Anyone guilty of this? (please?)

[betagirl]

I was thinking this might go in the crazy drivers section, but I decided to put it here.

I'm hoping I'm not the only complete retard to ever do this :D

I got home a few weeks ago from my Saturday morning ride, we'd left out at 6 and did a good 40 miles. Anyway I get in the driveway and open the garage door, and in between my thoughts of the fantastic breakfast I'm going to eat, i notice my dog has decided to take a dump on my neighbors driveway. So my mind wanders from breakfast to having to pick up after the pooch. Needless to say I forget that my 4 month old Trek is still in the bike rack on the roof. You can obviously figure out where this is going :D

Anyway, I wasn't going too fast thankfully but managed to knock the rack loose on the car as the bike hit the garage. The best bit was the order of priority of damage checking:

BIKE (fine except the front tire needing to be trued) - RACK (fine except for 1 FUBAR'D tray wheel clip) - CAR (1 small dent in roof and 2 decent scratches....nothing a little touch up paint didn't handle).

My b/f comes out like "did you just do what I think you did" Since the Trek was ok, I could laugh.

Am I the only one? :cool:

[snapdragen]

Oh God no! There's a guy in my club that has "Bike on roof?" taped to his rearview mirror - he did the same thing you did - but totaled the bike.

[jobob]

No siree, it's very common, take some solace in that. You get extra points for coming out of it w/o any major damage.

One of the reasons why we didn't get a roof rack was because my husband and I acknowledge we are entirely capable of brain-farts like that :D

[pedalfaster]

See it ALL the time at the bike shop. You are not alone :)

[Xinga]

Sorry to hear about you smashing your toys!

Here are some tips I've heard other people use to prevent driving into the garage with bikes on the roof rack:

1) Hide the garage door opener in the glove box or someplace different than it's usual location. Then when you wonder what you did with that darn opener, hopefully you will remember the bikes on top.

2) After pulling the car out of the garage and then affixing the bikes, we put a box or empty trash can in the front center of the bay where the car would go. This way you cannot pull the car in without getting out to move the item first. Getting out of the car will hopefully make you notice those bikes up there too -- take them off before getting into the car again.

Of course you have to remember to do these things too!

Hope that helps.

-Xinga

[bentforlife]

That's why I have a receiver hitch carrier. Not to mention that lifting 30+ lbs of bike with my shoulder would definitely not be fun!! Of course as long as my recumbent is I have to be careful about the rear end of the car not coming all the way into the garage before taking the bike off. No accidents yet! My carrier carrys my recumbent and my daughter's hybrid.

I don't get as many bugs on it this way either except on the wheels which stick out a little on each side. But those usually come off with the ride or with a little water.

Donna

[sno4rent]

Watch out for the hotel/motel "drive up and register here" overhangs... A friend of mine and his wife loaded up a couple of bikes on top of their SUV and went on a trip. After several hours, they pulled into the hotel they were to be staying at. He completely forgot the bikes were on top and drove under the "awning" (I guess that's what it might be called) next to the front door of the office. Both bikes came off and landed behind them on the pavement. Needless to say, they didn't do any riding on their vacation..... :(

~ Wendi

[Dogmama]

Put your garage door opener in an old cycling glove. Hopefully, you'll connect the two...

[MM_QFC!]

exactly right, sno4rent - I have a spare tire rack, but a few friends have roof racks and have made the 'garage entry' mistake and had to completely replace their bikes. Also...one of them told me that she didn't realize until she had a roof rack that she had to also be careful about drive-throughs - banks, fast food places, etc. and even some public parking garages don't have the clearance. So, I guess that deciding on some memory trick with your garage door opener, if you use one, isn't foolproof.
My friend had her bike on her roof rack and my bike in the back of her Outback and we were visiting a different company office in another city - one that I had frequented regularly but either in a rental car or with my rack on back. She was driving but I was the one who screamed for her to stop, just as we were pulling into the driveway of the garage, when I remembered her bike on top. She said that she completely forgot about it...whew!

[Veronica]

Just don't park in the garage. :D

That space is for woodworking, bikes (non Fluffy ones) and boats.

V.

[emily_in_nc]

A bike club friend of ours just did this with his Litespeed - $500 worth of damage. Our answer: we just bought a garoovy new Honda Element last week, which has ample room for two bikes in the rear compartment (with back seats removed or flipped up against the sides). My very handy DH even installed fork mounts and fabricated a couple of front wheel mounting brackets, so it is now a true Bikemobile! I like it because the bikes are more secure than outside the car, don't get rained on, and no chance of ramming them into the house. I just know I'd forget and do this same thing! ;)

Emily

[OrbeaJ]

Yeah, and once the rack is on for the season, don't forget to check all of its connections once in a while. I had mine start to come off on the freeway at 80mph. I had visions of losing my new bike to traffic, but once I pulled over (quickly!) and regained my composure, I found out the bike was mostly OK--just a scrape on the downtube.
The car is scratched just a bit and the rack, well, I haven't really looked at it yet to see what I'll have to replace. But like everthing else, I know it'll cost $100 bucks to fix... I knew I shoulda bought a wagon, not a sedan!

[doctorfrau]

How about instead of the cycling glove, that you put your garage door opener in your SEATBAG!!!!:D

[snapdragen]

Originally posted by doctorfrau
How about instead of the cycling glove, that you put your garage door opener in your SEATBAG!!!!:D

I think this is the winning answer!:D

[kimba]

I have a van and with the back seats removed I can put the bikes in standing up-

however for those days when I have pesky things like passengers in the vehicle...

I just got a Yakima rack that'll hold 3 bikes and go on the back of the van.

Kimba

[Susan126]

A good friend of my husband and me did the exact same thing. He has a roof rack on top of his Toyota 4 Runner and after a long hard mountain bike ride and a long drive home . . . he completely forgot about his bike on top of his vehicle. Needless to say his Ellsworth got quite a bit of damage. He was devastated and without a bike for a month! This was two years ago. He is now very very careful when pulling into his garage!

Sue

[MM_QFC!]

don't forget about all those drive-throughs that many of us don't give a second thought to, as we drive right in on a daily basis: banks, fast food, dry cleaners, espresso stands (I am in Seattle, y'know!), public parking garages (even when they note the clearance, you have to remember if you have a bike on top)...and even some hotel/motels have a low roof in their entry drives.
So, even if you put your garage door opener in your seat bag or set up some kind of a reminder signal to prevent you from driving into your garage with your bike sitting up there, what methods do you use to keep from forgetting or automatically entering a drive through like one mentioned above?
Too many obstacles and safety hazards to think about even while off the bike, eh?!

[ragbrai40]

I'd be one of the "retards" that forgot and would pull into the garage - except I have a rear mounted hitch/carrier on my van. Now the funny thing is, we live on gravel and I can't stand to see my bike covered in gravel dust, so I leave the back two seats out and keep my bike in the van! Husband is questioning why I had to have the bike rack since the bike is never on it! :confused:

We use it to haul the kids bikes into town, but for my baby, it stays inside! I actually keep my bike at a friends house in town and drive in to ride or stop on way from work. Sometimes inconvenient, but I'd have to drive somewhere anyway, cause I ain't ridin on the gravel!

[betagirl]

Wow it sounds like I got off really lucky with my bike. Just a front wheel in need of truing. Well, my car got a bit of damage, but that doesn't count :D

I think the opener in the seat bag wins for sure!

Thanks for the moral support. I was feeling highly stupid that day.

[ChainsOflove]

No garage. No problem.