Doper Cyclists - Carrying My Front Wheel On the Roof

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just bought fork-mounted racks for the roof of my car (Thule Aeroblade load bars with Thule Sprint bike carriers). We have a small-ish car (Volvo C30), so while I didn’t have any problems putting the front wheels from both bikes in the car this past weekend, I could foresee a time when that might be problematic. So, how would you recommend carrying the wheels on the roof?

Thule makes this rack that will mount on the Aeroblade bars. I looked one over at the local REI, and it seems like it would do the job. The only downside I see is that you can’t lock the holder to the load bars, or the wheel to the holder. OTOH, if I was leaving the car unattended long enough that I was concerned about it, it would be pretty easy to throw a cable lock through the wheels and around the load bar.

Any other tools, methods, or hints for putting the front wheels on the roof securely?

2

The Thule adapter is the way to go. Just make sure that the wheel is securely attached. Putting a lock and cable through it would be a great idea. It could prevent theft and keep the wheel from flying away if it gets loose.

3

I’d get the adapter in the link.

I thought this thread would be about drugs.

4

Go to Home Depot and buy a plastic coated cable and plastic coated lock. Thread the cable though the wheel and the bike frame and the load bars and lock with the lock.
Make sure you get the cable and lock that are totally plastic covered so if they come in contact with the car paint, it won’t scratch.
Something like this

5

Also if you are new to carrying bikes on a roof rack, beware of pulling into a garage with the bikes on the roof. It would be good to come up with some sort of foolproof reminder.

6

Thanks, everyone. I’ve got the Thule wheel carriers on order.

The foolproof reminder would be looking at the new racks, and remembering that I tried pulling into a parking garage with the bikes on the old frame-clamp roof racks. The weird thing is that I can detect no damage to the bikes themselves, but the rear load bar got warped to where it would not securely fasten to the roof, and I have a pair of small dents on either side of the roof where that load bar pushed down into the car. Not exactly my finest moment.