm of 750kg. I did the calcs when I first built it, stress was just about...



fuck all.
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This is what I am talking about. any part of the draw bar should not have welds that run across the frame member, they should run inline with the beam. This goes for up near the tow hitch as well.
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Where is that applicable in what I have done? That doesn't mention the coupling and there are plenty on the roads with welded on couplings on the top of the drawbar. My weld across is at the neutral axis. The structural standard AS.... allows for permanent weld across structural members. The standard recommends not welding temporary attachments across the tension side of a flange because temporary attachments are usually not welded to the same quality as permanent welds and can introduce undercut and craters which are stress raisers and can lead to cracking. We had a P91 header that the guys in the yard welded carbon steel transport frames to because they didn't know any better. Those welds cost about $100k to make good by the time they were ground out, tested, filled, tested, linished flush and tested.

That pic you posted is bullshit anyway and comes down to the welding and joint design. They are concerned about flexing and undercut or poor weld at that joint allowing flexural fatigue. Not applicable. The load at the coupling end is shear of 75kg. There is no flex.
 
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nathanm said:
Why does no-one use Tailgate pads anymore?
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moorey said:
Tailgate pad rubbed the cuss out of my bikes, nothing touches on my upright rack.
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Tailgate pads are the best thing for DH bikes with dual crowns. The upper stanchion contacts the frame via bumpstop and wedges the tyre against the pad. Only points of contact are the tyre and downtube. Bikes are locked in, no worries.

With everyone (including me) moving to single crown bikes, there is nothing to stop the fork rotation. This means that instead of the tyre being the contact point, it's now the whole side of the fork leg. It's bad enough on sealed roads doing 100km/h down the freeway, but if you're driving rough shuttle tracks the bikes want to swing side to side more. If you have a muddy day, this is pretty much just like wet-sanding your lowers. It also allows the rear wheels to slip around as the frame rotates back and forth in the strap, so you're more likely to end up with a pedal in your frame/chain/spokes
 
nathanm said:
Your experience (and many like yours) is a bigger deterrent than "rubbing" which I personally never had an issue with. Each to their own I know but hearing this sought of thing, constantly, has put me off.
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The failure @moorey was talking about wasn't a vehicle rack though and as I understand was a rarity with that brand of rack.

Tailgate pads a rough on the frames, lots of rubbing and very hard to eliminate movement. A vertical rack has minimal bike contact and solves those issues.
 
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