General Cycling Discussion - ?bike on car roof?

Hi All,

My boyfriend and I have reserved a rental car to get us and our belongings from Seattle, WA to Los Angeles, CA.

My question is has anyone attempted to secure a bike to the roof of a car and then drive an average of 70mph through a few states? Our main concern is, of course, the bike blowing off the roof and being totalled. Also scratching or damaging the rental car in any way. We don't have racks and the rental car is not likely to have roof racks.

A working idea we have is to piecemeal some old pillows or use an old carpet between the bike and the roof to prevent scratching and securing the bike with straps that run through the windows.

Does any of this sound at all feasible? Suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thanks! :-)

None of these options are safe, worse than damages to the car or bikes, you may lose them and injure someone, a bike flying loose on the highway through a windshield can literaly kill someone.
Ask the rental company if they have racks or even buy a good inexpensive trunk or roof rack. Other options is to take both wheels off and stick them in the car if they fit.

You can get a cheap trunk rack. Then sell it on ebay when your done and get at least half of your money back. If you have time, you could buy one off of ebay and then get most o all of your money back. Heck, you might even make a profit.

If your bikes have qr's on both wheels, should be areally simple matter.

If it was me, I'd take the bike apart and carry it inside the car.

Have you thought about boxing up the bikes and shipping them to your destination?

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Unfortunately, you've confirmed our hidden fears that it's not a great idea to tie it to the roof. I looked into shipping and it cost $50 minimum! We don't really have time to get a rack via eBay, so I think we'll just try to take it apart as much as possible and hope that we don't have too much stuff for our car. :)

If you don't have the time or money to shop for a roof rack, here are other ideas:

- try to rent a station wagon or a minivan;
- get a few old blankets; dismantle the bike as much as possible and stick it into the trunk. Having some parts of the frame that stick out of the trunk is not a problem if you protect the tubes with a blanket, pipe insulation or both.

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Unfortunately, you've confirmed our hidden fears that it's not a great idea to tie it to the roof. I looked into shipping and it cost $50 minimum! We don't really have time to get a rack via eBay, so I think we'll just try to take it apart as much as possible and hope that we don't have too much stuff for our car. :)

If interior space is at a premium, how about taking the bikes apart, packing them up in boxes and tying those boxes to the roof? Of course it's probably safe with one bike but I'm not certain how multiple bike boxes on the roof would fare.

We are now loading all our stuff into a closet that is about the dimensions of the back seat and trunk of the rental car. The next step is to take the bike apart and see if we can fit it in the closet and close the doors. If we can then we may be okay. Otherwise we may have to upgrade to larger vehicle.

We're now pretty much against the idea of tying anything to the roof of the car at this point. We lack sufficient confidence in our secure knot tying abilities! :o Probably a blessing to those we'll be sharing the road with. :)

Thanks again for giving us a bit of focus and good advice.