Cycling Weekly – August 22, 2019

Cycling Weekly | August 22, 2019 | 41

Want to take the bike away but

haven’t managed to/can’t be bothered

to work out which roof rack you

need? Florida-based designer and

manufacturer of ‘kick-ass car racks’

(among other sports attachments)

might have the answer.

The Mini Bomber uses vacuum

mounts — not suction cups, there’s a

big diff erence — to secure two bikes

directly to the car roof.

Yes, it sounds a bit scary but each

SeaSucker vacuum mount is pull-rated

at 210lb and the rack can take two bikes

weighing up to 45lb each. The suckers

will stick to metal, glass or fi breglass

and the HDPE body fl exes to fi t to the

curves of your vehicle.

You pump the air out of each sucker

with a thumb-sized piston and there is

an indicator to let you know when the

pad is fully engaged — then you’re

good to go. An orange indicator band

begins to appear once the vacuum

mount loses some of its suction, letting

you know it’s time to re-pump well

before it detaches.

Oh yes, and SeaSucker says there’s

no licking required unless that’s your

thing, and that’s cool.

We recently tested the Mini Bomber

in real-world conditions. You can read

a full review of this innovative bike

carrier over on http://www.cyclingweekly.

com. So head over to fi nd out whether

tech writer Toby Martin glanced in his

rear view mirror to see the two-

wheeled love of his life cartwheeling off

down the motorway behind.

Q Price £479.99

Q Contact http://www.seasucker.com

Q Review August

SEASUCKER

MINI BOMBER

BIKE RACK

HOT KIT

how competent the builder is. I am fairly
good at this but I can build a wheel that
will fail if I build it with a light rim and low
spoke count. I have done, and that’s how I
know it fails.”
Borg makes the point that if a factory
wheel fails it can be diffi cult for its owner
to get it repaired.
“One reason I build
my own wheels is that
spares availability for
‘factory’ wheels is
poor and I object to
selling something
that I can’t supply
spares for.”
Finally, Borg has his
business to think of. “Th ere is also no
margin in selling factory wheels, or not
enough to make it worthwhile.” With
many independent bike dealers having a
tough time at the moment, the commercial
factor has to be considered.

We asked Mavic to comment but didn’t

receive a reply before we went to press.

However, could the fact that this year the

French wheel giant expanded its rim-only

range to include the CXP Pro Carbon

mean that the brand blamed for the

demise of the handbuilt wheel is trying to

make amends? Mavic acknowledges on

its website that its

rim-only range is for

racers looking for

perfect versatility.

So the answer to the

original question

has to be yes.

Handbuilt wheels can

be more expensive

but they’re worth it for the extra choices

of specifi cation and customisation they

off er, for the repairs that can be done more

easily and for the better build quality that

a skilled and experienced wheelbuilder

can bring to them. Ph

ot

os

Ro

o^ R

ow

ler

“Th ere is no

margin with

factory

wheels”