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Spot goes down hard at 85mph.

1K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  tald 
#1 ·
The good news is I wasn't on it. Completely my fault. I didn't hook it up to the rack correctly. The really good news is that it didn't fly off my roof and go through the windshield of another car. That was my biggest fear as there was moderate traffic and it was getting dark. I just heard a loud snap and then in the rear view I saw my beloved spot achieving a perfect back flip. From the rear view it looked like it had crumbled on impact. I pulled over and started running back to it expecting it to get nailed by a car or truck before I got to it. One semi came within inches of it but swerved. When I got there I did a suicide run out into a four lane highway grabbed the back and dragged it back to the shoulder. Now the weird part. It looked fine. Closer inspection on the side of the highway showed the the rear derailleur hanger snapped (as it should) and that my Gravity Carbon bars had a big crack in them. I gave a quick pull on them and they just broke off. Other than a tear in the saddle, scratched QR lever (rear), and a some scraping on the sides of the pedals it looked fine. Wheels seemed true, tires still holding air, brakes working. I'm going to go over the frame in detail but sitting on it and bouncing up and down it seemed fine. Not one visible crack or scratch on the frame or fork. My Dangerboy end caps were filed down by the highway pretty good. From what I can tell the bars and der hanger absorbed most of the impact. Like I said, we're going to go through it to make sure it's ok but it looks ok. Here are a couple of pics of very poor quality. (taken on phone)

 
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#8 ·
dang, you're lucky you were in a position to pull over and retrieve it. about two months ago, my entire bike rack came off the back of my SUV on the freeway. there was no shoulder and I was in the fast lane so I pulled off to the right, exited the freeway and came back around. in the 3 to 5 minutes it took me to loop around, someone had picked up my bike (and the rack) and took off with it.

I keep telling myself the bike was probably wrecked anyway (no carbon on mine ;) )...

glad things worked out better in your case.
 
#10 ·
Great story Loco...

Thanks for a lesson most of us could use. What do you think you did wrong via the rack?
I always wiggle 'em around and check the rear straps...but you never know.
 
#12 ·
Ok, I'll admit my stupidity.
I have a Thule Side Arm rack on my wife's car. When I put the bike on at the trail head I put the arm too far forward on the wheel. I only did this to see if it would cut down on the front wheel wobble I was experiencing at highway speeds. The way it was on there was more pushing the back back into the front wheel support vs. the proper way of pushing the bike down into the tray. That was mistake one. Mistake two was a poorly positioned wheel strap. I was lazy and didn't slide the wheel strap down to cross the rim at the lowest point. It was more towards the rear of the wheel so higher up on the rim. What I failed to realize is that having the wheel strap in this position cinched down was forcing the front of the bike up. If I had properly adjusted either of these, the arm or the strap the bike never would have come off. It was the combination of the two. The rear strap trying to lift the front wheel up and the arm not being in a position where it could hold it down. Put the two together and you get one high flying spot, and an idiot running down the side of a four lane highway. The final check will be tonight. To show how dysfunctional I am, and this is the truth, as I was running the 1/4 mile back to my bike all I was thinking was "Do I get another Spot? Oh, what about the new RFX? Mmmm a Ventana might be nice also" The mental bike building stopped when a semi came within inches of taking my bike out completely. As nervous as I was using the rack again, the RFX took an hour long trip on the same rack last night without issue. Some $2.99 Velcro cinch straps solved the floppy wheel issue and I used the 2nd strap to hold the replace the Thule ratchet strap. Worked great.
 
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