Carbon bike in a carrier?

[Pbassred]

They say that you should never clamp to a carbon frame. I have a tow ball carrier from my aluminium bike. I also have a roof rack carrier. Is there a way to use them?

[ken66]

They say that you should never clamp to a carbon frame. I have a tow ball carrier from my aluminium bike. I also have a roof rack carrier. Is there a way to use them?

I clamp carbon bikes in a maintenance stand & also in a caravan carrier. I put a section of pipe lagging around the frame & am careful not to overtighten the clamp. No problem that I’m aware off. At the risk of being ‘shot down’ I suspect the ‘don’t clamp’ advice is based upon assuming that everyone is a muppet!

[rareposter]

Is there a way to use them?

Thule sell a carbon frame protector which provides a load-spreading interface between the clamp and the frame.

https://www.thule.com/en-gb/bike-rack/a ... -_-1692661

At the risk of being ‘shot down’ I suspect the ‘don’t clamp’ advice is based upon assuming that everyone is a muppet!

That's generally a fairly safe assumption* and to be fair it does somewhat mitigate the issue of people clamping a carbon frame, breaking it and then bleating that no-one told them not to do that.
It's for the same reason that takeaway cups have the words "Caution, hot liquid" printed on the side.

*contrary to popular belief on this forum, the majority of people riding bikes barely know how many gears it has, never mind any technical info around the material properties of carbon fibre.