Its been a while since I've had a road bike, about 20years ago since I had a road bike. Since then, I've had a string of mountain bikes. Recently, I decided to get back into road bikes and I just got a 2016 Cannondale Synapse Carbon. Is there any issue with putting a carbon bike on a hitch bike rack where you hang the frame on the arms? When I picked the bike up from the LBS, I put a cross bar on the bike and hung the bike without having to hang the frame on the arms.

I have a Yakima "Full Swing":

https://www.yakima.com/fullswing

Am I being way too cautious with my carbon framed bike in 2015? I've heard random stories about how you shouldn't hang a carbon bike frame on a bike rack with arms. Has carbon frame durability improved since the 90s where I can just hang the frame on a bike rack arm? Boeing has been making entire commercial passenger planes out of carbon so maybe I'm being too cautious?

thanks

Hey, it's your new bike so it's natural to fret over it. . As long as it's two bars cradling the top tube, you're good to go. I've used my Thule rear rack all the time with no issues. But what I do is to also secure the front wheel with bungie cords or straps so it doesn't spin in the wind.

If anything were going to happen to the bike transporting it that way, imagine the issue you would have actually putting your body weight on it.

Like you said, if they can make aircraft out the of the stuff, it can handle being hung by its own weight.

Issues with that style of rack are the same as with aluminum/steel bikes - paint getting rubbed off at the contact point, bikes ending up rubbing against each other on the rack (again usually paint problems), and unusual frame designs making it difficult to get the bike onto the rack.

I would not get the rack you listed above personally. It's:
- $500
- 2" hitch
- With the swing out arm it's going to be pretty big and pretty heavy
- You're going to have all the drawbacks listed out above

If you were buying a cheaper rack I could see dealing with the issues, but for that kind of money you could get a 4 bike tray style rack like the Saris Freedom 4:
https://www.saris.com/product/freedom-4

Easier to get bikes on and off of it, actually holds 4 bikes (often the frame racks only really hold 3, not 4 in actual use), bikes don't touch each other so no paint issues, and unusual frame designs are no problem (all bikes have 2 wheels).

That's my opinion.

3 carbon bikes on the roof and 3 on the rear. Long Island to Buffalo so they could compete in the Empire State Games. So they did over 1000 miles of hills, traffic and wind.



Other than a few scratches, they all survived.

BTW... I transport my bike inside my Civic with the rear seat folded. I like it inside where its safe.

My 2014 has a few marks in the paint, etc. Perhaps you'd feel better if we traded?

+1. I definitely wouldn't put multiple expensive bikes on a rack like that.

And I actually owned a previous generation of that rack.

Problem with CF, those scratches can become deep enough abrasions to cut into the fibers and then you have a problem. Destroyed a cf fork that way.

OP said he had that Yakima rack. He wasn't asking advice on buying a rack.

Nothing wrong with that Yakima rack. If you have it use it. It is a well made and secure bike rack.

Tray-type may be more more convenient to load bikes on but a real PITA when needing to access the rear hatch on an SUV. That Yakima rack swings out of the way and is pretty much why I bought one. I have one and have driven bikes several thousand miles on it. Carefully loading making sure there is no contact between bikes and you're good. Only issues I've had is getting a little kids bike on it. Even then it will work, just more of a pain to mount it on. Everything has trade-offs.

Wow, you're right, sorry I missed that in the post.

I have an old Yakima Big Joe (I believe) and it carries my Roubaix fine. Only thing I do is use some 2" ID foam pipe insulation around the frame at the strapping points to prevent scratching th