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This is what's wrong with The Industry™

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Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,877
7,120
borcester rhymes
I'm going to crab for a minute

What the fuck is wrong with the industry that they can't build a decent roof rack adapter? I got a cheap set of roof racks to replace my stupid seasucker and the adapters for 20mm or 12mm are just bonkers. Fork-ups are cheap enough but they limit you to one axle (so I need multiple), otherwise I need some wildly complicated setup that doesn't work right or a multi-adapter that approaches the cost of buying a wheel-on rack. seriously $89 for a fork adapter? A thru-axle wheel off rack is only $100 more expensive, and a wheel-on rack is $150 more.
 
ianjenn

ianjenn

Turbo Monkey
Sep 12, 2006
3,003
708
SLO
Sandwich said:
I'm going to crab for a minute

What the fuck is wrong with the industry that they can't build a decent roof rack adapter? I got a cheap set of roof racks to replace my stupid seasucker and the adapters for 20mm or 12mm are just bonkers. Fork-ups are cheap enough but they limit you to one axle (so I need multiple), otherwise I need some wildly complicated setup that doesn't work right or a multi-adapter that approaches the cost of buying a wheel-on rack. seriously $89 for a fork adapter? A thru-axle wheel off rack is only $100 more expensive, and a wheel-on rack is $150 more.
Click to expand...
www.1up-usa.com

Roof Rack

Low profile and durable—with a view. Roof Rack Bolt Sizing
www.1up-usa.com www.1up-usa.com

I have their Hitch rack and so do about 15 people in town now. This could be an option.....
 
slyfink

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,808
5,644
Ottawa, Canada
ianjenn said:
www.1up-usa.com

Roof Rack

Low profile and durable—with a view. Roof Rack Bolt Sizing
www.1up-usa.com www.1up-usa.com

I have their Hitch rack and so do about 15 people in town now. This could be an option.....
Click to expand...
I have a couple of buddies with those. They work well. One of them also welded a couple of square bars to a hitch mount, so he can use the roof rack as a hitch mount. He lost the tilt function, but it's a sedan with a normal trunk so the tilt isn't such a big deal. He also built a trailer for his motorcycle, so the rack can go on that too.
 
Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,877
7,120
borcester rhymes
Those are nice, but are also $220 each and have a 5 week shipping time. I'm trying to cobble together something functional to see if I hate having roof racks before I splurge on the real deal. The way it's shaking out, I should have just paid the money up front, but hey it's something to do other than stare at the snow. I also don't know if I want wheel-on racks yet on my shitty little car. Was hoping to tip-toe into buying a rack setup but it's not going smooth....
 
canadmos

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
22,053
21,599
Canaderp
Why would you even want to juggle your bike on top of your car, while trying to clamp the fork down on an adapter? And then you're going to have a random loose wheel to deal with. At that point you might as well just stuff the bike into your car.

The racks are more money, but I bet you even if you don't like it for whatever reason, you'll be able to sell it used and recover much of the cost.
 
Last edited:
dump

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,493
5,162
1up or bust. Have had the 2x hitch rack for 6 years. It felt like a lot at the time, but it's a lifetime purchase. Also got a 1x for my mom. Someone backed into it while parked and damaged it. Went on 1ups website, ordered the pieces that were damaged and swapped them out. Can't beat that.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,064
22,091
Sleazattle
Sandwich said:
Those are nice, but are also $220 each and have a 5 week shipping time. I'm trying to cobble together something functional to see if I hate having roof racks before I splurge on the real deal. The way it's shaking out, I should have just paid the money up front, but hey it's something to do other than stare at the snow. I also don't know if I want wheel-on racks yet on my shitty little car. Was hoping to tip-toe into buying a rack setup but it's not going smooth....
Click to expand...

I made my own hitch rack from some extruded 8020 and a bolt on fork mount. Could be just as easily done to mount to crossbars.

 
Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,877
7,120
borcester rhymes
holy shit...I am NOT trying to have this argument again, just trying to bitch about why this shit costs so much and works so poorly:
This thing apparently rotates

RockyMounts DriveShaft Bike Rack

The RockyMounts DriveShaft is a 12mm/15mm/20mm thru axle adapter that can handle both loads and the only one on the market to securely lock up your bike.
www.rackattack.com www.rackattack.com

This thing doesn't come with a 12mm adapter out of the box, and it's impossible to find otherwise

Swagman 64706 - Swagman Spire Bike Fork Adapter | AutoAnything™

America's leading site for discount Swagman Spire Bike Fork Adapter 64706 prices. Authorized dealer and 1-year lower price guarantee. Click or call 800-544-8778 today.
www.autoanything.com www.autoanything.com

This thing costs $85

The hurricane forkups work OK, but I need a second 20mm mount for a friend and a 12mm for my road bike, and I don't want to spend $55 on something that adapts only one flavor axle size.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,064
22,091
Sleazattle
Sandwich said:
holy shit...I am NOT trying to have this argument again, just trying to bitch about why this shit costs so much and works so poorly:
This thing apparently rotates

RockyMounts DriveShaft Bike Rack

The RockyMounts DriveShaft is a 12mm/15mm/20mm thru axle adapter that can handle both loads and the only one on the market to securely lock up your bike.
www.rackattack.com www.rackattack.com

This thing doesn't come with a 12mm adapter out of the box, and it's impossible to find otherwise

Swagman 64706 - Swagman Spire Bike Fork Adapter | AutoAnything™

America's leading site for discount Swagman Spire Bike Fork Adapter 64706 prices. Authorized dealer and 1-year lower price guarantee. Click or call 800-544-8778 today.
www.autoanything.com www.autoanything.com

This thing costs $85

The hurricane forkups work OK, but I need a second 20mm mount for a friend and a 12mm for my road bike, and I don't want to spend $55 on something that adapts only one flavor axle size.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you should have gotten a minivan instead
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,064
22,091
Sleazattle
jstuhlman said:
if you've got a car there's no reason not to run a wheel-on rack. i've used the yakima ones for over a decade. fuck taking your wheel on and off all the time.
Click to expand...

