I've just joined a new club

[grizzly adam]

The club where people drive their cars into their garages with their bikes still on the roof :hit: :cryin: .

It happened last night after a ride at Murphy - which turned bad when the gash in my sidewall finally gave out and depleted my air pressure. I drove up just like I always do and wait for the door to finish opening and then in I went.
Crash - bang - boom!
The noise was so loud my wife came out to see what happened. What we both saw was not pretty. The Grizzly was hanging off the side of the MINI, still clutching the front load bar, Qtowers and all.
Luckily I had the giant yellow Onzas! I think they hit the house and took most of the impact, rather than the frame. The impact pulled the Grizz "back and to the right", where he managed to grab the antennae and break that on the way down. Also in a last ditch effort to stay up, he cracked my spoiler.
I haven't looked too closely yet for final damage, but things look unusually good. The Grizzly seems to be fairly straight. The MINI could have been worse. The raingutter on my side is mangled for where the Qtower tried to resist the Grizzly, the antennae and spoiler seem to be the only damage. The radio still works with the antennae gone! Luckily none of the glass on the roof seems to be damaged. No big scrapes or dents (that I've found yet).
Now I'm just bummed out. I knew this was going to happen. I've alway heard stories of this happening and seen some pretty bad wrecks because of it. I just wish I could have gone a little longer than a couple months of having the rack before this happened. At least the racing season is over. At least winter is almost here. At least the Quality show is coming!

So if anyone knows how to rearrange plastic raingutters, I'm all about learning!

Hopefully when I look things over tonight I don't find any big problems....

[fisherbikefreak]

Damn it, don't you hate dumb moments. Mine are more of dumb lifetimes, but who's really counting! Sorry to hear about your mangling experience. Hope things are as good as you say they are. Poor bike:cryin:

[grizzly adam]

Thanks - I'm trying to laugh at it. It IS kinda funny. I think one of my neighbors was outside when it happened. He must have laughed a little bit...watching me get closer and closer and closer and then BAM!

[homebrewbiker]

Must have been the venom from all of those bee stings went right to your head.:D

[TomT]

You know it wouldn't have happen if you had gone topless! :)

[Kosk]

Oh man, that sucks. I did this about 3 weeks ago, with my commuter bike. I got out of the car and was looking around the alley to see if anybody saw me, felt pretty stupid, but after seeing the damage thought it was pretty hilarious. Worst part was I actually had to get out of the car, pull open the garage door, turn around and get back in the car, so I saw the damn thing up there in my perifferal vision and I STILL drove in!!! DOH! Luckily the door was high enough that my bar ends only ripped off the weather strippping around the garage door frame and then bent the hell out of the cheapo aluminum garage door, no damage to rack or bike.

Welcome to the club, Hope you get'r all fixed up.

[fisherbikefreak]

Are there any membership fees to be part of this club? I haven't joined it yet, but am considering it if the price is right. :crazy:


Actually I don't even drive my gas hog of an SUV (which has my yakima rack) so I don't have to worry! Anyone want to buy an old POS Trooper?

[grizzly adam]

Must have been the venom from all of those bee stings went right to your head.:D
You know it wouldn't have happen if you had gone topless!
LMAO!!

I now itch like crazy from those dang stings.

Now I'm really glad that I didn't get the factory rack, as that bolts to the roof. The Grizzly would have for sure been totalled had I gotten the factory rack.

[Trevize1138]

Get a hitch-mounted rack!

*More convenient to load
*No chance of smacking it into your garage
*Most come with a convenient, swing-down feature so you can open the hatch without much trouble
*No need for a bug guard on your handlebars and fork
*No need to remove tires
*If you need extra storage space just throw two of those bullet-shaped plastic storage thingies on top now that all that space is left over
*When you're not hauling bikes with your Mini, you can always throw on a ball hitch and tow your 26' yacht

[grizzly adam]

But you're forgetting the coolness factor. The bike looks much cooler on the roof than in the back (and honestly, that's what it's all about, right!). Besides, where do I put all my stickers?!
What tires do I remove?? :)

[TrailPatrol]

I did that last year, only with a tree limb, in the dark, at Afton. :mad: I did more damage to the rack than to the Cromoly framed Moose, but a nice big scratch/dent in the center of the roof right above the rear window. My wife is like "How did you do that?" Some things you just cannot explain, so I told her the truth. Aliens did it. :alien:

The new Caravan will have a hitch-mount rack next week. My oldest insists that it be a four-bike rack so she and her husband can go places with us. (It already has kid seats for my grandaughter.) Until then, I am putting the bike inside the van!

Drive safe, but short
:banana:
Hans

[socrates]

The club where people drive their cars into their garages with their bikes still on the roof :hit: :cryin: .
Yeah...I did that earlier this year...thankfully I was going less than 1 mph so no damage or crash sound...SUV just wouldn't go forward....looked up and found out why :)

[Ish]

Grizz - don't feel too bad - I have done it twice. Coolness is out the window and I now have a hitch mount.

For the few times I use my roof rack, I have thought about setting a garage can or something in front of where I park in the garage so I can't drive in, but then I forget to actually move the garage can.......

