So I have one of those Yakima cartop bike racks with the front wheel fork attachement. So I’m driving down the 210 in LA on my way up to Mammoth Lakes, CA for a nice weekend of riding. I’m in the fast lane, it’s 5pm and traffic is miraculously not that bad, when all of a sudden I hear a thump noise, so instinct tells me to look in my rearview mirror when all of a sudden I see my Ksyrium SL front wheel in mid air, watch it bounce behind me over the car and it dissapears as I’m driving 70 down the highway.
HOLY CRAP, i’m freaking out what do I do, so I try to make my way over from the fast lane to get off the high way, at least two miles later I get off turn around and circle back to look for it. I’m driving on the shoulder with my hazards on looking for my front wheel. Unfortunately i did not find it So what did I do, bought a new one.
Now I’m in the dog house with my wife, but what can you do, these things happen. I wish it was my bike instead of my wheel, because then I’d finally have an excuse to buy a new bike…
Moral of the story make sure that sucker is on there TIGHT. I’ve done that 1000 times and it only takes once to lose a wheel
Funniest part of this is that I’m following my Father-in-Law and he calls me to ask me what happened so I tell him I lost my front wheel. He turns around to look with me and i come to realize later that the whole time he was looking for a CAR TIRE!!!
My frame and wheels get transported IN the rear of my Jeep Cherokee!!
I stopped using bike racks a number of years ago. I’ve even resorted to taking my frame apart, Zipp 2001, to fit into the trunk of my former Lexus ES300.
Man, I know the pain!! that has happened to me twice!!! yes twice…go figure. Luckily though both times were in Maine with my mountain bike and I raced with 2.4 Mutano Raptors so all my wheel did was bounce widely along the road and hit a tree…no damage…but scared the crap out of me.
Did you have a bungy on there? I know you are supposed to use one so you don’t tear up your bearings but I think it might be a little added insurance. This is one place where “Lawyer tabs” would make a lot of sense.
I’m lost…You had the bike on a fork mount, which is totally fine and very secure. Bu then did you have your wheel on a wheel mount or randomly laying on top of the roof? Did you use a wheel mount up there?
Honestly, having sold Yakima stuff for years, I have never, ever recommended that to anyone. It’s a nightmare waiting to happen because if your wheel had hit another car and caused damge to the car, or worse, people, you’re liable. With the fork mount you have two ways (Lock and strap) of keeping the bike secure.
IMHO, you should always put the wheel inside of the car.
Happened to me once with a brand new 50 mm HED Stinger. Someone else offered a helping hand and I guess he did not tightened the wheel correctly. I was traveling close to 65 mph but I was very lucky that the wheel hit a bike saddle first and then flew to the side of the road to land on tall grass. Damage was none at all, not even a single little scratch. It will never happen to me again as now I always secure the wheel with a silk fastener.
DO NOT trust those Yakima wheel holders as you would your bike fork. For some reason this arrangement fails sometimes.
I almost had the opposite happen, when the rear wheel from the bike came loose from the carrier. Hed 50mm wheel, short retaining strap. I thought it would hold. I was wrong.
Bike was facing backwards, came loose and lifted up. Pivoting on the front fork mount, the headset caused the bike to rotate (isn’t physics wonderful) and the only thing that stopped it falling off the roof was the front wheel mount next to the bike, which got bent beyond repair. The bike and front wheel were perfectly ok thankfully.
Have used the rack since without incident by a) using a toestrap as additional security, and b) using a training wheel instead.
Did you have a bungy on there? I know you are supposed to use one so you don’t tear up your bearings
just wondering, I’d think that the bungy would actually worsen the wear on the bearings as it’ll hold them in one place +/- a few degrees so you’d have a better chance of pitting or accelerated wear happening right where the load was on the bearing. I’d guess letting them spin pretty much unloaded and free is a better idea. Doubt either one has much impact on actual bearing wear though…
At least it was not your whole bike. That happened to someone this year on their way to the Cali 70.3. At least they found their bike although it was in small pieces.
Well, I have come up with this rule many, many years ago:
If your bike is worth even 1/10 of your car’s bluebook (let alone MSRP), your bike should NEVER, EVER,EVER, EVER be transported on the roof of your car. This, of course doesn’t help. Hopefully, the winning lottery ticket is lost by someone in the parking lot of a convenience store (the only way that losing a front wheel could be made up to me).
Same thing happened with my husband’s front wheel. We were driving to a race going 75-80mph on the NJ turnpike. He didn’t hear a noise, but he just happened to look in the rear view mirror as it bounced down the highway and got hit by a tractor trailer. We didn’t go back to look for it…
Luckily I did have both my training and race wheels with me, so he borrowed my front training wheel so that he could still race. We haven’t used the wheel roof mount since and rarely use the roof rack.
A few years ago the same thing happened to my wife and I on the 55. We were also on our way to Mammoth for some mtn biking and hiking. The wheel landed in the shoulder of the road. Lucky I got it back. I never used that front wheel piece of s^^t fork thing again. FWIW I don’t use the rack for my bikes anymore…they get an inside ride.
Happened to me with a nice old school Matrix ISO tubular. Saw it land and roll into the ditch, luckily avoiding any other cars. Went back for it but the rim was toast (salvaged the hub though.) Mine happened after Schabobele (an early-season climbing suffer-fest) and my mind probably hadn’t recovered yet when I latched the wheel on.
I don’t know…I heard it from a zipp employee and my friend who was a mechanic for the olympics and project 96. I think probably it’s just general wear and tear accelerated, maybe like going downhill at 60mph for hours at a time. The way I bungee it it can move a bit in either direction (until one spoke or another hits the bungy) so I don’t think one spot is getting too much more wear. Could be though.
So what did I do, bought a new one.
