Transporting Bikes

[turnip]

Having just made a scary journey with 3 bikes attached to a rear fitting bike carrier B) - I realise I must now find a better solution for transporting our pedals. Does anyone have a safe solution for carrying 2 adult and 1 child bike.

 

I quite like the look of the roof carriers but how on earth do you get them up there when you are 5 ft 4!! :) B)

 

Thanks :D

[Guest fredt]

why not get the internal bike carrier? you lose a couple of seats and you can only store two bikes, but I'm sure the third smaller bike could be secured the the others?

or if you fancy the roof mounted route? here's one to get you started

roof rack bike carrier

[yogi3]

what about a towbar mounted rackhttp://www.towsure.com/home/images/products/c100.gif

 

 

 

[Ivor_E_Tower]

The "proper" rear-mounted bike carrier or a towbar-mounted one, if you already have a towbar, or take some seats out and put the bikes in the car. If you want to stick them on the roof, you will need to add a step-ladder to the inventory!

[Richmond]

I have an Atera bike rack which can take 4 bikes (with the extension kit) and is very secure. The bike wheels are secured in channels on a shelf which folds up when the rack is not in use and arms attached to the rack frame and the bike frames hold the bikes steady; the bikes don't hang from prongs on the rack. The rack hooks over the top and bottom edges of the rear door of the car (no straps). The number plate and lights are visible when the rack is in place, loaded or not, so no lighting board is needed. The rack can be left in place on the car when not in use with very little inconvenience; the rear door is heavier to open and needs to be lowered down and rear view is slightly compromised.

[turnip]

Richmond :(

 

Many thanks - that looks just what we are after. Just two questions though. Have you tried it with a ladies bike (ie one with a diagonal cross member) or a smaller child's bike. It doesn;t look like the top grip would cope with either of these and it would be out with the bungee cord again .. lol

 

Many thanks

 

:(

[Guest Nik]

Maybe you made a descision yet, but I really can suggest you the "original" Ford-bike-carrier.

 

I have got one, and it's a pleasure. Bikes are mounted very stable, easily and quickly.

 

It can stay on the trunk lid all the time, you can still open the trunk with it.

I even open the trunk with the bikes on the rack! (not soo good for the trunk lid I suppose, and very good for my muscles :( but it works).

 

It's delivered with all accesoires, even little pieces to hold teh bikes at a certain distance of each other.

The rack is constructed to not damage the car with pedals etc. Also the wiper stays fully functional off course.

 

Following some pics of my last two holiday trips, first with two normal bikes and one child bike, second time with a ladies bike and two child bikes.

I used it already for three normal bikes, no problem at all. It takes some 15 minutes to attach them all!

 

http://www.nikske.be/temp/DSCN3512.JPG

 

http://www.nikske.be/temp/DSCN3515.JPG

 

http://www.nikske.be/temp/DSCN2948.JPG

[Richmond]

Richmond  :rolleyes:

 

Many thanks - that looks just what we are after.  Just two questions though.  Have you tried it with a ladies bike (ie one with a diagonal cross member) or a smaller child's bike.  It doesn;t look like the top grip would cope with either of these and it would be out with the bungee cord again .. lol

 

Many thanks

 

:D

Don't mention it.

 

I have used the rack with a ladies' bike, no problem, and with my kids' bikes (I think that they're 20" wheels), no probs. The clamps on the end of the arms are rotatable on the arms, so one can be clamped onto the diagonal cross bar, or onto a down tube or saddle post if you wish. I can see that a really small bike might pose a problem, but you could probably solve it by swapping the shortest arm for a longer one so that it can reach down to the small bike sitting in the channel nearest the car on the shelf.

 

If you buy one and leave it on the car when not in use, either take the arms off (the longer one interferes with the rear wiper) or make sure that the clamps on the free ends are done up, otherwise the clamp bolts unscrew and drop out.

 

I bought mine from The Roofbox Co (www.roofbox.co.uk), who are pretty helpful (they replaced my lost clamp bolt for nothing).

[PaulB]

I've been carrying bikes on a Galaxy for some time, so thought I'd add my observations:

 

I have a strap on rack plus roof bars and cycle carriers. I have carried a total of seven occupants with their bikes - though I wouldn't recommend this for long journeys. Makes the steering a bit light!

 

The strap on rack is made by Pendle and is very solid. It sets the bikes high and doesn't require lighting board becuase the lights show through OK, but I did use a number plate. The rack pictured by Nik looks better in that respect as it's a fiddle to get a lighting board connected if you don't have a tow bar. I have now fitted a tow bar so in future I would use a lighting board for long journeys.

