Impressive! I shall have to get a fit. My giant wagon simply has too low of a roof to hold bikes vertically, large though it may be.
thanks for the tips! Sounds like a blanket and some car around the derailleurs will work. Also, the blanket will keep pedals from catching in spokes and cables... not a bad idea.
Maybe I'll get a rear hatch rack, later.
Funny story: I work as a mechanic, and we have a switch (piece of air line) that when you run over it, opens the bay door automatically. Keeps the hot/cold weather out in summer/winter respectively, to have the door open and close automatically. Now, it takes some seconds for this door to open ALL the way, so we drive in when it's above the car height, anyway, even if it's not at the full 12,14 feet or whatever an industrial bay door opens to.
I wasn't there for it, but the way the story went is, Kevin brings a car with bikes on the top in for service (probably not an oil change... that wouldn't go up all the way on the lift, now that I think about it), and duly waits for the door to open pulling it in. Completed, he's not thinking about this, runs over the switch to open the door again leaving, and drives out at the correct moment of time if it hadn't had bikes on top.
The bikes are torn off the rack as they hit the bay door, and customer relations and insurance handle the results.
Second story was from Eric at my LBS: A family had a hitch mounted rack, and the hitch itself, however, was naively bolted through the spare tire well (sheet metal!), NOT to the frame. Easier to install, you understand.
On one vacation, taking with them 3 bikes, the torque finally forces the hitch to buckle and give way, twisting the hitch into the wheel well, and lowering the bike rack to the pavement. They don't notice for miles, until the n-th passerby honks at them and they look back and see what happened. The wheels and tires were of course destroyed: I believe the bike were otherwise recoverable.