RE: Mountain bike rack vs. Jaguar: PH Videoblog
Saturday 21st January 2017
With a thriving Pedal Powered forum and several of us here at PH mad into cycling, the combination of cars and bicycles isn't quite as incongruous as you might think. Same in the car industry, engineers like Andreas Preuninger, seemingly all of the guys at BMW M and many, many more as ready to talk push bikes as they are cars over dinner on press launches.
From fast estate cars to big pick-ups there are plenty of four-wheeled options for carting your bikes to nice places to ride them too, the added bonus being that the best places to do that are often accessed by some stellar drives. With a little creativity you can squeeze a bike on - or in - some surprisingly small and/or sporty cars too - here at PH we've fit a downhill mountain bike into a Toyota GT86, road bikes into Ferrari FFs and more besides. With all those spiky/oily/muddy bits it's not always ideal though, hence our keenness to try out the Sea Sucker Talon bike rack, a suction-mounted set-up that has the potential to combine your two- and four-wheeled loves and help you get the most of that valuable weekend 'me' time.
Mountain bike vs. Jaguar: PH Videoblog
You can't fit a bike in an F-Type - would you really stick it on with suction cups though?
Would you really trust a bike worth potentially several grand on paintwork worth many more to a simple suction cup? The Talon comes in at a reassuringly expensive £349.99 and with all manner of comforting testimonies from happy customers willing to share their exploits on the @Sea_Sucker Instagram feed. On it you'll see bikes stuck to R8s, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, McLarens, GT-Rs, 911s and more besides. Suitably inspired we wanted to try it out for ourselves. And so Dan took his precious Orange Five mountain bike, his much-loved Jaguar F-Type S Coupe long-termer and set out to see if Sea Sucker really could bring them together in a match made in heaven...
Watch the video here
 |
 |
 |
 |
Discussion
Interesting video, looks like a very easy solution. I see 'your' F-Type has the carbon roof, I'd be somewhat nervous about doing this with the glass panoramic roof.
I had an older V6S press car and my photographer attached his long boom to the glass roof via suckers and the glass cracked. Worth thinking about if you have a glass roofed car!
I had an older V6S press car and my photographer attached his long boom to the glass roof via suckers and the glass cracked. Worth thinking about if you have a glass roofed car!
I have one of these for my F-Type R. I specced the correct roof (the panoramic glass roof - extra cabin light, two tone roof look, black roof look) rather than the wrong roof (carbon roof - cost!, weight saving?!) ;-).
Its plenty strong enough for the suckers and the perfect material for a good seal. The other advantage is that when the suckers are fixed I can glance up through the roof and see the seal indicators are still good, which is re-assuring.
I've had no trouble with mine - it's so easy to fit. Great bit of kit. I drove back from Yorkshire with my bike on top in the lashing rain and it was perfectly fine - all seals still fully pressurized at the end of my journey. My main concern is remembering to corner carefully as I think this is when there is most strain is put across the setup, but having said that I've not any problems.
Its plenty strong enough for the suckers and the perfect material for a good seal. The other advantage is that when the suckers are fixed I can glance up through the roof and see the seal indicators are still good, which is re-assuring.
I've had no trouble with mine - it's so easy to fit. Great bit of kit. I drove back from Yorkshire with my bike on top in the lashing rain and it was perfectly fine - all seals still fully pressurized at the end of my journey. My main concern is remembering to corner carefully as I think this is when there is most strain is put across the setup, but having said that I've not any problems.
I have used Sea Suckers for the best part of 3 years now on varios cars (Aston V12V, GT3 RS and even my wife 596 Abarth convertible - using the rear window) and I have never had a problem. Bikes don't weigh that much (less than 10 kgs so the load on the roof or the rear window is not that huge but remember to take off all the bits and pieces that constitute too much wind resistance and check that the suction is still "on" by observing the valves frequently (they show an orange colour if they need a top up) but my experience is 100% secure so far.
MattTypeR said:
My main concern is remembering to corner carefully as I think this is when there is most strain is put across the setup, but having said that I've not any problems.
I suppose you could get another suckers and attach a rod between it and the bike if you were going somewhere twisty and wanted some extra coverage... Seems like an elegant solution though.I've had a Sea Sucker for about two years after I bought my Fiesta ST. The Ford/Thule bar options were extremely expensive, fugly, and massively complex.
The company does not recommend attaching it to glass sunroofs, but I guess a fixed panoramic would be fine. I've carried MTBs and my carbon road whippet all over the place. I don't drive like a nut as, let's face it, your bike is attached to the car only by a lack of air, but the thing's never budged an inch.
