High speed roof rack thread

[muppet]

My ix has a thule rack with 2 bike racks. The other day I had 2 50lb downhill bikes up top heading to whistler. I was holding 70-80mph for extended times. And I got to wondering how fast I could go with these bikes. Would the speed rip them off or would high speed corners do them in? Anyone have any speed records? I wouldnt want to go any faster then 80, but am just curious

[GnarMachine]

Depends on the rack, but I know people who drive a good bit faster than that with downhill bikes on their roof racks. I have a hitch rack on my blazer and I'm not worried about the bikes going anywhere with it, but I don't drive that fast either.

[Turf1600]

The trick to throwing them off is trying to drift

[ethirtydavid]

I bet you could make it up to 130 no sweat ...

[e30evolution]

Drove from bellevue to spokane ~300 miles @80-90 and the only time i was worried about the bikes was crossing the coming up to the george... there were some pretty gnarly side winds that i could feel moving my car (e36 with factory rack)

[quikveedb2]

the amount of force that would pull the bikes off the rack/car would have to be pretty violent, the rack is meant to sustain the forces of taking corners at speed. i've gone over berthoud, vail, lovelend, and other passes in my S4 with bikes on my rack at speed with no problems. more often bad rack design will ruin bushings, bearings, bb's, and so on that are not designed to take that side to side load.

[FLUTE007]

back in 99 when i moved to phoenix i had 2 bikes on a 92 golf and they came off at about 20mph. i tried to go into a parking garage with a 7 foot clearance with 8 or so feet of bike. i thought a bomb went off. i looked in the rear view to see my bike hanging from the clearance sign, the bike was still attached to the rack.

[TwoJ's]

the amount of force that would pull the bikes off the rack/car would have to be pretty violent, the rack is meant to sustain the forces of taking corners at speed. i've gone over berthoud, vail, lovelend, and other passes in my S4 with bikes on my rack at speed with no problems. more often bad rack design will ruin bushings, bearings, bb's, and so on that are not designed to take that side to side load.

The forces from cornering and the forces from high speeds are different.

[FLUTE007]

apples are red and oranges are orange twojs thanks for stating the obvious

[quikveedb2]

The forces from cornering and the forces from high speeds are different.

uh, yeah they sure are...

And I got to wondering how fast I could go with these bikes. Would the speed rip them off or would high speed corners do them in?

the op asked about both high speed & cornering. i addressed the latter. high speed forces would be more of a product of wind resistance, with the exception of acceleration which would not be a consideration cruising on the highway. cornering forces a product of centrifugal force. what are you getting at?