Bus bike rack too short, how to strap in a bike quickly?

jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, September 15, 2018 at 7:44:38 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-09-14 18:00, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, September 14, 2018 at 2:53:59 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-09-14 14:35, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Friday, September 14, 2018 at 4:09:36 PM UTC-4, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-09-14 12:28, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 9/14/2018 12:26 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-09-13 18:03, jbeattie wrote:

[...]


... They work for odd shaped bikes around he
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/93/248...3cdf194b2f.jpg


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...rying_bike.jpg





My road bike measures 39-1/2" axle to axle. That is not
outlandishly
large and should fit. But it did not.

This sounds more and more like an operator problem.


If the bike doesn't go in then it doesn't go in. It's that
simple.

At the first time the bus driver (himself a cyclist) came out
and tried, then scratching his head what we could do.

-- Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

I'd like to see an image of the ACTUAL bus rack your road bike
won't fit into. Me long wheelbase 1980's MTB fits in our bus
racks without any problems at all and the wheelbase on that MTB
is longer than most modern 26" wheels MTBs. I just can't imagine
why you can't get even a 1980's road bike into your bus rack.


It's not that easy. First, they seem to have a plethora of racks,
some partially good, some bad, and you never know which one comes.
Then the bus is on a hot schedule and loops, no end points, so I'd
need to have a buddy to take a pic, fast. And carry a camera
because my phone doesn't have one.

Look at the link Jay pointed out, that shows the problem. Even a
regular 26" bike started to ride up on the slot ends. See at
0:33min, front wheel rides up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETtnX_KScI8

At :33 is a road bike with 700C wheels, unless Bianchi is making a
Volpe variant with 650B. It does have flat bars. The rack design
undoubtedly requires that a certain percentage of the arc of the
wheel is within the tray, but the bike doesn't have to drop to the
bottom to be safe. The downward force of the clamping arm holds it
in place. That bike is fine. It's not going anywhere.


The more the rear tire rides up the less safe the bike is held in place
if this bus has to make a sudden sharp left turn in an emergency
situation. At 0:35min you can see that the bike comes to rest sloppily,
with the rear wheel partially out.

What is so difficult to design a rack so bikes don't do this? It's not
rocket science, it's easy.

Go to the SportWorks catalog. There are many available designs, and
newer designs do have an open wheel tray, but keep in mind that it is the
front wheel that matters, and the short tray models probably support an
equal percentage of the arc of the wheel even when the wheel rides up in
the closed wheel tray. Have you seen bicycles littering the roadway? I
rode home last night and saw dozens of bikes of various shapes and sizes
on the fronts of our local TriMet buses. No complaints were heard, but
then again, we're tough Oregonians living in the wilds of Portland.

-- Jay Beattie.





And my 42" wheelbase bike (2.5" longer than Joerg's) fits just fine on the
racks of our local buses. Maybe they just do things a little bit better in
those socialist countries whose steel and aluminum exports poses a security
threat to the USA.