| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1487.1 | Frugal Bicyclist's Roof Rack | NCDEL::VENTURA | Wherever you go, there you are! | Thu Apr 12 1990 12:32 | 24 |
| Craig,
Sorry I did not reply earlier, but I am assigned to a customer site and
do not get into the system as often an I would like.
I too am considering a "do-it-yourself" roof bicycle rack. I have the
edition of Sloan's "Complete Bicycle" book (1974 edition) and have made
a copy of the section on the rack. I will drop it in the mail this
Friday. What is your mail stop?
My ideas on building a rack are based on a roof rack from K-Mart that I
have on my '86 Chevy Celebrety. Quick release front axle skewers are
availible from Performance and cost about $6.00 apiece. I plan on
using pieces-parts from the hardware store too, but aluminum is not
cheap. I might go with treated wood or perhaps some plastic pipe cut
lenghtwise. A small bungie cord or perhaps a section of old tire tube
could be used to secure the rear wheel. A real cop-out would be to buy
the add-on kit for a commercial rack and modify it to mount on my
K-Mart rack ($38.00/per bike).
I'll mail you the Sloan bike rack stuff, and throw in an old
Performance catalog. Let me know what you final design is.
Dave
|
| 1487.2 | what i've done so far. | TFH::DONNELLY | Take my advice- Don't listen to me | Thu Apr 12 1990 14:16 | 31 |
| dave,
my mail stop is shr1-3/c12. thanks for anything you send.
i have built a rack but given up the idea of producing something that
anyone with a screwdriver and hardware store could throw together.
i found some scrap 3x2" rectangular aluminum box channel and made some
holes through to accept an axle. some washers for spacing and a quick
release skewer and that will grab the fork. i mounted that onto a 2x4
which spanned the roof rack. at the rear i cut a long u-bolt into a j-bolt
to hold the rear wheel down. i made four of these setups and swapped them
front-rear-front-rear to get four bike capacity. i bolted the 2x4's to the
roof rack with u-bolts. am i being clear enough to get the general idea
across?
the hard part is finding something to hold the fork. steel u-channel would
also work. whatever it is needs to be strong enough to resist the high
force of the quick release sqeeze and also side loading on the bike. a
block of 2x4 might also work (in fact i'm sure it would if bolted down
securely).
i assume you've got rack-to-car problem figured out with some type of
gutter or gutterless clamps.
in any case i can send you a sketch of what i've done if you'd like. i'm
out of town next week though, i can try to get in on paper before i leave
if you want it soon. othewrwise i would do it after i get back.
thanks for the reply,
craig
|
| 1487.3 | oil finish | TALLIS::JBELL | Zeno was almost here | Thu Apr 12 1990 14:53 | 17 |
| > I might go with treated wood...
I wouldn't worry about getting the treated stuff unless you're
going to keep it on your car all the time.
I put some watco "marine exterior finish" oil on mine, but just
because I already had the stuff. It smells a lot like linseed oil
so you might do that instead.
There wasn't any oil on it for the first 8 years of its life,
but I didin't like the way it looked in the rain. (soggy)
You might give thought to keeping all of the bike specific parts
removable so that you could use it to carry other things.
-Jeff Bell
|
| 1487.4 | Watch the fork blocks | BOOKS::MULDOON | I'll be right back - Godot | Mon Apr 16 1990 22:35 | 28 |
|
Perhaps I'm restating the obvious here, but keep in mind that
the fork is *not* supported by the QR skewer. There is a shoulder
on the fork block that supports the weight of the fork, the skewer
only serves to compress the fork blades against the sides (ends)
of the block.I'd hate to see anyone lose their bike because the
skewer failed under loads that it wasn't intended to handle.
| | <-------- Fork blades ----------> | | / /
| | | | / /
________________________________________ / /
_ __| |__ _|_|
/ | | Fork block (or axle) | | \
| |==========================================================| |
\_| |__ __| |____/
|________________________________________| skewer
Sorry, it's the best I could do in ASCII.
Steve
|
| 1487.5 | good point -.1, and it works! | TFH::DONNELLY | Take my advice- Don't listen to me | Tue Apr 17 1990 23:49 | 38 |
| good point and better picture. i can never get decent pictures out in
ascii. but see below.
| | <-------- Fork blades ----------> | | / /
| | | | / /
/ /
_ __# # ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ # #__ _|_|
/ | | # # + Fork block (or axle) + # # | | \
| |========#=#=+================================+=#=#========| |
\_| |__# # + + # #__| |____/
# # ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ # # ^ skewer
^ |
| this is the aluminum block |
| which is only 3" wide. |
| this is the axle
this is some washers and a sticking out less
bearing locknut to space out less than a dropout
to the fork. thickness.
previous reply's picture, modified w/o permission.
about axle length. i had a heck-of-a time finding an axle long enough to
hold my zebra road fork. it appears it is as long as a mountain bike axle,
which is about 109mm, as opposed to about 106mm for a std road bike. just
enough difference to let the fork fall right over the shorter axle.
the moral to the story is: if you make a rack like this you will some
spare axles of both lengths if you intend to carry both road bikes and
mountain bikes.
craig
ps. i carried one of each to cape cod (about 2 hours) this weekend. it
worked great! i can throw both bikes up there in about 5 min. or less
since the axles are there already now.
|