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P5-3 on top of car for 3500 miles. bad idea?
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I'm moving from Oakland to Philly in a few months, which is going to be a 3500 mile drive by way of Houston.

I recently acquired a Cervelo P5-3 frame that I have not built up yet, but I would like to work on it in the next couple months. I'm selling all my stuff that won't fit into my car and driving over, so I have very limited space.

Since I have two bike adapters for my car's roof rack, and 4 bikes (plus this frame). My two thoughts are:
1. Build up the P5-3 and put it on the roof during the move. Sell 3 bikes before I leave (note: this will "force" me to sell my road bike, "forcing" me to buy a fancy new one when I get to Philly).
2. Don't build up the P5-3 at all so that the frame fits inside my car consuming minimal space and packing effort, and only sell 2 bikes before I leave.

I'd have to do a lot of measuring and planning to make sure the frame and everything else I'm packing up will fit inside my car, but it should work as long as it doesn't have cables, derailleurs, wheels, etc, so if I'm not putting it on top of my car I'm not going to start building it up until I get to Philly.

Does anyone know how susceptible these aero bikes are to cross winds over that long of a trip? I've had my Caad10 on the top of my car for 5k+ miles with no problems, but it doesn't catch as much crosswind as the P5-3 (nor is it as expensive or fragile). Anecdotal evidence is fine, but I'd prefer if someone knew the actual relative risk (1 in a million of a problem, 1 in 100, 1 in 2, 4 in 5, etc).

Thanks!
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Re: P5-3 on top of car for 3500 miles. bad idea? [duffy-san] [ In reply to ]
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I'd shrink-wrap the thing and put a note on your steering wheel to remind you to not drive into shit.

Eliot
blog thing - strava thing
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Re: P5-3 on top of car for 3500 miles. bad idea? [duffy-san] [ In reply to ]
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Just put the frame in the car and build it when you get to the other side (won't take more than a few hours). I've driven that distance; you get tired and your mind wanders which means you forget even super basic shizz (like there's a bike on the roof). No point in tempting fate.
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Re: P5-3 on top of car for 3500 miles. bad idea? [duffy-san] [ In reply to ]
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You are probably going fast enough to be at 0 Degree yaw on the freeway.

Why not just ship two and have even more space in your car?

2019 T-Rex Tri Series
Last edited by: mknight84: Oct 15, 17 18:14
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Re: P5-3 on top of car for 3500 miles. bad idea? [mknight84] [ In reply to ]
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That's a good point with the wind yaw; I hadn't thought about how much faster cars are from that perspective.

One of my bikes is a $200 single speed/commuter bike and another one is a mountain bike that I rarely ever use. Neither of those are worth their costs of shipping.

I think I'm going to start getting all the parts to build it up, and if I can get them quickly, then I'll build it up soon, train on it a bunch, and deconstruct it for the trip. If it takes me too long to get everything, I'll just keep it broken down to begin with. I don't expect to have too much stuff to fit it into the car, and the risk of driving under a low cross beam in a garage/drivethrough/hotel/etc scares me.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. If I remember, I'll update this thread in January with what I end up doing :)
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Re: P5-3 on top of car for 3500 miles. bad idea? [duffy-san] [ In reply to ]
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I vote for shipping. A frame probably will cost $50ish to ship plus whatever for a box. I'd also ship your other road bike too ( unless you really want to buy a new bike...which sounds like you do). That way you don't have to worry about them getting stolen while sleeping on your moving road trip. And frees up more room in your car.

That's what I'd do.
Last edited by: loxx0050: Oct 15, 17 19:16
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Re: P5-3 on top of car for 3500 miles. bad idea? [duffy-san] [ In reply to ]
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I'd ship at least the P5 frame if it were me. You will need to stop a whole bunch of times and that's one expensive item to have stolen - and at the same time, a hassle to move in/out of various hotel rooms if you decide to crash for the night. Bikeflights.com was far cheaper than my own Fedex account when I used them recently too if you haven't looked at them before.
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