My Home Made Thule 561 Bike Carrier

Update 17 October 2013 Bit of an update here:My home made Thule 561 more details

Updated 15 June 2013

I am fortunate to have a number of bikes over the years and have bought various racks and carriers to carry them on a car. I initially bought something similar to this (the rack not the bike!):

Halfords "middle of the range" roof carrier

The one I have is (looks) a bit better than this and in fact I have 2 of these. Its a quite high quality aluminium extrusion with a down tube clamping arrangement, which is lockable. The wheels are secured using self-locking cable straps much like pedal toe-clip straps. The frame clamp is a light weight steel tube.

Advantages of this type of rack are that the bike remains assembled whilst being carried and the down tube clamp provides a degree of stability

Disadvantages are

• the bike is very tall when trying to fit to the rack - it was almost impossible on a Land Rover Freelander 2
• the down tube clamp could provide more lateral stability and would be better if the base was wider to give more triangulation
• for fat down tubes the clamp needs to be dis-assembled before it will go round the tube and then needs re-assembly once held around which is very difficult one-handed
• the overall height of the vehicle becomes very tall once a bike is fitted

I also have something similar to this (not quite the same as mine is older):

 

The reason for getting one of these was that about 12 years ago I was lucky to start having company cars. The scheme I am on is fantastic and means that typically I don't keep a car for much more than 6 months, and I have a wide choice of vehicles (from 2 manufacturers). A down side to this (if there is such a thing!) is that its expensive to keep up with roof bars for all these cars and the days of a universal gutter mounting roof bar are long gone - all modern cars need a special fitting system. As such a tail gate system is a better compromise and fitted all the cars I had. However I was never that confidant about the overall robustness (especially with plastic bumpers) and always used some extra rope for belt and braces through the tailgate hinge to the bike.

In the end, because I wanted to transport my Focus Cayo and did not trust the tailgate rack for an expensive bike I bit the bullet and bought some "quality" roof bars - some Thule ones to be precise for a Freelander 2 I had at that time. I duly had a trial fitting of the bars - I can see why they cost more as they fit really well and securely and fitted my Focus to the roof with one of the Halfords roof carriers as above. I was less than impressed.

I was concerned about the clamping arrangement for the frame - the frame is quite a large diameter which meant that the clamp was awkward to fit and then I was nervous about how much clamp load to apply to secure the bike as it moved more than I wanted even when I had reached the maximum load I felt comfortable with for the clamp. In reality I know that carbon fibre frames are very strong, but a down tube clamp load is not what they are designed for.

The solution for this was a relatively easy solution to get a Thule 561 Cycle Carrier

This is an excellent piece of equipment and is, of the 3 bike carriers I have, by far the best system for carrying a bike. Almost all of the load of holding the bike to the rack is done by the quick release clamp through the front fork. As this part of the bike is designed for high loading then there is no issue with this. The retention strap for the rear wheel is really only to stop the wheel bouncing. The carrier is also very simple and quick to fit to the roof bars. Both fixing points to the roof bar have an adjustable over-centre clamp. The rear clamp is just clamped, but the front is lockable, as is the fork clamp.

I have found with experience that you do need to do these really quite tight or the rack will move slightly.

Once the roof bars are on the roof it takes no more that 10 minutes to fit the 561 and bike and secure it all. It really is excellent.

After a couple of years and the growing interest of my son in cycling it became more necessary to get a second quality carrier like the 561. The easy option would have been to just buy a 2nd one, however being an engineer and having something to start from I felt that I could make one using one of the Halfords units as a starting point. So this is what I did.

The Mark 1

The original plan was to make some form of quick release fork mounting mechanism using a spare front axle that I would fix to the aluminium channel of the Halfords unit. I had given this some thought and had in my mind a fabricated solution of some sort. It needed to be fabricated as I don't have access to either machine tools or any welding equipment, and although my father does have some machines and a gas torch welder these are not easily accessible. Therefore the plan was to make something using various angle and box sections.

However another project I was working on had involved some improvements to my garage and as part of this was thinking about some secure bike racking. Whilst searching for this I came across the following from Saris:

This was exactly what I had been looking for and at £16.99 from Chain Reaction Cycles was cheap enough to take a punt at.

Having acquired the most complex piece rather than having to make it I was enthused to actually finish the project. The plan was to use a rectangular section fixed to the aluminium extrusion and then mount the Saris clamp to that section. Here is a photo of it completed to show the aim.

End-on view of mount showing construction

Another view to show construction

Another View

Overhead view

Side View

The aluminium was order via an eBay supplier. I got a 500mm length of the rectangular section cut in 3 pieces (2 off 125mm and 1 off 250mm) and some 5mm aluminium plate - a 250mm square cut into 2 off 125mm square and a 125x250mm piece. The reason for the definition of the sizes is that 2 cuts were included in the price. The section was sawn and the plate guillotined, and the sizes were within 0.5mm. I was very happy with the material and the service and would use the supplier again.

This all looked great and worked in the garage. However when fitted to the car a problem came to light. The way the the end of the carrier is fitted to the roof bars is via a metal pressing that rests in the bottom of the V of the section. In normal use this clamp is the rear of the carrier and takes no load, whilst the other end is clamped with a more stiff structure (not shown).

Here is a couple of pictures that sort of show how the rack is clamped at one end - the end I added my new design to:

Given that this end is normally just having the rear wheel sitting in it its a more that suitable design. My design however had the front forks mounted here which put all the side forces onto the extrusion which was not supported

As a result the highest load from the bike is through my new additions, and the design had no stiffness where needed.I t was quite unfit for purpose and a complete redesign was required.

This led to the mark 2 version:


Here are some pictures of a much more substantial version that is fit for purpose.

It was used to bring back one of my sons bikes from Exeter University. 150+ motorway miles with very strong winds proved to be no problem - the bike was securely held and I was very happy


More words to follow describing the reasons for the redesign strategy at a later date.

The Mark 2 version - end on view

The Mark 2 version - side view

The Mark 2 version - another end on view

The Mark 2 version - yet another end on view

The Mark 2 version - another side view

The Mark 2 version - end on view

Sussex Ride - Sunday 26 May 2103

Part of the deal for taking my wife down to Sussex was that I would do a little riding. Box Hill was one of the planned rides and the other was to ride from where ever we were staying to Billingshurst to visit her sister. We ended up staying on Fontwell just round the corner from the racecourse so Billingshurst was about 20-25 miles depending on the route. However the choice of route was difficult as many of the roads in the area are very busy - much more so than the Midlands. I used Garmin Connect to create a route for my Garmin 800 (I have ended up using this as I find it the most slick and easy to get a turn-by-turn route into the Garmin although other sites do some mapping functions better) and just went for it - no looking at Strava for segments to ride - just a ride on what looked like the smaller roads.

This was the route I ended up with:




It turned out to be, with a few miles exception a fantastic route. I have hardly ever done so before but I stopped about midway to take a few photos on my phone:

It was a very pleasant ride with beautiful weather - and I even picked up a top 10 place!

Ditchling Beacon - Monday 27 May 2103

Flushed with success with my Box Hill exploits 2 days before and still being in the South of England (West Sussex to be precise rather than Surrey) I managed to find and make some time to do Ditchling Beacon. We drove along the A27 and across to the top of the Beacon from Fontwell and parked. I put my bike together and basically rode to the bottom, turned round and rode back up, and then repeated.

4.4 miles, 980 feet of climbing in total:

Here is the profile:

I was very dismissive of Box Hill but Ditchling Beacon was tough, the 6/10 rating was probably fair in 100 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs. It was hard work without any warm up at all. The descent was very fast and the road narrow with some quite sharp turns (or sharp at 30+mph), so with traffic it was not possible to really get up to much speed.

On the first descent I rode along for a further couple of hundred meters or so before turning round, dropping onto the 34 ring and selecting the 19 gear on the cassette. I shifted up to the 21 gear and got most of the way up before using the 24. I think I managed to avoid the 28 on the first climb.

On the 2nd climb I needed a gear lower in most places (legs felling pretty lactic acid laden and puffing and panting a bit due to no warm up) and needed the 28 for the last 100m or so. I was thwarted a bit on the 2nd climb as two cars struggled to get past a couple of cyclists and I felt I lost about 5 seconds max.

On both ascents I passed a couple of other riders and again was not passed. However there were very few riders compared to Box Hill.

Its a pretty constant 7-8% gradient, and the road seemed to have been been recently resurfaced as it was very smooth and even making worrying about dodging the potholes unnecessary.

My wife even took a few photos of me (breaking rule Rule #17)

Holding the traffic up!

Almost at the top

I have ridden Ditchling Beacon once before but probably more than 26-27 years ago when I rode the London to Brighton ride with a group from my employers at the time. However that far ago I had a quite different bike, and I know that I was unable to ride the hill due to the sheer number of other riders. I also remember having several punctures that caused a load of grief

Col de Box Hill - Saturday 25 May 2013

Box Hill - it is spoken with reverence and hallowed tones amongst the cycling fraternity. The long, almost Alpine like ascent, the sheer level of ascent, the views, a challenge so tough that it struck fear into the Olympic Road Race participants. Its been called the Alpe d'Huez of the South even. Given this description I felt that when an opportunity arose to take on this immense challenge that I just could not turn it down.

And its climb #14 in 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs - I have not done many of the climbs in this book (I have done #1 - Cheddar Gorge (Wiggle Mendips Sportive in 2011), #98 - Rhigos and #99 The Bwlch - although not quite all of it! Both of the latter were on the 2010 Dragon Ride). The book says that the surface was not great but as part of the "Olympic Legacy" for me the surface was absolutely fantastic - clearly resurfaced only for the race. The other roads that I rode in the vicinity were pretty normal - i.e. average to dreadful!

I was taking my wife down to visit some of her family and also to visit a joint friend of ours who I went to university with and was my best man. From the Midlands the route to Sussex is M40, M25 and A24 and Box Hill sits just on the A24 so an opportunity too good to miss. I put the bike in the car and we headed off. The M40 was as normal no issue but the M25 was its typical pain taking us an hour to get from the M40 junction round to the A24 exit. This put us a little behind schedule. We managed to park at the Rykers Cafe at the bottom and after a quick change and minor re-assembly of the bike off I went. Some pre-checking of segments around Box Hill had shown there was a loop of about 8 miles that would avoid just hill reps and see a little more of Surrey - this is this segment: BoxHill Ballbreaker. I planned to ride this loop twice and do a 3rd final climb and then turn around giving me about 18-19 miles and 3 ascents in about 1 hour - after all my wife would be sitting in the car at the cafe so I could not and did not want too spend too long. I also programmed the route (1 loop) into my Garmin so I could just ride and not bother about trying to navigate

The main problem with the route was that Rykers Cafe is literally 100-200 metres from the start of Zig Zag Road which is the Box Hill climb so I knew that I had to be sensible on the first climb and not blow up through being completely cold and with no warm up. I did cycle down to the A24 from the car park exit to add in about 200 more meters but there was no way that this would be anything like enough to warm up properly, so was in the little front ring from the word go.

Turning onto Zig Zag road was a little exciting - I recognised lots of bits from the Olympic coverage and it was full of cyclists. For that first climb it was difficult to know quite what gear to be in. My legs felt fresh and felt like I needed a higher gear, but I resisted and stayed in 34-19 for the run to the first hairpin. Up to the first bend its mostly straight but there are some very small curves of a few degrees from the straight ahead and the gradient is reasonably flat, with a slight kick up to the first bend. The first bend is quite wide and easy to negotiate - its not really a hairpin at all. There is then a short straight section with an almost constant gradient to the second hairpin which really is a hairpin - very tight and with a noticeable height change across the corner. This is followed by another straight of constant gradient until a final 90degree right turn and short (100-200m) climb to the cafe at top. And that's it.

1.6 miles long, 410 feet of ascent and an average grade of 5%. Its only 3/10 in the 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs.

The first climb I did in 8:01, the second in 7:50 and the final one in 7:58. Disappointing that there was not a bigger improvement from the first climb but re-assuringly consistent. What is absurd that in this shot ride I got 55 achievements! For Box Hill alone there are about a dozen segments at least! And the number of riders is amazing compared to where I normally ride.

This Segment has 9017 riders and has been ridden 49551 times. I came 2709th.
This Segment has 8085 riders and has been ridden 39818 times. I came 1647th.

Here is the Strava elevation profile for my ride showing that it is made up of 98% segments:

And so it goes on.

For me I was pleased to be in the top 1/3rd to top 1/4. This is about the best I could hope for. I would have been disappointed to be in the lower half.

On the day I rode no one passed be on any of the 3 climbs and I passed a reasonable number of people.

I mentioned the sheer number of people riding the segments compared to in the Midlands. There were literally hundreds of people going up, coming down or sitting at the Cafes at the top and bottom. It was like riding a sportive with so many people about. A lot of people looked like they had ridden down from London or up from Surrey and Sussex. I may have had an advantage on my climbs with hardly any miles in my legs compared to some of these people to be fair.

I spent a lot of the space above talking about Box Hill but the loop around from the top back to the bottom of Zig Zag road was equally pleasant - and there were hardly any other cyclists here - they obviously mostly only come to ride the hill itself but I fully recommend the loop that I rode (it was not the Olympic route though)

Here are some pictures of Box Hill from other peoples pages.

First Hairpin

The Second hairpin

The Long Straight (looking down)

The Long Straight (looking up) with the fresh graffiti

The picture showing the writing on the road - there was lots of support for Mark Cavendish shows it freshly painted but it is all still readable. It was quite exciting!

Longest Ride of the Year so far

For Sunday 19 May Noel suggested that we ride to Evesham. Its quite a long round trip for us ~65 miles or so so almost 4 hours on a slow day. I asked that we start at 8.30 so I was not too late home - my wife is still recuperating and disappearing all morning is not something I want to be doing too often at the moment.

Come 8.30 Sunday the weather was bright sunshine with almost no wind. It was not quite warm enough that early for short sleeves so I wore my arm warmers with the aim of not needing them for too long. They came off at Great Alne.

Our route to Evesham from Solihull is Earlswood, Tanworth In Arden, Ullenhall, Little Alne, Great Alne, Alcester, Arrow, Bidford on Avon, Cleeve Prior and then Evesham. The return leg is Harvington, Dunnington, Cookhill, Astwood Bank and then Tardebigge, Alvechurch and Wythall.

The route is here:


Evesham is at 35 miles and is down hill all the way:

Unfortunately what goes down must go up and the drag back is tiring - especially as an imperceptible tailwind became a noticeable headwind back.

Noel's "plod" down was at a much higher pace than I had expected and we had 18.4mph by the time we got to Evesham. As Noel set the pace down I had had quite a sheltered ride so took my turn at the front for the return run. The first small climb out of Evesham was far tougher than I had expected and I knew then that we were in for a tough ride. Evesham to Astwood Bank is a long drag almost always with an incline and is very tiring. The other problem is that from Astwood Bank there is no easy way back without a noticeable climb somewhere. I managed to keep an adequate pace back at ~16-17mph to Astwood Bank but we both dropped the pace off to Scarfield Hill, and I spent several miles in the little (wimp) front ring to take the load off my legs around Ham Green and Elcocks Brook and save some energy for Weatheroak Hill. Weatheroak Hill proved to be as hard as ever after ~60 miles, but knowing that that this was the last climb once we crested the top we got some pace in back home.

This was the longest ride this year - I had not done more than 50 miles so far and I really felt it for the last 10-15 miles and for a few hours afterwards. At 133.3 miles for the week it is also (just) the highest mileage for a week this year as well, so a reasonable achievement.

This year has proven to nothing like the previous 3 years mileage - I am about 500 miles down compared to these years, but given the weather and my wife's illness I have not done badly. I think that 5000 miles this year will be a very hard challenge unless we have an excellent summer and mild and dry autumn and winter. We'll have to see.

More High Gear Work

Today I had planned to ride a reasonable distance - the first 50+ mile ride of the year. However, 2 things conspired to prevent this. Firstly Noel cried off at the last minute due to an over indulgence of alcohol the night before and secondly the weather forecast that the night before indicated rain at about 1pm now suggested rain at 10am. I had planned to ride down to Alcester and Ragley Hall and then loop back but I didn't want to be 1½ hrs from home in rain. Instead I chose to ride to Alvecurch and do the 3 "climbs" out of Alvechurch. I'd then decide whether to return back via Beoley or try something on the Lickeys like Rose Hill or the Fiery Hill ascent. 

The route is here:

I climbed the Grange Lane route first as I find this the hardest, then descended Scarfield Hill, up Coopers Hill, back down Grange Lane, back up Scarfield Hill and then down Coopers Hill. Grange Lane needed 2nd gear but I climbed both Scarfield Hill and Coopers Hill in 3rd without too much pain. It was reasonably windy but the climbs shielded me from any direct headwind.

Feeling OK and with the weather still holding I rode to the Lickeys and took the Feiry Hill / Twatling Road route. Again 3rd gear was OK for Fiery Hill and I was in 4th/5th for Twatling Road. A fast descent of Rose Hill followed and then it was generally a tail wind home - in fact it was clearly a monster tail wind home from looking at the Strava results:

There was a 20 sec improvement on "Bunbury-Middleton Rd", 21 sec improvement on "Cartland Rd Hill" and a 9 sec improvement on "Yardley Wood Station Sprint". The wind was a factor, as was the increased mileage recently, but I was in probably a higher gear than I would have been a month or so ago - so I am still pleased with the performance
 

Downfall - Cycling Version

Downfall is an excellent film - I am quite interested in WW2 history and I thought the film tackled a difficult topic in an appropriate manner.

However there is one scene in the film that has been spoofed many times for many different themes. Here's 2 of my favourites:

Espresso Ride Meeting

Hitler Loses all of his KOMs on Strava

"I had the highest suffer score for men of my age group" !!!

"I guess we should not tell him it was a seniors group ride" !!!

"... this makes me just a cycling enthusiast" !!!