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

On 2018-08-25 12:26, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Saturday, August 25, 2018 at 2:58:12 PM UTC-4, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-08-25 11:12, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 8/24/2018 2:17 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-08-24 10:11, Frank Krygowski wrote:

As to your question: I wonder if a velcro strap with
rectangular ring might work. They're fast to install and
surprisingly strong. See, for example:

https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Cabl...g=UTF8&s=a ht




Thanks, but I do not trust plastic for this stuff. The Arno straps
that Sir mentioned seem to be the ticket here. Of course,
there remains the risk that a picky bus driver refuses to
accept that mounting method and we'd be stranded.

I do have some with steel loops, but that's OK. I should have
known it wouldn't work for you. ;-)

A certain guy I know well once had a habit of asking my advice.
"Can you come over and look at this? You're an engineer." So I'd
visit and hear "The garage door track is coming loose" or "This
table I'm building has wobbly legs" or "I need a way to carry
this bag on the back of my bike" or a bunch of other things.

In each case, the answer seemed obvious to me - as in "You need
something to resist that bending moment, so if you add a brace
here" or "... if you screw this in two places..." or whatever.

Invariably, he'd say "That won't work, because..." and spout some
nonsense.

I still see the guy from time to time. When he asks me about
problems now, I usually say things like "Yeah, I see why that
bothers you. What do you think?" and later "Well, you could try
that if you like."


I would have assumed that you as a mechanical engineer would
understand that plastic buckles will not be adequate for holding a
bike wheel _on_ the slot (not _in_ the slot) at freeway speeds and
when taking corners at a good clip.

-- Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

When I know the bus is going onto a highway, I use two Arno straps on
the bus carrier to brace the bike so that it doesn't end up leaning
to one side or the other and thus put a lot of sideways pressure on
the wheels. Again, I wrap the Arno straps around the FRAME not the
wheels so that the sideways stress is take by the frame and straps
not the wheels.


I'll probably carry two straps so I can run an additional one over the
top tube, though it won't help much because the only place I can tie it
to is the slot below the bike. No hooks on the bus bumper and I can't
tie to the next slot because another passenger might want to load their
bike in it.

The wheel must be strapped down as well, hard, because else the bike
will won't to shoot out to the side of the bus when it takes a corner,
due to the fact that the front wheel is almost completely riding on top
of the U-shaped top end of the slot..

Anyhow, a manager at the transit agency seems to be interested in
digging into the matter. Let's see where that goes. IMO the rack
manufacturer should fix this free of charge to the transit agency
because they messed up. If they fix it I won't need to strap down at all
but like you I probably will anyhow if it feels at all iffy. Arno straps
are on the shopping list for the next Amazon order. They come as 2-packs
so I can shorten one for the wheel strapping and leave the other for the
top tube strapping.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/