Bike Forums - fork damage from bus rack

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Quote:

Originally Posted by mace2 (Post 7738895)

On the bus racks I've used, you don't have to place the clamp right against the fork, you can put it a bit up on the wheel itself (it should have enough grip to stay there, I think). Though, maybe I'm wrong...

For the standard 2 bike Sportworks rack this is true. However, I've seen that the bus drivers have a multitude of opinions, so if they express one, I generally go with it. Arguing does no good. :p

Quote:

Originally Posted by cod.peace (Post 7738301)

Having never been to Michigan, much less the Mackinac Bridge, I must ask why? Is it due to crosswinds or other weather conditions?

Most likely a variety of reasons. A lot of these bridges are open deck, the roadways are actually steel grids. Winds can get pretty hairy.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/...ebb767a5_m.jpg

Your generally looking at a 3-5 mile ride with a couple hundred feet of elevation change.

In general it's not the place to play share the road.

The usual reason for a bridge being off limits is... it's part of a limited access highway. In some areas, you may have more limited access bridges than open access. Not good, and depending on the road layout, it may mean a cyclist has to make substantial detours to actually cross. A number of major rivers on the east coast cause this kind of problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torrilin (Post 7739549)

That says it for me. Until recently, the only bridge near me to cross the Arkansas river was the I-430 bridge. By it's name, you know it's a limited access highway. Three narrow lanes in each direction, with concrete walls on each side and no room at the side of the highway. I don't know of any bicyclists who have ridden it. The nearest bridge was 7 miles away in downtown Little Rock, and no joy to ride.

http://www.acc-tv.com/images/katv/ne...e_accident.jpg

Last year however, they opened up the Big Dam Bridge, a bridge across the Arkansas River exclusively for pedestrians and bicyclists. It's still a couple of miles out of the way and the bridge itself with the long ramps to and from it is almost a mile. So it's still a substantial detour. But the view is spectacular.

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkans...age/mayors.jpg

Today, as I was putting my trek mtn bike up there, I suddenly realized that the reason my from brakes are so gouged up is from the rack. Its really digging in there. I'll take a pic and post it up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cod.peace (Post 7738301)

Having never been to Michigan, much less the Mackinac Bridge, I must ask why? Is it due to crosswinds or other weather conditions?

It's a partially open-grid bridge, 180 feet off the water, part of a 4 lane interstate expressway, with no shoulder or walking area except a 12 inch wide steel grid for maintenance workers; too narrow to ride or walk a bike on. There's a 3 foot raised steel grid median between north and southbound, and the outside of the lane is a 4-inch steel curb pipe intended to redirect wayward tires.

Here are a couple of photos
http://www.missmichigan.org/2007/Kir...awBridge03.jpg
http://follansbee.info/trips/ontario...c%20bridge.jpg

It's 5 miles long and located in the straits of Mackinaw. Winds can get bad enough that the police sometimes reduce the speed limit to 20 MPH or even close it. Even "normally" the speed limit is 45. About 20 years ago the wind caught a car (admittedly, something like a Yugo, and the girl was speeding) and blew it off the bridge.

It's a wonderful bridge, we cross it at least a couple times a year. I rode over it on a motorcycle once, and I stayed on the open gridwork as long as possible, it was quite fun. And I'm all for asserting my rights as a bicyclist. But there's no way I'd ride over that bridge. And there's no way to walk it, either.

And to top it off, if you don't accept the DoT transportation across the Mackinac bridge because you're a real cyclist who would never use public transportation, you have two choices, either of which are well over a 1000-mile detour: around Lake Michigan (through Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and then across the U.P.), or around Lake Huron (through Canada).

I frequently use the bus racks in the Seattle area as I often don't have time to ride my whole 46 mile round trip commute. Most of the Sportworks bus racks have a dense foam cover over the rack arm to prevent the arm from scratching the bikes, but many of these covers are old and frayed. The arms tend to get a little flobby too with age, allowing the bike to rock a little more on some racks than others. I like the lizard skin or pipe insulation options for protecting the fork.

i have an 80 mile rt commute, 60 of which are by bus. i'm also a planner for a transit authority who has bike racks on buses. a few comments:

- carry an old tennis ball that you've cut open. slide ball over support arm on rack to prevent rubbing.

-fenders are "not recommended" but you can make them work.

-transit advocates fight the same fight as cyclists advocates, and sometimes on behalf of cyclists (read: racks on buses). give the bus trashing a break thx

lcayton, I can't comment on the racks or how to avoid hurting your bike because I don't know them - have never seen a bus rack of any type actually.

I understand what you're saying about wanting to ride your nice bike on the way home too.

Then we need to factor in that commuting at any level is really hard on the bike, much harder than any type of competition.

Sooooo, how about this for a thought -

Build yourself a commuter but build it as a completely different style of bike such as a fixed gear bike. Something sporty and fun, something different so you're not comparing it with your good bike and something to give you a different experience - let's face it, as experiences go, commuting is right up there with root canal work.

It doesn't have to be expensive - better if it's not, and that's where the fixed gear bike makes some manic sense because all you need is an old roadie and convert it with some track bits, but you could do the same with a mountain bike (there you go, build a fixed mtb :D) or a SS bush basher or ... It doesn't matter, just something that'll do the commute, won't complain about the inevitable damage and which still gets you smiling when you ride it. Then you'll be able to put a carbon form back on your good bike.

Richard

Quote:

Originally Posted by lcayton (Post 7738911)

Hey folks-

thanks for the great ideas! The lizard skin fork cover and the pipe insulation (+1 for creativity) both sound like good possibilities. I live in san diego, but, judging from some quick googling, the bike racks here seem pretty standard. I think it's partly that my bike configuration is a little uncommon: wide road fork (to accommodate aggressive cyclocross tires) and no rim brake. On any bike with a rim brake (road, canti, whatever), the rack arm will not dig into the fork because the brake is in the way. And most road forks are much narrower anyway, so the arm might actually reach around.

I basically agree with the comments on getting around on a utilitarian bike, but since I only have one *nice* bike, I really love to ride it all I can. It's a steel cyclocross bike, so it's really not far off a commuter, the main impractical aspects being that it's 1) a bit flashy looking, so not something I want to leave locked up and 2) the carbon fork, which has been replaced with an inexpensive steel fork (Kona project 2, which I think could survive a nuclear blast). I have a 17 miles commute to work, or a 5 mile ride + bus ride, so I usually take the bus in, and then do the ride home. Given the length of the ride (plus the nice trails around work that I like to ride sometimes), it's really nice to have the cross bike with me.

xenologer: actually the scratch is fairly deep. Think of a flat head screwdriver being pressed into the fork with the stops and starts of a rickety bus.. Carbon is fairly strong stuff, but can't handle any sort of lacerations. Frankly I'm as surprised as anyone that full carbon bikes are becoming more common for cyclocross and mountain bikes..

I am just brainstorming here but can you put a bolt with spacers in the hole for the rim brakes so that it would "catch" the rack arm thereby protecting the fork?

it may look a bit odd... but if it works...