# So You Think Your 1Up Rack is Secure?



## Ted (Jan 29, 2004)

After my ride today I went to load up my nice carbon bike and my 1Up broke. See the photos below (I hope they come through). Actually a bolt broke as you can see. If it had happened while I was driving my bike would have hit the road. I am very upset about this and am looking for ways to make the rack more secure. Any ideas?

The rack is 3 months old. The bolt had never been tightened by me (the only owner/user). I don't know why a bolt is used at all. It is not supposed to be tightened down; it is just a pivot. A pin should have been used with a keeper or at least a shoulder bolt. 

Sign me concerned,

Ted

PS: I have sent this same concern to 1Up.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

Nothing is perfect. There are those that have had the T2 brackets that wrap around the main bar (coming out of the receiver) break, and they are admittedly somewhat thin. Hopefully they make it right.


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## racerwad (Sep 17, 2005)

Ted said:


> After my ride today I went to load up my nice carbon bike and my 1Up broke. See the photos below (I hope they come through). Actually a bolt broke as you can see. If it had happened while I was driving my bike would have hit the road. I am very upset about this and am looking for ways to make the rack more secure. Any ideas?
> 
> The rack is 3 months old. The bolt had never been tightened by me (the only owner/user). I don't know why a bolt is used at all. It is not supposed to be tightened down; it is just a pivot. A pin should have been used with a keeper or at least a shoulder bolt.
> 
> ...


That sucks. I'm glad it didn't occur at a time when you might have lost your bike. As Jayem said, nothing is perfect. It's a mechanical device. Parts fail. 
I'm just glad you didn't lose your bike.

1up will take care of you though. I had a similar failure and they sent me all the parts I needed to fixed it no questions asked. They even offered to sent me a box and pre-paid shipping label to repair it themselves. I didn't want to deal with the additional downtime and it wasn't that bad but it was nice that they offered.


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## rustybkr (Mar 30, 2010)

Rack looks pretty rough for three months ? Do they all age like that, or is it because its black?


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## kntr (Jan 25, 2004)

rustybkr said:


> Rack looks pretty rough for three months ? Do they all age like that, or is it because its black?


Im wondering the same thing.

Do you leave it on all the time in the winter?

My T2 is 10+ years old and looks brand new.


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## thickfog (Oct 29, 2010)

Bolts break in all sorts of mechanical devices. Many times. Could have been a bad bolt.
A pin instead? No way. Sloppy and noisy. A shoulder bolt... Yes.


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## kntr (Jan 25, 2004)

Or take your rack off when not in use.


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## Ted (Jan 29, 2004)

I keep it on all of the time except when I am washing the car (I don't actually wash it, I take it to the car wash). We don't get much weather here in the south bay area. I never clean the rack. If I were to wipe it down it would look like new.

I don't expect an unstressed pivot to break. The bolt is just there as an axle for the pivot. It is not tightened down. That is why there is a Nylock nut on it. A pin would work better assuming it was strong.


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## thickfog (Oct 29, 2010)

There's no good way to keep the pin tight enough to prevent rattling and slop. How would you secure the pin? This is a perfect area for a shoulder bolt, the plastic washer and nyloc nut.


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## racerwad (Sep 17, 2005)

Ted said:


> I keep it on all of the time except when I am washing the car (I don't actually wash it, I take it to the car wash). We don't get much weather here in the south bay area. I never clean the rack. If I were to wipe it down it would look like new.
> *
> I don't expect an unstressed pivot to break.* The bolt is just there as an axle for the pivot. It is not tightened down. That is why there is a Nylock nut on it. A pin would work better assuming it was strong.


You've said this a couple of times but I don't think that it's totally accurate. That pivot point is the only place that the friction from the locking arm gets transmitted to the "bike retention arms." That bolt is probably under a decent amount of shear force. I agree that in a perfect world it shouldn't break but I wouldn't assume it's just sitting there. I lost one of the bolts that holds the arms to the tray; those truly are just pivots. When one of them fell out, there was a bit more wobble but the retention arms still held the bike tightly.


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## infanterene (Jul 27, 2011)

My rack is over a year old and still looks new. I clean my bike on the rack and use simple green. Some degreasers damage aluminum, maybe its the pics but your looks damaged.


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## wisbike (May 16, 2008)

replace your hardware with grade 8 or metric 10.9....i do this with nearly everything on my jeep/bike racks/ski racks etc. allensfasteners.com is pretty cheap if youre buying a lot.


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## pwu_1 (Nov 19, 2007)

hm this is pretty disturbing.
I think realistically though, chances are even if that bolt broke while your bike was on the rack it probably wouldn't have fallen off unless the bolt on the other side also broke at the same time.

Maybe somehow rig a strap that can compress the tire down on the channel on both wheels so even if that bolt lets go the bike still won't move easily....like how the Thule works. There is a hook on 1 wheel, then there is strap securing the other wheel. As long as the bolts on both arms don't go at the same time the strap should prevent the bike from falling over.

I have some extra straps. Might have to mess around with it to see what I can come up with.


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## thickfog (Oct 29, 2010)

All u need is a strap from left to right arm. Bungee cords with hooks work perfectly and the holes in each arm are already there.


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## Ted (Jan 29, 2004)

I have been using a bungee cord between the front and back arms. In this case I am not sure the bungee would have been tight enough to hold the bike in. I am thinking about a strap.


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## thickfog (Oct 29, 2010)

You got me all paranoid now.


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## pwu_1 (Nov 19, 2007)

any updates on this? one-up sending you new bolts? Did they give you any explanation on why this might have happened and the likelyhood of it happening again?


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## zebrahum (Jun 29, 2005)

thickfog said:


> You got me all paranoid now.


Seriously? One bolt has broken out of how many racks shipped? On a rack that doesn't leave a car? That has been treated with unknown care or neglect?

Do you all think we can hold off the lynch mob for a few minutes and let 1up take care of the issue? Then hopefully the OP will relay their experience.


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## Ted (Jan 29, 2004)

1Up emailed me back with a promise to send new bolts.

"I'm very sorry for this happening. I'll send out some replacement bolts. This has only happened a couple times and a bike has never fell off our rack. I'm not sure why it did happen, as we have thousands of these racks on the road."

As I mentioned above the rack stays on my car and I don't clean it. It is only 3 months old and we don't get real weather here in the south bay area so neglect should not be an issue. While I wait for the bolts to arrive in the mail I have used a stainless steel bolt to replace the broken one. Hopefully, no more problems.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

If you don't get "real weather", then I'm doubting your 3mo old claim. OR, you drive it through an area with salt spray and don't get that crap off. That rack looks like it's been through a midwestern winter with road salt.


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## Ted (Jan 29, 2004)

You doubt my 3mo old claim? Really? It is dusty not corroded.


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## thickfog (Oct 29, 2010)

Yeah, that just looks like dust. I can get mine like that in one short drive down a dirt road.


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## aedubber (Apr 17, 2011)

There is actually stress on that bolt , you should know that by the way the rack operates . As mentioned before , use a higher strength bolt if needed .


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