Viich

I have used a cargo net on top of my rack before, but not many times. Today I played soccer at lunchtime, and had my cleats, pads and socks in the cargo net so as to not stink up my pannier bag. A little more than halfway home, the net comes loose as I'm on the bike path crossing a driveway into a parking lot, (dechenes rapids for the locals) hooks a spoke, and pulls all my soccer kit into my chain / rear mech. Rear wheel locks completely, skid to a stop going to the right, which I was a little worried about, as I'd had a VERY close wheel sucker for the last 5km. Wheel sucker laughs and doesn't stop or say a word. I don't really have any problem with people drafting me, especially on the nice, long MUP with few entry/exit points I was on. Just have some decency when an incident happens to the guy you've been drafting.

So, carrying on - getting the cleat out took me several minutes. At that point I realize just how badly the net has wrapped around my freewheel - it's completely jammed, and several spokes are badly bent. I couldn't get a handle on any of the plastic clips, as they were locked hard on the spokes. I broke a couple, which gave me a little bit of play to start pulling at the elastic net, but didn't help much.


I didn't have a knife (now going into the tool kit), and neither did any of the 15 cyclists who nicely stopped to ask if everything was fine. After about 20 minutes of picking at the net with the wheel off the bike, I finally got it off, as the last cyclist I'd asked for a knife was checking his backpack after establishing that he didn't have anything sharp in his saddlebag. I wished him a better ride than I had this afternoon, and got to putting my bike back together. At this point I was happy of two things: 1. - that I have a frame pump. I had to deflate the tire to remove the rear wheel because of how I've got my fenders mounted. Might try to fix that by switching hardware. 2. My C-Star non-aero levers have a tab I can rotate out of the way to spread the brake caliper. The bent spokes knocked the wheel far enough out of true that I otherwise would have had to disconnect the rear brake - and I realized on the side of the road that I didn't have the necessary tools to do so.

Anyway, this was my worst commuting experience of the year - luckily I only had 7km to bike (slowly) home.

HardyWeinberg

cargo nets and bungies are deathtraps, people should really not use them.

edit: some things are patently dangerous and I don't do them, others are arguable and I do them until they blow up on me. Fortunately, among the latter, none have yet led to paralysis or death. I'm glad your cargo net incident didn't turn out any worse than it did. And the laughing wheelsucker totally should have stopped to commiserate and/or offer a knife to cut your cargo net out.

Viich

Happily, I got to the bike co-op in time to replace the 8 bent spokes and do a quick true (only a couple turns, but should at least let me use my rear brake) so I can bike tomorrow.

I've got to say, re-Cycles is pretty awesome - first time I've been there. As is ReCyclore (other co-op I've been to here)

BobbyG

Glad you were not hurt.

mcours2006

Rear wheel seizing isn't a huge issue, as you discovered. I had a dangling hook from my pannier catch on a spoke and snapped it off. No incident.

Front wheel, that's a different matter. Aside from fender stays, I would not put anything on the front that might get caught in the wheel/spoke/tire. This is potentially catastrophic. https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...l-failure.html

Glad it wasn't worse for you. Maybe the Universe will kick that wheelsucker in the nuts at some point.

Tundra_Man 

My first set of panniers had a little bungee-like hook thing on each of the side bags intended to hold the bag against the frame/rack. At two separate times both of those hooks came loose and snagged a spoke.

Both times the hook was ripped from the pannier so I no longer had to worry about it. The bags stayed in place without them and I used that pannier for a lot of years afterwards with no issues.

However when that pannier finally wore out I made sure the replacement had none of that bungee nonsense.

alan s 

Sounds like you learned a valuable lesson without getting hurt, no major damage, and not too inconvenienced. As for the wheelsucker, people react differently to others' misfortunes. Can't read too much into it.

texaspandj

True. I had a friend one of the nicest humans on the planet, but if someone fell (down the stairs, on the floor, off a bike) she would laugh til she cried. Even as she helped pick them up.

KD5NRH

I've taken to replacing the cheap junk on panniers with actual, quality bungee cords that have stronger cast hooks. Haven't had one of those fail yet, whereas I've had plenty of the knot-through-a-loop-on-the-hook types let go under way too little strain.

Tundra_Man 

In my case I decided to spring for the Ortlieb Back-Roller City panniers. No cords, straps, velcro, etc. to deal with. Attaches/detaches from my rack in (quite literally) 2 seconds or less. A little spendy up front ($120 IIRC) compared to my old bags but as soon as I used it the first day I realized it was worth every penny.

Plus it's surprisingly huge. I've yet to ever need more than one of them when hauling big loads, which means I have an unused one at home waiting for the day the first one wears out, if that ever happens.

As a bonus I think I could throw them in the river and the contents would stay dry. I may get to test that speculation today on the way home, as we're having flash floods.

KD5NRH

Thought about something like that. Probably ought to put it on my wish list. I'm sure I've spent nearly that much on cheap panniers that last about a year per set, aren't waterproof, and are generally connected pairs.

fietsbob

I use one on my Bike Friday with 2 panniers on the front with D rings so its quite wide.

Pizza Boxes are Fine that way.

randomgear

I find cargo nets work well when used with baskets that are either large enough to hold the net snug or full enough to provide additional height to make the net (and cargo) snug.
I once tried to hold a raincoat on my rear rack with a cargo net - never again.

Tundra_Man 

I'm as cheap as they come and have been known to do some pretty weird things just to save a buck or two. My first set of Avenir panniers were about $40 and I used them almost 7 years, but really should have been retired after 4-5 years.

In this case when clicked on the "order" button for the Ortliebs I wondered if I would regret spending that much money vs just buying another set of Avenir like I had. Nope. This is definitely a case where you get what you pay for.

Although I did wait until they were on sale to buy them! lol

RubeRad

That's a real bummer.

I remember I bought a cheap set of M-Wave panniers from amazon (around $20 I think), didn't take long for one of them swung into my rear spokes and brought me to a skidding halt, I never used them again. Sold them on CL ASAP for I think $10. Fortunately my bike wasn't damaged like yours.

Nowadays I ride with kittiers. Rigid enough I never need to worry about spoke interference.

FrankJ

I think there must be a psychological name for it. I knew someone who laughed at funerals. I think it's probably some subconscious way of coping/avoidance with bad things that happen.

texaspandj

I know what you're talking about that's PBA, but that's uncontrollable laughter. No, she just thinks it's funny.

rumrunn6

impressive considering the bent broken spokes. I dislike ppl who laugh at others misfortune. stuff like that rarely makes me laugh. someone has to deserve it as-in Karma for it to be funny to me

I made an impulse purchase this summer while I was biking more, got a trunk cargo net. don't know what I was thinking or where / when I'll use it. I was thinking on top of my trunk where I use a bungee now. the bungee is overkill cuz the trunk it pretty well attached. sometimes tho I like to carry a sweat towel and or changeover a headsweat so want to keep the small item(s) airing out

thanks for sharing, if I use mine I'll be wicked careful

I have one for my Jeep's roof basket but it's such a hassle I'm thinking of selling it cuz I just use thin climbing type rope

baron von trail 

Dangling things have a tendency to find their way into the wheel. A few years ago---well, actually a lot of years ago since it was 2002---I took off my T-shrt and wrapped it around my handle bars. Sure enough, that sucker winds up in my front wheel and locks it up. Over the top I go.

Last time I ever did that.