[Minnetico]

I have always been careful enought not to hit my garage door and I was affraid I would forget it at a drive thru or someplace like that, instead I hit the entrance of the parking ramp at work. I normally park outside but one day I saw this guy pulling off the ramp, so I thought why not parking inside today...bang!!!
The worse part is that the security guys caught it on camera and they were nice enough to show it to me over and over.
No damage to the bike or the bike rack, but the Jeep's standar cargo bars broke and there are some nice deep scratches on the roof top.

After that day I moved the bike to the opposite side (over the passenger side) so I can always see it through the sunroof.

[goatgirl]

:crazy2: And people diss MINI VANS! The only safe place for my bike is inside the van. I'd strap my child to the roof before I'd put my beloved Blur there, ( ehem, don't tell them I said that).

[noise_is_life]

Get a hitch-mounted rack!

I always have bad thoughts about getting rear ended, probably since it has happened recently. Wouldn't take much of a fender bender to total your bike.

[Trevize1138]

I always have bad thoughts about getting rear ended, probably since it has happened recently. Wouldn't take much of a fender bender to total your bike.
Yeah, but I like driving around without a bike on the rack but still having the rack attached. I like to think of it as a nice deterrant to tailgaters. I've often wanted to attach a sign to the end that read "SUV de-griller" :crazy:

[fasterfoster]

I have always been careful enought not to hit my garage door and I was affraid I would forget it at a drive thru or someplace like that, instead I hit the entrance of the parking ramp at work. I normally park outside but one day I saw this guy pulling off the ramp, so I thought why not parking inside today...bang!!!
The worse part is that the security guys caught it on camera and they were nice enough to show it to me over and over.
No damage to the bike or the bike rack, but the Jeep's standar cargo bars broke and there are some nice deep scratches on the roof top.
I did it in '98 or '99. My son (a toddler at the time) was crying and I just drove right in! I heard this horrible tearing sound. I thought I ran over something. I slowly backed up (making things worse!) to hear the sound again.:embarass: Backing up ripped the seat off the bike and it shot across the garage. Damaged the bike, the roof of the Jeep (deep gouges from the fork) and the front of the garage. I don't think I've ever felt that stupid!

[Tetreves]

There's a reason I almost always put my bike INSIDE the car.

Once I pulled into the garage with my bike on the back (trunk rack) and hit the switch to close the door. I saved my front rim (which was pointing back and sticking under the door) by about 4 inches when I remembered. That was close!

They have a new Grizzly frame with carbon seat stays at Gravity Lab...maybe you need a new one...;)

[goatgirl]

You can actually get your car into your garage? You don't have enough bikes!

[rgg2201473]

But... ditto what goatgirl said...
I've got a motorcycle, tool boxes, 5 bikes, tools and junk galore on my side of the garage (the queen gets the other half) so... not enough bikes in your garage.
Speaking of which, I'm bike shopping these days so maybe we'll share impressions as you seek out your new mount.
Connondale Scalpel or Trek Fuel 110?

[SickBoy]

Hehe. You could do what I do, and get a place to live sans-garage..... :cool:

[grizzly adam]

They have a new Grizzly frame with carbon seat stays at Gravity Lab...maybe you need a new one...;)MMmmm - caaarrrbonnnnnn

Hehe. You could do what I do, and get a place to live sans-garage..... :cool:Yeah - did that for 4 years. Our place was as big as our garage! Although, I shouldn't complain, in all those 4 years I never had any damage to the Grizzly or the MINI. :p

hehe - I wrote "Sockboy" :laugh:

[grizzly adam]

I did a little more looking at the Grizzly and the MINI last night after work. So far so good and it only looks like cosmetic damage to the MINI - raingutter and antennae. I'm going to try to fold the raingutter back down and see if I can get by with that instead of a new one. The antennae I'll have to get - although the radio's working just fine, so who knows....the antennae's gotta be good for at least 2mph on the top end, right!

The Grizzly seems to be just fine. As I went in, guess what hit - yellow Onza's baby!! I'm tellin' you guys, those things have saved me from rocks, trees, smart-ass riders, and now my apartment overhang! The Grizzly looks good everywhere else. The dropouts aren't bent. No paint chips to indicate stress underneath. The headset is fine as well. No bulging at the top or down tube. I just had to take a small shard of wood off the Onza. I think the Grizzly was cleaning it's teeth with it. :)

[Daddy X]

The only issue with a hitch mount on a MINI is that once you put a bike on the rack the front wheels of the car will lift off the ground and make it kinda hard to steer. I would basically give you the handling of a BMW :crazy2:

Too bad there wasn't more damage to the Grizz so you could move up to a SUPER Grizz, then Andy would be really scared.

[Trevize1138]

For that matter, it's surprising Adam's MINI hasn't been involved in an SUV-style rollover with his bike on the roof making 70% of the weight shift above the roof line :crazy:



The only issue with a hitch mount on a MINI is that once you put a bike on the rack the front wheels of the car will lift off the ground and make it kinda hard to steer. I would basically give you the handling of a BMW :crazy2:

Too bad there wasn't more damage to the Grizz so you could move up to a SUPER Grizz, then Andy would be really scared.

[grizzly adam]

YA KNOW.......!!

Just cuz my frame is a 22" doesn't mean it tips the scales!
Wait until the Onzas come after you :fool:
You guys are just jealous.

For that matter, it's surprising Adam's MINI hasn't been involved in an SUV-style rollover with his bike on the roof making 70% of the weight shift above the roof line :crazy: