rack stories

So do you have any?
I don't actually mean the good kind of rack stories, like for instance, "damn! check her out - what a sweet rack!". With of course posting of pictures so the rest of us can agree or disagree or just be jealous.
no... I mean the kind of rack stories that involve you or someone else driving down the highway and looking in the rearview just in time to see your skis fly off the roof and skid across the highway...
Like what happened to me today. Thankfully the semi didn't run them over and a very nice fellow stopped and grabbed the one that was lying perpendicular across the fast lane before it got nailed... unfortunately despite said luck they're still pooched :frown:
I think I need a drink...

What I really want to know is were the tips facing forward or backward?

I think that age old argument is moot in this day and age of twin tips... but for what it's worth I was always a believer the tips should be at the back...

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Originally Posted by gravy

I think that age old argument is moot in this day and age of twin tips... but for what it's worth I was always a believer the tips should be at the back...

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Yeah, I just huck my twins in any old way. The only thing that may matter is the way in which the binders are engaged (negligible still).

How in the fuck did your skis fly off your ski rack? Fucking JONGS!

I've got two:

1) I bought my girlfriend at the time, a race coach, the latest rossi race skis at the time, the 9X. Was driving them down I84 to get them mounted in pdx when after a few miles I heard a loud skrak! then another one. Forgot to click the rack down duh! Got off at the next exit, retraced my tracks and only found one welled beaten 9X. Never found the other one.

2) Driving from pdx to hood down 84 thru troutdale and it was a classic east wind nuker down the gorge (those who live here know what I mean). Well I get passed by this old suby with crossbars and what must have been like 8 kayaks lashed to the rack. I could see the wind pushing the yaks and even noticed the crossbars wobbling and I thought Damn, that's not looking good. I think I unconsciously kept a good following distance. Well about 2 minutes later, the rack rips off the car and all the kayaks go tumbling down 84 in front of me. It was actually kinda of cool in a sick way, all these different-colored yaks bouncing down the freeway. Managed to dodge them all, but it was close.

So you're not the first that this sort of thing has happened to as you might have guessed.

Now maybe we should start a thread of stories about the other sort of racks... :D

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Originally Posted by Below Zero

How in the fuck did your skis fly off your ski rack? Fucking JONGS!

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I laughed and beer came out my nose-yes I'm drinking already. Its my day off and well it tastes good.

I was in a station wagon that lost two surfboards and a canoe.

Is there such a thing as 36CC? As in double C cup?

D is almost too big, but I guess that is relative to a womans waist size, and personal perception.

I would like 36CC, with big Husky Pencil ( you know the big green pencils) eraser tip nipples

Years ago I had my shiny new Lib Tech Matt Cummins (with the VW bus on it) on a Barecrafter rack and was headin to a shop to get something looked at on it. When i got there the front of the rack was open and the board was gone. Went up and down the 87 between Clifton Park and Latham looking for it, but to no avail.

The next day when the sun came out I tried again and still no luck.

about a week later, my brother all of a sudden my brother had a "feeling" he knew where to find my board.. he got off the coach, hopped in my dads 1985 crown vic and pulled over on the shoulder between our house and the shop. He walked down the embankment and right in front of him was my undamaged deck.

I rode that thing for atleast a coupla more years after that.

Thanks again bro!

Twoplanker, Dan and I were heading (reluctantly) back from Alta with 2 pair of Bros, some Scratch BCs, and some Atomics when a guy on I15 is waving at 2P frantically. We pull over and find the front rack piece was GONE and we almost lost 4 sets of planks that could have one fallen off and we would be sad and 2 could have fallen off, kicked up by another vehicle and killed people.

So this is an almostrack story.

Just too much stress on an older rack with these burly skis anymore. Now I lock my rack, open the sunroof window and check to make sure they are still there, a lot.


Now where are the boobies?!

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Originally Posted by gravy

I think that age old argument is moot in this day and age of twin tips... but for what it's worth I was always a believer the tips should be at the back...

