Hiya, just new to biking - not sure where i should post an intro .... and I've bought a simple bike rack for my car, the kind with foam on the hanging bar. Need a bit of advice on how to use it? What angle should I have the carrying bar at (it's a fairly upright hatchback) and how do you stop the bike from wobbling round and hitting the car? Thanks, Tara
Advice on Bike Rack (securing the bike)
- Thread starter TB1972
- Start date
Welcome Tara,
The bar on which you hang the bikes should be slightly sloped forwards. Because this type has no cradles to hold the bike in, you will need to use octopus straps to hold the bike close to the supporting frame and prevent it swinging around or falling off the back.
It is difficult to be more decriptive, your own description of the problem doesn't give much detail (on the type of rack or how it attaches to the car etc). As they say in the classics, "a picture tells a thousand words".
The bar on which you hang the bikes should be slightly sloped forwards. Because this type has no cradles to hold the bike in, you will need to use octopus straps to hold the bike close to the supporting frame and prevent it swinging around or falling off the back.
It is difficult to be more decriptive, your own description of the problem doesn't give much detail (on the type of rack or how it attaches to the car etc). As they say in the classics, "a picture tells a thousand words".
A lady friend of mine had the same problem. She went to the hardware store and purchased some foam pipe insulation and cut it in lengths to fit the tubes on her bike. She also purchased some sticky backed velcro and attached that to the pipe insulation so that she could close it around the bicycle tubes and have it hold securely. When she puts the bike on the car, she pushes it as far forward against the rack as possible. She also rotates the pedals so that the inside pedal is at the 6:00 position where doesn't hit anything. In your situation, it might be better to rotate the inside pedal to the 12:00 position so that the pedal extends into the license plate area instead of against the car body. To secure it, she uses the excess straps on the rack and ties them to the bike frame. She also has a bungee cord that that she loosely attaches to the front wheel to keep it from swinging free and hitting the car every time she stops. She also loosely ties the rear wheel to keep it from spinning as she is driving just because it makes her nervous.
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