 

The disadvantage of a rack which clears the lights and number plate is the added wind resistance of the bikes above the roof line, which slows you down and is less economical. You should also remove anything that's removable - if you have a child seat I'd recommend you remove it, along with bags, computers, bottles and pumps.

 

If you have a tow bar then Pendle do a towbar rack which has the advantage of being very compact to store, as it's only two arms. The only disadvantage is you can't open the tailgate with the rack in place.

 

I also use roof bars with bike carriers, and you can get 4 bikes fairly easily by alternating the direction of the carriers. If you want to make it 5, then you would need to twist the handlebars around. I don't have a problem getting them on, as I'm 6'4", and you can open the rear doors and step into the car to tighten the fixings. You also need to check the maximum weight that the roof bars can take - with heavy bikes you'd be close to the limit. The advantage of roof mounting is that you can access the tailgate without removing the bikes, but it creates more wind resistance. You can get some roof carriers which swing downwards to put the bike on for the less tall, but I don't know how good they are.

 

The roof carriers I use are Mt Blanc Barracudas and they are great in that they fix using cam fixings which is much quicker than the screw on type, though they were expensive (

[turnip]

:D

 

Thanks for all your input. All very valuable and we investigated all options. We went for the Atera Linea in the end, mainly because it looks so stable and will hold 4 bikes at the back.

 

As someone under 6' I felt the roof mount was a little over ambituous.

 

Thanks to Richmond for the advice!

 

We will be fitting hopefully tomorrow, so will post some pictures when the job is complete, and any scratches are touched up ... lol (hopefully)

[davec]

got the ford rack at last glad i read niks post its a solid bit of kit

[MrT]

After reading this forum thread and getting my ear bent by my wife I have just bought the Ford bike rack and I am not comfortable about using it. I have not put it on the car yet, but I have quite a few questions/concerns that are probably easy to work around, but others may have found simple solutions before I start modifying things or spend a few days re-inventing the wheel.

 

1. The rack comes with some stick-on clear plastic strips to protect the car paintwork. I assume that these strips are semi-permanent? I don't like the idea of bits of sticky plastic left all over the back of my nicely polished car when I remove the rack. What has anyone else done about this issue?

 

2. Do any of the clips scratch the adjoining areas such as bumper or roof?

 

3. The two spacers that separate the upper half of bikes on the rack by attaching to the cross-bars of the bike appear to be designed to fit round 25mm circular tubes. Some of our bikes have oval cross sectioned frames about 25mm x 45mm. How do you space these?

 

4. The rack is built to take 3 bikes, can you squeeze a fourth kids bike in between adult bikes or are you betting sticking this inside the car when the rear row of seats are out? I did not want to fit a towbar just to go for a four bike rack and I don't really want to use the roof and it would cost a lot just to fit one extra bike on the roof.

 

5. The tray part of the rack folds up when the bikes are not on the rack, yet the clip in the outer wheel tray will not clip to the frame as the grey foam gets in the way, is this normal or have I a problem?

 

6. Visibility; I assume you can see nothing out the back window when the bikes are there?

 

7. Security; How secure are the bikes and rack on the back of the car against theft? I would hate to go into a service station and come out and find the whole rack and bikes gone.

 

8. Can you open the rear hatch with the rack and/or bikes on it?

 

Any other usage tips would be appreciated.

[Richmond]

After reading this forum thread and getting my ear bent by my wife

 

I have an Atera kit, which is quite similar to the Ford kit.

 

1., 2. The plastic strips seem to protect the car OK, and the Atera hooks and clamps have rubber linings, as I imagine do the Ford ones. I leave the plastic strips on the car when I take the rack off (which I rarely do; once it's on it stays on until I'm doing a long trip wothout the bikes). The plastic strips don't bother me.

 

3. The clamps on the (roughly) corresponding bits of the Atera kit can be rotated so that they can be clamped to the seat tube or the handlebar stem.

 

4. I suspect that putting 4 bikes on a 3 bike rack is not a great idea. Do Ford supply an add on kit to convert it to a 4 bike job?

 

5. Can't help.

 

6. You don't see much. It's better at night, when you can see headlights.

 

7. Not very secure, I suspect. You can obviously lock the bikes to the carrier, but the Atera carrier needs only an Atera key (standard splined thing, not a secure key), which I'm sure is easy to obtain or bodge.

