upright vs fork mounts
 

Just wanted to get everyone's opinion on upright and fork mounted bike racks, pros/cons of both. Looking into getting my first road bike, is it recommended to use a fork mount w/ bikes w/ carbon forks? Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Uprights mean that you don't have to take off your front wheel and, if you're a mountain biker, you don't have to figure out what to do with your muddy front wheel.

Fork mounts mean you don't have anything touching the painted parts of your bike and you don't have to reach up so high to operate the clamp. Some people feel that fork mounts hold the bike a little more stably. A road bike only weighs around 20 pounds so I wouldn't worry about the side loads imposed on a carbon fork.

I own a Thule roof rack system with a couple of Velovise fork mounts that I'm happy with.

I have a Yakima roof rack, anyone have any fork mount recommendations?

We've driven thousands and thousands of miles with Yakima steelhead mounts, the tandem mount and the hitchfork mount. All have been terrific. The Steelhead even repelled someone with a screwdriver trying to break the lock. I will say that I have seen several wheel-mounted racks with the bike doing some major remodeling to the car -- quite horrifying at freeway speeds. I've never seen this with a fork-mount rack. I would also never buy a rack from which you hang the frame. Why spend all that money to have your paint destroyed and the frames banging around?

Like SadieKate, I recommend the Steelhead. They are bomb-proof, and I've been using them for at least 5 years. They only bummer about them is that they aren't cross-compatible with Thule, but that shouldn't be a concern if you are never going to move them to a Thule-equipped car (or let your buddies borrow 'em).

I also use a King Cobra because as someone already mentioned, you don't have to throw the muddy front wheel into your car. However, I don't think it's as stable as a fork mount, plus it's so high up on the car.