So, what happens when you put a new bike rack for two bikes on with only 1 bike?  You get to replace new handlebars.  So we were excited to be at a place long enough to get our bike rack ordered that kept having shipping delays, thank you Covid19.  It finally came in before we needed to head to Seattle, so I eagerly put it all together and then we decided that I would head over early while Kurt took more time to be with his family.  This new rack was built for 2 bikes.  So, when I loaded up my bike alone, I thought through what might be the best way to have this loaded.  I put it on the outside rack rather than the inside one, thinking that it would help not to create a wind tunnel.  Then I strapped it down with the bike cover on it.  I had no sooner left my sister in law’s driveway when I found that I had lost the tire straps, they were just little Velcro pieces.  So I decided to stop and get some bungies to secure it better.  

Once I got it better secured, I took off to Seattle.  I got all the way over and about 5 minutes away from one of our properties we needed to check on when a driver was flagging me to pull over.  As soon as I pulled over, I immediately knew the problem.  It wasn’t hard to see once you got past the smoke 😉 The bike cover, which incidentally is just made of parachute material, acted like a parachute and trapped the wind until it finally popped the seams.  But thankfully I new a thing or two about securing and even in pieces it wasn’t going anywhere.  Unfortunately, my bike didn’t get that memo.

When the wind had caught my bike while it was waiting to pop the seam on the cover, it slowly kept pushing my bike over more and more away from the vehicle.  So, I literally dragged it for a few miles before I was flagged down shooting sparks out of the metal handlebars grinding on the pavement.  No before you go being all judgy like why I didn’t pay attention to them, I had been paying attention to them for over 300 miles and was almost to my destination, so I was more focused on the traffic and other issues than looking back to see if the bike was ok.  As you can see in the pictures, I took off almost 3 inches of the handlebars, literally just ground it right off leather cover and all.

So, what are the lessons I learned from this adventure;

1. If using a 2-bike rack put only 1 bike on the inside rack
2. Don’t travel with the bike cover on, they say you are supposedly able to, but I haven’t figured out how yet.
3. If something has room to move it will, so either take away the space to move or secure so it can’t move.

Thankfully this adventure only cost $25 and time for Kurt to shake his head emphatically at me while changing it out.  He had lots of time to do that.  Hopefully the next one will be a whole new adventure instead of a repeat of this one 😉