Re: RR: Catastrophic Failure

Corvus Corvax said:

I personally prefer the fork-mount racks. They work extremely well in
my experience, yesterday's debacle notwithstanding. And I don't like
those mounts with a "claw" for the downtube, especially on that Klein.
The aluminum on the downtube is soda-can thin on that bike, and the
tube is oversized to boot.

Heh, ANOTHER story: a friend was loading my almost-new Paragon up on his
Bronco II, which was equipped with those downtube clamp trays. I hand the
bike up to him, and he's struggling to get it properly in the rack. The I
hear that fateful phrase: "Oh-oh."

The damned claw thing had put a crimp in my downtube, probably because he
had to move it sideways a bit due to the water bottle cage. He offered to
buy me a new frame, but I just rode it that way for a few years until it
cracked just under the head tube (no apparent connection to the crimp). Got
an UGLY replacement frame from GF, which I still have as a backup today, but
hardly ever ride.

Bill "note to self: ride the damned hardtail this week" S.

Corvus Corvax said:

bomba said:

Might be interesting to you:
http://www.singletrackworld.com/article.php?sid=1412

Sounds like FUD to me. If you put the bike on the rack wrong, it'll get
damaged. This is news?

I personally prefer the fork-mount racks. They work extremely well in
my experience, yesterday's debacle notwithstanding. And I don't like
those mounts with a "claw" for the downtube, especially on that Klein.
The aluminum on the downtube is soda-can thin on that bike, and the
tube is oversized to boot. Also, those racks seem overly complicated
compared to a fork-mount unit.

I, too, prefer fork-mounts but I lost a bike off the side after it had
wiggled out of a LOCKED quick release, not just properly closed but
locked. I think the mounts on the Yakima are too smooth so there isn't
much for it to grip on the dropout. This was after 2 longs days of
driving bumpy roads. I've related the story a couple of times here. It
couldn't have fallen off at a scarier time as we were on a backroad in
Redwoods Natl Park and had been talking about Bigfoot. The bike
slamming into the driver side passenger window scared the [censored] out of
me. Thankfully the rear tire strap kept it from hitting the ground.

Greg

--
Destroy your safe and happy lives
Before it is too late
The battles we fought were long and hard
Just not to be consumed by rock'n'roll