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And I don't do that intentionally as I always pop the back of the sub wagon before I get to take the skis off. They scratch the hatch door.

Plus I do have twins. :biggrin:

years ago, i started a bike frame building company with some friends from the UMass Bicycle Co-op. We were making our debut appearance with sponsored riders at the Mt. Snow NORBA nationals. Driving up I-91 with a Yakima rack full of probably 6 bikes for our riders, the towers on the front bar broke and all the bikes went tumbling down the highway.

4 of them were still ridable, so we were able to get all our sponsored riders in the races (had to give them our personal bikes), but all Yakima would do is offer to replace the towers that broke.

to this day i still wont use their crap.

I didn't lose any skis, but... I was driving home from my parent's house one night and at the last second I see a deer about 10 feet infront of my car on the left side. The deer runs into my car as I passed and I clipped it's head with the side of my rack. The damn thing took my driver's mirror clean off and straight into my lap (I had my window open) and glass straight into my face. I pulled over and surveyed the rest of the damage. Stupid deer ripped one side of my rack clean off of my car, and this was a Thule gutterless rack none the less, so needless to say the trim above my door was totally jacked. I look back just in time to see said deer stand up and get nailed by another truck, spin around and then hobble off into the woods. I tried to go find it, pretty sure that it was going to die, but never did.

1. driving up the trough road last summer, after running statebridge, with two kayak's in the bronco. took a turn and we were minus a kayak. my buddy just shrugged and said "They're kinda made to take a beating."

luckily it was his kayak.

2. arrived at the diamond shamrock in Frisco to fill up after skiing one afternoon. started filling up and noticed my cousin's glove on the roof of my blazer. I stood on the tire and found his goggles and hat, too. Alas, his glove's brother perished somewhere b/t the east vail mini lot and Frisco.

3. My best third person rack experience happened on the ride home from Winter Park/MJ when I was little. oddly I remember it as the day the World Trade center was hit for the first time. anywho, this subie with a tower yakima and two four pack yakima racks was driving with snowboards sandwiched on one side and three sets of skis on the otherside. my dad turned to me and said "I've got five dollars on each snowboard that falls." It took until the second to the last turn for the skis to launch off and the next turn the snowboard went. It was a push.

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Originally Posted by MacDaddy

Is there such a thing as 36CC? As in double C cup?

I would like 36CC, with big Husky Pencil ( you know the big green pencils) eraser tip nipples

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No, there is no such thing. :rolleyes:

You sound a bit like the 40-year-old virgin when it comes to boobies: "Yea, they felt like bags of sand...I love those!" :p ;)

I saw a rack get ripped off of a car on the highway,it was not pretty!

Was driving from my house at the time in Squaw Valley down to south shore in the early morning. Right before Emerald Bay, when the sun was coming up, noticed the shadow on the concrete wall of my ski racks up. I immediately pulled over. Not sure why, but the skis were still on there. I considered myself very lucky to drive 45 minutes on a windy road, and not have them fall off.

As gyptian mentioned, any kayaker has a million 'boats falling off racks' stories. Most inevitably have something to do with post-river inebriated/stoned knot tying. A buddy of mine actually drove across town with his and my boats just sitting on his racks, no ropes, nothing! How he negotiated the hill up to my house without dumping remains a mystery to this day.
I personally managed to snap my old Thule snowboard carriers (the shitty diagonal kind) off in a parking garage in DC. Heard of similar stories involving bikes on roof racks, garages, forgetfullness, and plenty of cursing.:cussing:

About 10 years ago on the interstate head back to PDX (I guess 84) for a flight back east after a day winsurfing at the Hatchery. We were following our buddies in their rental when the straps holding his brand new 7" 11" Hypertech epoxy board gave way (he had just picked it up that week while out west). We watched it sail over our rental and land in front of an 18 wheeler...seconds later it was nothing but chunks of foam, carbon and epoxy. Needless to say, he didnt have to come up with the $75 bucks to put the board on the plane.