I built my own wheel off hitch rack because modern bikes are so fucking long they are much wider than my car killing fuel mileage. To add to it some if the roads her are to fucking narrow I worry about people hitting my bikes.
 
OGRipper

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,735
1,247
NORCAL is the hizzle
You want a thing that few people want any more, that you can't (or are unwilling) to make yourself, and you're complaining about the people who actually do make it charging too much. And it's the entire bike industry's fault. :rolleyes:
 
mykel

mykel

closer to Periwinkle
Apr 19, 2013
5,501
4,223
sw ontario canada
Rooftop racks are brutal on gas millage.
I have a couple of Thule side-arm roof mount.
They are in the shed collecting dust as I can't take the hit on gas millage.

Currently have a one up single with a single add-on hitch mount.
They are well on their way to paying for themselves in gas savings after two years.

Happy Happy Joy Joy.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,064
22,091
Sleazattle
mykel said:
Rooftop racks are brutal on gas millage.
I have a couple of Thule side-arm roof mount.
They are in the shed collecting dust as I can't take the hit on gas millage.

Currently have a one up single with a single add-on hitch mount.
They are well on their way to paying for themselves in gas savings after two years.

Happy Happy Joy Joy.
Click to expand...

I made my custom hitch mount to tuck the bike in as tight as possible. I can't explain how, but I now run 1MPG better with the bike on the back of the car, I assume it breaks up the the turbulence coming off of a squarish hatch back.
 
Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,877
7,120
borcester rhymes
OGRipper said:
You want a thing that few people want any more, that you can't (or are unwilling) to make yourself, and you're complaining about the people who actually do make it charging too much. And it's the entire bike industry's fault. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Hey I should just buy a hitch! There's an idea
 
Bikael Molton

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,088
1,235
El Lay
I used to be bummed that I had to use roof racks on my Forester, as it's hard on fuel economy and the little 4 banger, but now that bikes are so long, I wouldn't be keen to have both my wheels hanging out into traffic.
 
Jm_

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
20,214
10,746
AK
Westy said:
I made my custom hitch mount to tuck the bike in as tight as possible. I can't explain how, but I now run 1MPG better with the bike on the back of the car, I assume it breaks up the the turbulence coming off of a squarish hatch back.
Click to expand...
That's like how trucks get better mpg with the tailgate up, vs. down.

The airflow back there is already turbulent as hell and screwy, so that probably serves to make it even more turbulent and less of a steep gradient from the attached airflow and separated. Hambini is right that air is swirling around constantly. The faster you go in one direction the more you can get the vectors generally approaching from one direction, but just driving on the highway in the snow you see how much shit is swirling around and not flowing "straight", so that wind-tunnel shit is kind of pie-in-the-sky. It's going to depend on the car/bike, but in most cases you aren't going to significantly impact mileage on the back, because the airflow is already turbulent, even if your car "looks" aero.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,064
22,091
Sleazattle
Jm_ said:
That's like how trucks get better mpg with the tailgate up, vs. down.

The airflow back there is already turbulent as hell and screwy, so that probably serves to make it even more turbulent and less of a steep gradient from the attached airflow and separated. Hambini is right that air is swirling around constantly. The faster you go in one direction the more you can get the vectors generally approaching from one direction, but just driving on the highway in the snow you see how much shit is swirling around and not flowing "straight", so that wind-tunnel shit is kind of pie-in-the-sky. It's going to depend on the car/bike, but in most cases you aren't going to significantly impact mileage on the back, because the airflow is already turbulent, even if your car "looks" aero.
Click to expand...
I kind of figured it was something like the tailgate analogy. It all goes to shit with crosswinds where I assume some of that reverse flow turbulence gets washed away and more of the bike is in direct airflow. As a fun side note. When I used my sea kayak as a roof box when moving across the country, it had very little effect on my fuel mileage, whereas a regular roof box kills my mileage.

I have toyed with the idea of trying to make a purpose built long skinny roof box

2011-09-07 11.47.29.jpg
 
Toshi

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,840
8,814
Westy said:
I made my custom hitch mount to tuck the bike in as tight as possible. I can't explain how, but I now run 1MPG better with the bike on the back of the car, I assume it breaks up the the turbulence coming off of a squarish hatch back.
Click to expand...
It'd be interesting to run your same experiment with something with a Kamm back, like a Prius or Tesla.
 
mykel

mykel

closer to Periwinkle
Apr 19, 2013
5,501
4,223
sw ontario canada
rpet said:
I used to be bummed that I had to use roof racks on my Forester, as it's hard on fuel economy and the little 4 banger, but now that bikes are so long, I wouldn't be keen to have both my wheels hanging out into traffic.
Click to expand...

Its not too bad. The wheels hang some, about the same or less as your side mirrors.
Never had a problem. If anything with the One-up, you can shift it slightly to one side or the other. I usually have the bike shifted to the passenger side by an inch or two.
 
6thElement

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
17,294
14,780
Non-split handlebar clamps.

The trigger for my E13 dropper is a piece of poop. I just picked up a OneUp trigger, matchmaker compatible. Then as I went to fit it quickly, I discovered the E13 uses a non-split clamp and I have chunky silcone slip on grips as this is on my fat bike...
 
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