carbon forks and fork mounting carriers

[VeloSpeed]

Hi,

Just been looking into buying a pair of new Thule fork mounting bike carriers for my car. I noticed a warning stating that they aren't suitable for carbon forks. Does anyone know why not? I have a Thule 511 at the moment and I've been happily using this to transport my Specialized Allez Elite with carbon forks and haven't had any problems - but I'm nervous now!

Thanks


David

 

[Powerful Pete]

Sounds like a company making sure it covers its a$$. I have been putting my bike on the car roof, with CF forks for ages, and have not had any issues at all. FWIW, my rack is made by Elite. No such warning on their packaging.

 

[artemidorus]

If my Thule fork-mounting rack came with that warning, I didn't see it. I've had no problems, although I do take care to set the barrel adjuster to clamp less vigorously than it could, when I'm putting the road bike up.

 

[Stu07]

What I was told when I bought my Thule carrier was that there is only a potential issue with carbon forks with carbon tips. Most carbon forks have metal tips where the tightening of the carrier (or skewer) occurs, and I was assured these would be fine.

 

[artemidorus]

What I was told when I bought my Thule carrier was that there is only a potential issue with carbon forks with carbon tips. Most carbon forks have metal tips where the tightening of the carrier (or skewer) occurs, and I was assured these would be fine.

Surely it's the same risk that you take when you clamp your wheel on to the bike?

 

[Stu07]

Surely it's the same risk that you take when you clamp your wheel on to the bike?

Not too sure really, but possibly because 1. the force on the fork is in a different direction (up and sideways) to the force it receives when riding (and for which it is designed) and 2. the clamping tends to be tighter than you clamp it with your skewer (again, not sure if this is how it is meant to be, but human nature means that most people clamp it pretty tight on the roof of the car, since its hard to believe the thing is going to manage to hang on up there through the corners or fast on the freeway).

I suspect the earlier poster is right in saying that the potential for damage is actually quite low, but they warn anyway to cover themselves

 

[artemidorus]

Not too sure really, but possibly because 1. the force on the fork is in a different direction (up and sideways) to the force it receives when riding (and for which it is designed) and 2. the clamping tends to be tighter than you clamp it with your skewer (again, not sure if this is how it is meant to be, but human nature means that most people clamp it pretty tight on the roof of the car, since its hard to believe the thing is going to manage to hang on up there through the corners or fast on the freeway).

I suspect the earlier poster is right in saying that the potential for damage is actually quite low, but they warn anyway to cover themselves

I think that the concern regarding a wheel coming off is equivalent to any fear of the bike coming off. In any case, the skewer needs to be clamped fairly tight to allow proper bearing preload.
Other than the clamping load, the loads on a fork on a rack would be pretty low, I would imagine, especially as the rack itself can wobble a bit.
I think that Thule's concern would be about the risk of crushing the fork dropouts.

 

[Russ Reynolds]

How small was the print on the Warning. A well designed 'Warning' sign sould be small enough for you to not see it before purchase, but large enough to see once it falls off the car and causes a 10 car pileup on the highway.