Drove to Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville, Al yesterday. On the way up the mountain we heard a loud bang, like a gun shot. When we got there I found out I had put the rack on the back of a Honda Element so that the bike was too close to the exhaust and cooked a tire which blew up. It ruined a basically brand new WTB Nanoraptor. Rats.

I feel your pain. Last summer, we arrived at our vacation destination to find that my front fender had beaten itself to death (torn through). A better strapping job would have prevented it. Since these fenders (mud guards) only come in sets, I now have an extra rear one in the garage. Rear mounted auto racks (whether hitch-mounted or strap on) place some fairly delicate equipment at right angles to hurricane force winds for hours at the time. It's actually amazing that our bikes survive as well as they do, but we certainly need to carefully out think the whole process before and check often during each trip.
CC

thats too bad about your fender and tire. we had a customer once who driving onto the woodshole ferry 'hit bottom' and bent 4 out of 6 wheels.

as for hurricane force winds I believe the highest speedlimit in the country is 75 or 80mph. hurricanes are 75mph+ so only a small percentage of us should be driving and subjecting our bikes to hurricane winds. the only damage I ever saw to bikes on 'trunk' racks was all operator error. these include various scratches, the afore mentioned wheels, melted tires, lost front wheels and the rack and bikes completely falling off.

Been there, done that. Generally we learn from the first experience and don't repeat it.
Driving the car-top carrier under the low roof at the ATM, though, is something you can enjoy over and over....

when I rack up on my element, I put the rack up on the window, now the lower gate. It keeps the bike up out of harms way. If that doesnt really make sense, I'll take a pick next time I rack it.

I learned my lesson one time when I was racked on my element and backing up in a parking lot, I hit a marker sign that was 3-4 feet off the ground. (not paying as much attention as I should have been but I wouldnt have seen the marker anyway) Destroyed my front rim.

Thanks CNY. I've been switching the rack from my Accord to her Element and I got it too close. I'm going to get some ratchet straps with flat hooks to give me some peace of mind and get it further away from the back of the Element.

Explosion phase two:

We went out today riding roads close to the house. After about 15 minutes a dog came out and terrified my fiancee. She stopped in the road, then got back on the bike and started riding again when I got the dog to come after me. Whien I turned around looking at the dog she stopped again and I hit her back tire and warped it. I had to disengage her rear v brake to get back. If I had this kind of luck playing cards I'd burn the deck.