Height restrictions - how accurate

[NotAGolf]

Now I realise this title sounds like the start of a thread by someone who is about to take the roof off his car, but bear with me…

When a bridge, or barrier, or other height restriction has a height shown on it (e.g. max height 2.0m), how precise is that measurement? Do they afford X amount of leeway?

I’ll be taking the ferry over to France a couple of times this year and I’m going to have a bike on the roof of my car. When booking tickets, the height options are: between ‘1.84m and 2.6m’, and ‘up to 3.0m’. So I go out and measure up, and guess what height it comes in at? 2.60 exactly

Now I can easily drop the saddle by a few cm, and rotate the handle bars to save a few cm, but it’s still going to be within a few cm of the limit. Would you risk it? It’s only £40-50 difference over the two trips, so it’s not much, but I’d rather have that money in my pocket.

 

[NotAGolf]

When I read the title, I thought you’d be complaining that you wasn’t allowed on the Ghost Train.

Got the Cuban heels for that

I assume height restrictions have to be fairly accurate with a bit of wiggle room, otherwise its pretty pointless. Can you not just remove your bike to enter the ferry and stick back on the roof once you leave?

No I don't think so. Passengers enter the ferry via a different route to vehicles and I wouldn't have a ticket as a foot passenger, and I don't think they'd want me just wandering around while they try and load the vehicles.

Alternatively, let some air out of your tyres and inflate when you get off the ferry.
More effort but makes you look clevererer.

It's a road bike, so that would only save ~1cm.

Have you not solved your own issue here?

Possibly, but there's still two potential problems here: 1) Their height restriction is actually lower than stated (highly unlikely I imagine as otherwise they would have loads of people kicking off due to damage caused), or 2) My measurements could be 2-3cm out, so I could be closer to the limit than I think. This is far more likely as it's quite tricky to measure without a 2.6m high barrier to test with.