john

If it's heavily rusted, then I would replace, but otherwise it should
not fail.

In general, just like bridge, or bicycle spokes, If its steel, and makes
it over a million cycles (which takes 1000 miles for spokes), then it
will probably never break. (as long as the stress cycle doesn't increase,
and material doesn't otherwise degrade, e.g. rust..).

Safty factor on items like this are quite huge anyway. I would be mostly
concerned with connection points. Double check the connection of the rack
to the vehicle. Double check the connection of the rack to the bicycle.
But the rack itself, breaking? : unlikely.

Often times, just like bicycle frames, items are not designed around
strength anyway, but rather are designed around stiffness. Thus designing
to meet a stiffness criteria typically results in very large safety factors
on strength.

As always though, all statements are qualified with "it depends", and
"probably", and "maybe" and "possible" and "typically", " in general" etc
etc.

I also like to have redundancy when life and limb are on the line. So,
Where would it fail first? And if it does fail, will the bicycle go
flying? For example for a roof rack where the bike is mounted by removing
the front wheel and clamping the fork. If that failed, you would still
have the strap on the rear wheel. Right?

On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 7:46 PM, Jamie Mikami wrote:

> **
> So my bike rack is now over 14 years old. Should I start to worry about
> failure? It is a Thule and seems pretty sturdy, but things fail and would
> like to avoid my bike flying off at highways speeds to the suprise of the
> person behind me.
>
> Not sure if everyone else just replaces them every so often, I use to with
> each car, but well my current car is now 15 years old. Maybe I need a new
> car and rack ?
>
> Just thought I would throw this out there and see how I compare.
>
> Jamie
>
>
>
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>
>

Tom Hoffman

Parts of my rack are even older.

Just replace parts when you need to change cars, enough to make the old rack fit the new car. but if you buy a new car, wouldn't you want a new rack?

The same could be said about newer style mt bikes. Larger axles/frame types will need special bike mounts.

The only danger from using an old rack in either. Thule or Yakima is if the wall thickness in the cross bars is to thin. This is from rain gutter style cars that disappeared in the 90s.

Tom Hoffman
Oregon Licensed Realtor
Re/Max equity group
503-475-3417
Sent from my iPhone

I'm never too busy for your referrals!

On Mar 18, 2013, at 8:32 PM, John Bravard wrote:

> wrote:

michael medina

As long as your bike is 2x the price of your car, none of the rest matters.

Seriously though. Most rack parts are so overbuilt, you should be fine
as long as you keep an eye on things that might cause catastrophic
failure. The bars are super strong, maybe some of the small bits
could be replaced with new old stock for cheap.

Michael

On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 8:41 PM, Hugh Givens wrote:
> I have Thule cross bars and one fork-mount + wheel tray that are about 35 years old (I had two Thule trays but one got, uh, "garaged"). I've had to change rack "feet" a couple of times when I got a new vehicle; my current Thule "feet" are about 9 years old as are two other Rocky Mount trays. I also have a 25-year-old tandem rack and a Thule roof-top ski box that I bought in 1995.
>
> I guess one should keep an eye on plastic and rubber bits to see if they are degrading but I've seen no such issue. My rack stays on the car nearly year round and the car is not garaged.
>
> I think my Jetta wagon's factory rack will fail long before the Thule gear!
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Hugh Givens

I have Thule cross bars and one fork-mount + wheel tray that are about 35 years old (I had two Thule trays but one got, uh, "garaged"). I've had to change rack "feet" a couple of times when I got a new vehicle; my current Thule "feet" are about 9 years old as are two other Rocky Mount trays. I also have a 25-year-old tandem rack and a Thule roof-top ski box that I bought in 1995.

I guess one should keep an eye on plastic and rubber bits to see if they are degrading but I've seen no such issue. My rack stays on the car nearly year round and the car is not garaged.

I think my Jetta wagon's factory rack will fail long before the Thule gear!

John Bravard

Jamie -

You definitely need to replace that rack with a Yakima. If you like your bikes and love your family, that is. Or even the other way around.

JB

On Mar 18, 2013, at 7:46 PM, "Jamie Mikami" wrote:

> So my bike rack is now over 14 years old. Should I start to worry about failure? It is a Thule and seems pretty sturdy, but things fail and would like to avoid my bike flying off at highways speeds to the suprise of the person behind me.
>
> Not sure if everyone else just replaces them every so often, I use to with each car, but well my current car is now 15 years old. Maybe I need a new car and rack ?
>
> Just thought I would throw this out there and see how I compare.
>
> Jamie
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA mailing list
> obra@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
> Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org

Jamie Mikami

So my bike rack is now over 14 years old. Should I start to worry about failure? It is a Thule and seems pretty sturdy, but things fail and would like to avoid my bike flying off at highways speeds to the suprise of the person behind me.

Not sure if everyone else just replaces them every so often, I use to with each car, but well my current car is now 15 years old. Maybe I need a new car and rack ?

Just thought I would throw this out there and see how I compare.

Jamie