gorms: "on a Barecrafter rack"
nuff said

fez: "a Yakima rack full of probably 6 bikes for our riders...to this day i still wont use their crap"

This is unusual. Several years ago I was cruising an unfamiliar back road in my old Toy SR5. It hadn't snowed in weeks, I was going about 40, came around a corner to see solid ice on a north facing section. Tried to correct, couldn't do it fast enough. I hit the ditch sideways and remember being pissed that I'd have to get out of the truck and lock the hubs to get out of the ditch. Then I was upside down. Totaled the truck and my $1500 shell. The Yak ripped off the drip rails but it was fine. So were my skis. Been using their racks ever since.

18 replies and this thread is STILL not nsfw! Maybe we're all getting old

Can't believe I forgot the time I lost a board at Hatteras! Looked at my rearview just in time to see my new 9'2" WRV Redman funshape take flight and cartwheel into the sea oats on the side of the road. I was lucky, some ground fins and some solar-rez and she was good as new.

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Originally Posted by enlosandes

Was driving from my house at the time in Squaw Valley down to south shore in the early morning. Right before Emerald Bay, when the sun was coming up, noticed the shadow on the concrete wall of my ski racks up. I immediately pulled over. Not sure why, but the skis were still on there. I considered myself very lucky to drive 45 minutes on a windy road, and not have them fall off.

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Almost same exact thing happened to us... We were doing fishtails and donuts on the way back from Beer Valley one day this year and the driver noticed a weird shadow coming off his roof, pulled over and there were my brand new (skied one day) Seths just barely hanging on :eek:

Edit: I guess that's almost nothing like your story, but oh well.

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Originally Posted by mrw

18 replies and this thread is STILL not nsfw! Maybe we're all getting old

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Indeed.

So here it is, February 1976 cruising from Omak on the way to Mardi Gras in our beat to shit Dodge van. We leave my buddy's parents' house in LA having picked the avocado tree bare and head east. Out in the California desert on some freeway we find ourselves behind a big pickup with a full size camper on the back cruising about 70mph. As we watch it seems that the camper is wobbling a bit. Shortly after that it seems to be lifting up and dropping back. Then it took off in full flight off the back of the truck. Time slowed as this flying tin can aimed itself at us. Rabbit hit the brakes and swerved over a lane and it hit the ground and completely shattered. Chunks of camper, pillows and lots of other stuff spread all over the place. Turns out that they had just bought it and the dealer had forgotten to secure the tie-downs. Ouch.
OK, it wasn't a rack story, or a rack story but....

A rack story from a shop I used to work at:

A woman bought two new bikes and a full rack system in preparation for an cycling trip with a friend. Not two hours later, this woman appears in the store and she is both pissed off and embarrassed; she had gone straight home and pulled straight into the garage completely trashing the bikes, rack and not doing her car any favors in the process.

She didn't feel like she'd have time settle with her insurance company before she left on her trip, so she bought two new bikes and another rack. She left the store in a rush and cleaned the bikes and the rack off the car as she pulled into her garage a second time! I think she was going even faster the second time.


And that's why my garage door opener goes in the back of the car when the bikes get loaded up top.

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Originally Posted by enlosandes

Was driving from my house at the time in Squaw Valley down to south shore in the early morning. Right before Emerald Bay, when the sun was coming up, noticed the shadow on the concrete wall of my ski racks up. I immediately pulled over. Not sure why, but the skis were still on there. I considered myself very lucky to drive 45 minutes on a windy road, and not have them fall off.

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Not really rack related, but your post reminded me of the many times I have looked down at the end of a run to realize that I was skiing with one of my pockets open all run, and nothing fell out. Thats some serious luck.

My best rack story was when I was a little kid, my babysitter was going to go skiing with my brother and I. She tried to hit the garage door close button as she drove out. Needless to say, that was a dumb choice, closing the door onto her brand new suv, and all our skis.