am i damaging bike hauling it like this?

[vincent]

noticed a few days ago that i could see bearings falling out on my front suspension/headtube area

ravi kindly told me this means i need headtube bearings repaired

took it to the shop and had that done

but was thinking about how i have been hauling the bike some on the back off my flatbed truck and that maybe being pushed up against the rack with pressure on the handlebars could have caused the problem, the bike only has 200-300 miles i think....

i have it on here with bungee cords, it is pretty tightly secured against the rack

anytime i haul the bike like this it will be riding 65-100 miles around town with me

any thoughts would be appreciated

there...


anyway i ask the shop but they did not think it was problem to haul it that way, thought i would ask you guys just to be safe

 

[harryS]

More likely, your headset was shipped to you a bit loose, and 200 miles of riding beat the bearings til they fell out of their races.

 

[J.R.]

If this is how you normally strap your bike down and if where the arrow points is where the bearings opened? I would suggest you not hook the handlebar over the top like it is in the pic. With the handlebar being stationary, every bump you hit will pull on the head-tube/fork to create space. In addition you have bungee cords pulling the bike in, that also will work to help create that space, causing the bearing fail. It could also be the fork wasn't properly torqued in the frame, head-tube.

I would at least unhook the bar from the top, that should relieve the pulling effect.

 

[vincent]

thanks guys

jr think that pic is misleading , it sits just about the top of the rack but i dont pull it over that
believe there is no pressure upward..

but it is still sitting on the truck and i will check
even if it is not actually sitting on the rack it is possible that going up and down some on the road could do what you described i would think

blah, thinking about trying to modify that thule gator truck bed holder or maybe mount some kind of roof rack on the flatbed..
any ideas?

the truck is already so big and long hate to add more length with the 1up rack
plus it is pretty quick and fast to put it on this truck like this

 

[vincent]

checked the bike and the handlebar is not sitting on the top of the rack at all, it has a good 4 inches clearance, the pic just did not show it right
there is no way it has any upward pressure

the pressure is from the side where i put the arrow , still think that would be a problem?