It helps if the bodywork is moist (better seal), but not howling damp, so I keep a cloth in the box - this also helps keep your suction area clean. The cups are delicate and live in protective casings, because if they get damaged, they easily lose suction. In fact removing the thing from the roof is somewhat alarming in how easy it is.
Which leads to my biggest problem with the things - they are NOT attached to the car, which makes it easy to nick the bikes. So no service station stops. My old Audi had Thule bars which were lockable. Wouldn't have stopped a determined thief, but maybe slowed them down a bit. I can remove this rack from the car in about five seconds. There are some cable lock bits available, but they seem to involve a trap bar in the door frame and a cable - neither of which will do the paint any good.
The only other niggle is, depending on the bike and the shape of your roof (you must attach the front frame close to the top of the windscreen), it can bring your pedals within striking distance of the roof. To be safe, I cable tie the crank of the bike to its chainstay.
If you can live with the security aspect, these things are ideal. You can go from having a rack to not having a rack in, no joke, seconds and the thing fits in a small box when not on the car as opposed to the full roof rails/bars option.
I have, for a joke, fitted it to my S1 Elise - but it has to go backwards, which is not ideal for the stresses involved, and is part suckered to the bonnet hatch. I would not drive it like this.
The company does not recommend attaching it to glass sunroofs, but I guess a fixed panoramic would be fine. I've carried MTBs and my carbon road whippet all over the place. I don't drive like a nut as, let's face it, your bike is attached to the car only by a lack of air, but the thing's never budged an inch.
It helps if the bodywork is moist (better seal), but not howling damp, so I keep a cloth in the box - this also helps keep your suction area clean. The cups are delicate and live in protective casings, because if they get damaged, they easily lose suction. In fact removing the thing from the roof is somewhat alarming in how easy it is.
Which leads to my biggest problem with the things - they are NOT attached to the car, which makes it easy to nick the bikes. So no service station stops. My old Audi had Thule bars which were lockable. Wouldn't have stopped a determined thief, but maybe slowed them down a bit. I can remove this rack from the car in about five seconds. There are some cable lock bits available, but they seem to involve a trap bar in the door frame and a cable - neither of which will do the paint any good.
The only other niggle is, depending on the bike and the shape of your roof (you must attach the front frame close to the top of the windscreen), it can bring your pedals within striking distance of the roof. To be safe, I cable tie the crank of the bike to its chainstay.
If you can live with the security aspect, these things are ideal. You can go from having a rack to not having a rack in, no joke, seconds and the thing fits in a small box when not on the car as opposed to the full roof rails/bars option.
I have, for a joke, fitted it to my S1 Elise - but it has to go backwards, which is not ideal for the stresses involved, and is part suckered to the bonnet hatch. I would not drive it like this.
hornbaek said:
I have used Sea Suckers for the best part of 3 years now on varios cars (Aston V12V, GT3 RS and even my wife 596 Abarth convertible - using the rear window) and I have never had a problem. Bikes don't weigh that much (less than 10 kgs so the load on the roof or the rear window is not that huge but remember to take off all the bits and pieces that constitute too much wind resistance and check that the suction is still "on" by observing the valves frequently (they show an orange colour if they need a top up) but my experience is 100% secure so far.
What you think about little bit more heavier bikes? I have an almost 15 kilos enduro machine, would be ok to carry with this? Edit: And i have an aluminium roof, i wonder does thing work with it?
nickfrog said:
Hold on. It is possible to be both a keen cyclist AND a keen driver ?
The worst people I know are ignorant drivers AND ignorant cyclists - they literally complain constantly about cyclists until they are one when their behaviour is justified as 'all other cyclists do it so I do...'LasseV said:
hornbaek said:
I have used Sea Suckers for the best part of 3 years now on varios cars (Aston V12V, GT3 RS and even my wife 596 Abarth convertible - using the rear window) and I have never had a problem. Bikes don't weigh that much (less than 10 kgs so the load on the roof or the rear window is not that huge but remember to take off all the bits and pieces that constitute too much wind resistance and check that the suction is still "on" by observing the valves frequently (they show an orange colour if they need a top up) but my experience is 100% secure so far.
What you think about little bit more heavier bikes? I have an almost 15 kilos enduro machine, would be ok to carry with this? Edit: And i have an aluminium roof, i wonder does thing work with it?
Sucker systems are used in the building industry to secure glass window panes to hoists/cranes, and are good for lifting many tonnes at a time. I think the strength is far in excess of what is required. the weak point is probably mounting weight directly to a roof skin - Roof bars spread the load over a wider area designed for them.
