Blue Roads

Anybody know what kind or brand of roof racks/mounting system the chase cars use in the Tour?

TIA

rooftest

They're all custom made - can't be purchased. I think this has been discussed before here.

AngryScientist 

yea, i'd be willing to bet that they work with thule or yakima to design these things, but theres no "off the shelf" roof rack thats going to hold that many bikes and wheels.

botto 

if they're anything like the racks on my team's car, then they are indeed DIY.

Grumpy McTrumpy

botto 

correct.

MR6690

if you really want to pile bikes on the top of your car, buy a third crossbar that way you can stagger the trays between 3 crossbars instead of being limited to using just 2

Metzinger

Or use a car you don't mind perforating.

Jynx

3 cross bars plus super wide rails = tons of bikes and wheels.

El Diablo Rojo

On my Volvo wagon with three cross bars I get 6 bikes and 8 wheels.

Carbon Unit

What kind of racks are you using that will allow you to carry that many bikes and wheels?

tubescreamerx

timster

Looks very custom.

island rider

Side note, anyone know of a rack that will hold just a wheel and can be attached to factory cross bars?

El Diablo Rojo

You'll have to wait, we are moving and just about everything including my camera is packed. But here is the set up:

3 58'' crossbars attached to the factory roof rack

2 trays attached to the rear and middle crossbar on the outside of the roof rack facing forward (yakima says don't do this but I've had this set up for over 4 years and traveled 1000's of miles with no issues)

2 trays attached to the rear and middle cross bar on the inside of the roof rack facing backward

2 trays attached to the front and middle cross bar facing forward

cshell

rob!

Staggering with three cross bars would work. You could also have bars extending past the width of the car for an extra bike on each side (at the risk of hitting your head whenever you get out of the car.

I can fit 3 bikes on my Civic with just two crossbars, and no issues. I can't see why many more bikes on an even slightly larger car would be a problem.

(old picture with BMX bikes from a road trip)

spry

Thanks for the finger.

Flatballer

This is what I'm working on. I've currently got 5 trays and 3 crossbars, with 4 wheel forks. I need 2 more forks and I might eventually get another tray and set it up like yours. Are you using fork mount or downtube mount trays? I've got 4 fork mount, they feel more secure to me, and won't crush carbon. I've got one downtube, for my MTB, but it doesn't even fit my bike. But then I see the Tour is using downtube mounts on lightweight carbon bikes, so I dunno. The bike manufacturers recommend against it, but if it works in the Tour.

embe

Flatballer, something to consider on the tour racks/bikes is that they're only traveling 100mph at a time, on good roads, at 20-30mph.

Certainly not highway speeds on crappy roads.

Casrider

ironic there are so many speed freaks and weight weenies around these parts mounting their bikes to the top of their cars

which creates more drag and give you worse gas mileage than trunk mount racks

Flatballer

It's also about 10 times safer for your bike, and you can carry a lot more bikes.

Servo888

There are pros and cons to both. I have a roof rack; and with that you get... Ability to mount your bike, canoe, snow board, basket, etc, on to your roof. It's not efficient with a bike on there; I loose about 10 miles per week with the rack (with 26MPG, and gas at $2.50, that's about $1 per week I lose in fuel). It can also scratch the crap out of your car if you don't apply clear-bra material (clear sticker basically) to protect your paint.

I do wish I went with the hitch rack though. Having something you can visually see is a very satisfying feeling.

Little Darwin

Based on reports here of:

1) Bikes falling off racks while driving along (either roof or rear rack)

2) Bikes colliding with the top of a garage door (roof racks)

3) Bikes colliding with things while backing up (rear racks)

I don't think the stories support the roof rack being safer. I have read about several from #2, none of #3, and it seems that the stories I read of #1 seem to be mostly (by a long way) bikes flying off of roof racks.

Rear racks are easier to load... and I would think more cars and bikes are damaged during the loading/unloading of roof racks when lifting bikes over your head than lifting them up about 18 inches.

I must be missing something, How are roof racks safer for the bike?

nitropowered

I've got 5 trays on my Toyota Matrix (1st gen) I can probably fit more if the cross bars could be spaced out further or add a third one