Roof Mounted Carrier for Carbon Forks

[Andy Welch]

OK, having sold my Windcheetah, I'm just putting the finishing touches to the new plaything. A
Principia RS6 with Record Triple. Thing is it looks so fancy I'm not sure I actually want to ride it
for fear of spoiling those looks. Still I'm sure this will pass.

However, I do have some concerns about transporting it on the car (which can be quite convenient for
certain rides). I've got Thule roof bars fitted and have been using the Tour carrier with my tourer.
This carrier uses a rubber clamp around the downtube and some straps for the wheels. Nice and easy.
No dismantling required. But the clamp has worn through the paint on the downtube over the years! I
could wrap a cloth around the frame where the clamp is but there is bound to be some movement, which
would (at least) damage the transfers.

So I was thinking of one of these carriers where you remove the front wheel and clamp the front fork
directly to the carrier. But I'm a bit concerned about using these with carbon forks. If I'm
cornering at dual carriageway speeds then surely that is putting a lot more stress on the forks than
they were designed to take. Isn't this likely to lead to small cracks that may not be visible but
may cause the forks to fail catastrophically as I'm bombing down some hill. Or am I just being
overly cautious?

Cheers,

Andy

 

[Marten Gerritse]

[email protected] wrote:

>
> So I was thinking of one of these carriers where you remove the front wheel and clamp the front
> fork directly to the carrier. But I'm a bit concerned about using these with carbon forks.
>
> Andy

The load on the fork isn't too bad in these circumstances as there isn't any weight on the saddle.
Just as long as both forkends are clamped tight there shouldn't be any problems, unless you
encounter low bridges, trees or car parks.

/Marten

 

[Andy Welch]

On 25-Apr-2003, marten gerritsen <[email protected]> wrote:

> The load on the fork isn't too bad in these circumstances as there isn't any weight on the saddle.
> Just as long as both forkends are clamped tight there shouldn't be any problems, unless you
> encounter low bridges, trees or car parks.

Now why didn't I think of that? Whichever way I looked at it, it seemed that the load on the forks
with me going round a bend in a car at 60 mph would be a hell of a lot higher than me cycling round
the same bend at less than 20 mph. But of course I was forgetting about the effect of my own (not
inconsequential) mass.

Cheers,

Andy

 

[Just Zis Guy]

On Fri, 25 Apr 2003 14:13:54 GMT, [email protected] wrote:

>it seemed that the load on the forks with me going round a bend in a car at 60 mph would be a hell
>of a lot higher than me cycling round the same bend at less than 20 mph. But of course I was
>forgetting about the effect of my own (not inconsequential) mass.

Except that when you corner on the bike you lean in, which means the force is still close to the
plane of the forks. But I still wouldn't worry. Or, if you are worried, get a tandem support
(vertical pole which clamps to the bike and could be adapted to clamp to the roofbars).

Or put the bike on the back. I prefer my bikes to be on a towbar-mounted rack anyway, much quieter.

Guy
===
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