I'm sure there are some cars out there that might suffer roof denting.
I'm sure there are some cars out there that might suffer roof denting.
hornbaek said:
LasseV said:
hornbaek said:
I have used Sea Suckers for the best part of 3 years now on varios cars (Aston V12V, GT3 RS and even my wife 596 Abarth convertible - using the rear window) and I have never had a problem. Bikes don't weigh that much (less than 10 kgs so the load on the roof or the rear window is not that huge but remember to take off all the bits and pieces that constitute too much wind resistance and check that the suction is still "on" by observing the valves frequently (they show an orange colour if they need a top up) but my experience is 100% secure so far.
What you think about little bit more heavier bikes? I have an almost 15 kilos enduro machine, would be ok to carry with this? Edit: And i have an aluminium roof, i wonder does thing work with it?
As for roof denting, the company says to attach to the front of the roof near the windscreen to avoid this issue. My ST doesn't even deform with 14kgs of Orange 5 on it, and that's made of tin foil...
king cyclists, all w
It does look like a well designed bit of kit, but extremely expensive for what is essentially a couple of triple-sucker pads.
As a very keen mountain biker myself, who travels 100+ miles each way every weekend to ride, I can't help thinking .... who in their right mind, would use a 50 grand car, to go mountain biking ?
If you can afford a 50 grand motor, and a 4 grand bike, then surely you can buy a £500 shed to use just for bike transport. That way you can have the bike safely either inside the car (or cheap van), or on a tow-bar mount. Also you can drive back covered in mud without destroying said 50 grand car's posh interior ?
I personally use a Thule tow-bar mount, as any roof mounted carriers in the past have made my mpg shoot up (wind resistance) and been extremely noisy.
As a very keen mountain biker myself, who travels 100+ miles each way every weekend to ride, I can't help thinking .... who in their right mind, would use a 50 grand car, to go mountain biking ?
If you can afford a 50 grand motor, and a 4 grand bike, then surely you can buy a £500 shed to use just for bike transport. That way you can have the bike safely either inside the car (or cheap van), or on a tow-bar mount. Also you can drive back covered in mud without destroying said 50 grand car's posh interior ?
I personally use a Thule tow-bar mount, as any roof mounted carriers in the past have made my mpg shoot up (wind resistance) and been extremely noisy.
Nik Gnashers said:
It does look like a well designed bit of kit, but extremely expensive for what is essentially a couple of triple-sucker pads.
As a very keen mountain biker myself, who travels 100+ miles each way every weekend to ride, I can't help thinking .... who in their right mind, would use a 50 grand car, to go mountain biking ?
If you can afford a 50 grand motor, and a 4 grand bike, then surely you can buy a £500 shed to use just for bike transport. That way you can have the bike safely either inside the car (or cheap van), or on a tow-bar mount. Also you can drive back covered in mud without destroying said 50 grand car's posh interior ?
I personally use a Thule tow-bar mount, as any roof mounted carriers in the past have made my mpg shoot up (wind resistance) and been extremely noisy.
Completely agree, over the years I've tried various racks (saris bones, thule tailgate clamp, thule roof bar mounted carriers, thule tow bar mounted carrier) but I've come to realise that the tow bar mounted racks are the only way to go for covering serious distance without worry, especially for heavy mountain bikes. Low COG, no massive wind resistance penalty, easy to lift bikes on and off, can easily be secured.As a very keen mountain biker myself, who travels 100+ miles each way every weekend to ride, I can't help thinking .... who in their right mind, would use a 50 grand car, to go mountain biking ?
If you can afford a 50 grand motor, and a 4 grand bike, then surely you can buy a £500 shed to use just for bike transport. That way you can have the bike safely either inside the car (or cheap van), or on a tow-bar mount. Also you can drive back covered in mud without destroying said 50 grand car's posh interior ?
I personally use a Thule tow-bar mount, as any roof mounted carriers in the past have made my mpg shoot up (wind resistance) and been extremely noisy.
If your only car is a sports car that no other rack will fit, then the sea sucker will do the job, but you cannot really enjoy driving a twisty road in a performance car with bikes on the roof anyway.
I remember the last car I used a roof mounted rack on was a WRX, and made several trips to Wales with up to 3 mtb's on the roof. The best part of 45kgs that high up on the roof had a huge impact dynamically not to mention the wind resistance, which meant spirited driving was out of the question. I'd have been travelling just as fast in a van, using less fuel in the process, but the cost of running a van just for MTB transport, was and still is a luxury too far for me!
Edited by Motormatt on Thursday 19th January 17:56
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff