A Bike on the Highway

It was a beautiful weekend, and my significant other Kristine and I were headed out to her aunt’s house, northwest of Rochester, for a picnic on Lake Ontario. Paddleboats, pasta salad, and Tofurkey sausages awaited us, and we decided to use Kristine’s car to get there.

Kristine keeps a bike rack on her car pretty much all the time. Pretty cool, huh? When she came to pick me up, we decided to strap my commuter bike onto the rack so I’d have it later in the day to get home. It’s one of the most highly utilized and valued material items in my life, so I carefully fastened it in. The front wheel tends to flop around a bit during the drive so I loosely tied it to the rack with a nylon strap.

We started our journey on Rochester’s highways, headed through the city on 490 then taking 390 North towards the lake. The bike was shaking around a bit on the rack, and we joked about it getting away, but I wasn’t overly concerned.

I don’t remember exactly what I was talking about at the moment that it happened, but my words were interrupted by a shout from Kristine - “ADAM, YOUR BIKE JUST FELL OFF THE RACK!” She had been looking at it in the rear-view mirror and watched as it lifted off the rack and disappeared from view.

I looked back in horror. Indeed, my bike was gone. As Kristine started to pull over, I tried to spot the bike on the expanse of the highway, and could see nothing. I feared that it would cause an accident. I got ready to sprint down the highway shoulder. I felt like crying.

As Kristine’s car came to a stop, I jumped out and ran around to the back. And there was my bike, attached to the back of the car by a single nylon strap around the front wheel. The loose strap had dragged it at 55 miles per hour. The seat, right-side pedal, back basket, and front fender took the brunt of the road rash. The bike remained in perfectly rideable condition.

My severe lack in proficiency with fastening the bike to the rack with the supplied rubber fasteners was made up for by my knot tying skills and distaste for a front wheel that flaps in the wind. Kristine was visibly shaking after the incident. From now on, I’ll pull those bike rack straps extra tight.

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