Mountain bike rack options
That’s it, I’ve had it. It’s definitely time to get a new roof rack for my car to carry my mountain bikes. Driving an SUV to carry all of our camping, hiking, biking, and other outdoor gear is great, but when it comes to loading the bikes on the roof rack, especially after a day of really good riding, it’s becoming ridiculous. I can understand that it’s not a big deal if you’re just going for a casual bike “ride”, or even if you DO plan on going hard, but you have all the time in the world to recover once you get back in your vehicle, it shouldn’t be a big deal. problem lifting a bike to the roof. However, after multiple situations where this ideal situation did not exist, I am convinced that it is time for a workaround.
Why am I so frustrated to begin with? Simple. I don’t have a lot of time to get my rides, so during the week I have to do everything I can to get them after work and before I have to get home to the family. This means that I am often pushing my luck to get a good, hard ride to make it worthwhile, but also to get back to my truck before it is completely dark and it starts to get cold. On more than one occasion, I haven’t really won the race.
In those situations, I walk back to the truck in the dark, exhausted, and most of the time it feels like very cold rain. My fingers are frozen, my heart is pounding, and all I want to do is load up the bike so I can get in, get warm enough to get feeling back in my fingers, and then go home. With all these things against me (out of breath, no feeling in my fingers, in a hurry, etc.), the bike has fallen on me on more than one occasion. In fact, I came home with a few cuts and bruises from things my wife was convinced came from my aggressive bike riding. I was too embarrassed to tell her that it came from trying to load my bike AFTER I was done with my ride…
I’ll admit it; While I consider myself athletic, I’m not the biggest, burliest guy out there. It’s hard for me to get that bike up to the roof of my SUV, so that’s definitely part of the problem. Some people might ask why I don’t load it in the back of my truck. Well, with all the equipment in there, plus a baby seat and God knows what else, there just isn’t room. And if there was, considering how muddy my bike usually is when I’m done riding, I don’t know if I want it in. It used to be fine for me to do that, but that was before the days of a wife and kids…