As our friends at BikeRadar.com noted last week “Roof rack reminders could save your bike,” because we either have done it or know someone who has done it – driving into the garage with the bike on the roof of the car. The result is never pretty for the garage, the car and especially the bike. As the spring riding season is coming up, US Editor Matt Pacocha offered a piece that looked at a range of products designed to remind those with bicycle roof-racks that the bike is up there.
The most complex is the HeadsUp System, which includes tags on your bicycle and a wall mounted LED sign and alarm system. This could be seen as the gold standard for protecting your bicycle from a sudden memory loss. If that sounds like overkill, the next option is an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app from RackReminder that that can be programmed to know the position of your garage and can go off when you get close. A more basic reminder is a single “Bikes on Roof” hangtag that goes on the mirror. A final suggest is just to put a garbage can or something in the garage to remind you not to pull in.
Now to us there are a couple of problems with these. The first two are only good if you are returning to your garage and won’t work if you’re going under a low bridge, an auto canopy at the bank or a drive-through restaurant, while the hangtag could be something that just blends into the scenery.
But anything that can save a bike, car and garage from such a traumatic experience doesn’t sound bad to us!
[Via BikeRadar.com: Roof rack reminders could save your bike]