 

8. Yes, with the Atera. I always have someone support the hatch if the bikes are on, but without it's fine; just make sure that you fully open it, otherwise it hurts your head when it falls. When shutting the hatch, if you drop it from any height it bounces and catches but doesn't shut properly.

[Guest fredt]

I just went out and bought a new bike :D and it's going to travel in the cabin with me! at

[Richmond]

I just went out and bought a new bike B) and it's going to travel in the cabin with me! at

[davec]

ive got ford rack,havent needed to use it yet but you have to tie the platform up and links dont fit crossbars,It says you open boot to fit so im hoping when boot is closed the brackets wont pull round to steal it doubt if you see anything behind and remember to allow for the extra length if reversing as the sensors wont allow for the extra

[MrT]

I have found that the Ford clips will fit nicely around the handle bar or seat stems.

 

The lower clamps have long tongues so that you have to open the boot to fit or remove them. I have not checked if the hole body will pull away from the tongues if you unscrew it enough. There are some holes in the side of the main mounts, not sure if they are for some form of security.

 

I have found that if you join two cable locks together they will fit through the cars tow hook and the bike wheels.

 

The clips that fit into the top hinges have plastic strips to protect the top of the tailgate, but you will also need some additional plastic strip on the very rear of the roof panel as you are bound to bump this with the clips when attaching them. I have not put the plastic strips on yet, but I really don't like the idea of their appearance when the bike rack is removed which will be most of the time. They are not very sticky, but then again they are not surface held like tax disk holders. I wonder where you could get soft clear plastic that you could make disposable protective strips from?

 

I have wondered if it is possible to change the rear sensors distance triggers in the management system as there appears to be a lot of variables in there. One day if I get time I might write down the settings and try and adjust them. If you are reversing up to another car, the bike rack would probably clear their bonnet!

[tim-spam]

 

I have an Atera kit, which is quite similar to the Ford kit.

 

1., 2. The plastic strips seem to protect the car OK, and the Atera hooks and clamps have rubber linings, as I imagine do the Ford ones. I leave the plastic strips on the car when I take the rack off (which I rarely do; once it's on it stays on until I'm doing a long trip wothout the bikes). The plastic strips don't bother me.

 

I am considering this bike rack, and would like to know exactly where the clear protective plastic strips fit - is it under the upper hooks at the top of the tailgate, or under the lower hooks, or both?

Thanks.

[greg_68]

 

I am considering this bike rack, and would like to know exactly where the clear protective plastic strips fit - is it under the upper hooks at the top of the tailgate, or under the lower hooks, or both?

Thanks.

 

 

Tim I notice that like me you are in the bike carrier market.

 

Are you looking for brand new or second hand as well.

 

There is a cheap Thule 968 going on Ebay but is pick up only (like a fair few are) in London.

 

Whereabouts are you and I will keep an eye out if you like.

 

Cheers,

[tim-spam]

Thanks for your reply. I have pretty much decided on the Atera Linea, so am presently looking for both secondhand (probably rare) or for the best price for a new one. The main question I have is the positions of the protective clear plastic strips.

[the bus]

Hi,

 

The Atera Linea bike rack is a serious piece of kit and having used it recently for a trip to Holland, with four bikes on, it performed brilliantly to the point that you almost forget that you have the bikes on the back.

 

To answer your question the clear plastic strips are positioned such that the top and bottom brackets have something to rest on to avoid any potential damage to the paintwork.

 

Both of the upper and lower clear strips should be applied so that they

[tim-spam]

Yes it does - thanks.

[thebigbluebus]

Looking for a bike rack?

 

You may be interested in the new Thule 9705 Bolt-On tow bar mounted bike rack. I've just bought one that can carry 4 bikes. You can also get one for three bikes. Quick and easy to fit if you have a tow bar. You will also need a lighting board. Total cost under

[Guest 3.5bullet]

ive got ford rack,havent needed to use it yet but you have to tie the platform up and links dont fit crossbars,

 

 

i have the same problem! all my bikes are full suspension models with odd shaped tubeing :D i found that the Fiamma carrier parts fit the Ford carrier and clamp the bike in place nicely

i got mine from here

 

http://www.riverswayleisure.com/images/f-bb1_small.jpg

 

http://www.riverswayleisure.com/images/f-bb2_small.jpg

 

http://www.riverswayleisure.com/images/f-bb3_small.jpg

[MrT]

3.5 bullet, please can you advise which of the bike block pros fit the three wheel channels on the Ford Carrier, eg Does Bike Block Pro 1 fit the wheel channel nearest the boot, BBP2 the next and BBP3 the 3rd?