The price check thread tells me now is a good time to buy bikes....... As my son is due a bigger bike soon and I'd like to go riding with him. This involves buying a bike for myself and maybe another for wife, on top of buying a bigger kids bike that may not be able to fit into boot of the car. How do people transport their bikes? Roof rack, tow hitch rack? Why did you choose that? Looking at some of the options, it feels like silly money just to get started. I mean £1000+ for tow hitch itself and a few hundred more for the bike rack..... roof mounts are not cheap either! Perhaps folding bikes are the answer? How often do you actually ride elsewhere? Currently I throw kids bike into the boot and drive to a selection of local park to let him ride. Am I thinking this the wrong way around? Ride to the park and ride back? Feels unsafe with Greater London cars zooming past so close, riding on pavement is also against the highway code.
When I used to go time-trialling with a mate, we used to put them in the back of the car. Wheels off and with a blanket between the two bikes but, that was just two of us in a hatchback with the back seats down. In your circumstances, I would use roof bars with suitable fittings, ideally with front wheels off, so the front forks are held by the dropouts. EDIT: this kind of thing: https://www.roofbox.co.uk/bike-carriers/roof-mounting-bike-carriers.php You can probably do better for price, was just looking for examples and didn't shop around.
I feel that i should interject and say that my bikes would be for sale This is what i did with my last bike... halfords bike rack
When it's just me: Take the wheels off and put the bike in the boot. But that requires folding seats down and I have a Boot Bucket to protect the bike and car from each other. If you've got roof bars they're usually the cheapest way to go. Tow hitch racks are great but as you've noticed they're dead expensive. I would recommend avoiding boot mounted bike racks. Aside from not being very secure you have to pay extremely close attention to how the bike is mounted or it will swing in the wind and destroy the back of your car. Even a seemingly tiny amount of movement can end in a pedal or axle end scraping it's way through the paint, as I learned the hard way.
It may or not may what I'm considering Where abouts are you? Image not working for me. Is there any way to know (before buying bikes) if bikes with front wheel off can fit in my car with 3 passengers, 2 rear seats down? Or are we talking about both wheels off? Folding bike might be easier? Worth the premium on them? Yes, boot mounted bike racks are not on the list. Seems very sketchy.
Now , ive been lugging bikes around for the past 10 years . I have one of these https://sportandleisure.com/product..._content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic Now , i know not ideal , can scratch the motor if your not careful , however ... Ive had mine hitched on my BMW coupe , i do not drive slowly either , in fact im prob a maniac but im never going to admit that. But i have never had any issues what so ever with one of these and a couple of bungee cords .. and i do mean 120+ (hides face in shame) . I would not hesitate to reccomend one of these . Tow bar etc is just way too expensive.
I'm in Didcot.. Near Oxford. I found i could get a bike in the back with just the front wheel off. Folding bike - okay for a commute but wouldn't use them for long rides into the countryside! Mine was fine... never had an issue with it
Single full size bike definitely fits with rear seats down, according to photos people posted on the internet. But I want to be able to take 2 bikes and 2 or 3 passengers. No way to find this out without the bikes. The boot lid of newer cars are plastic nowadays aren't they? Putting pressure on them feels sketchy. The car is also known to be expensive repair, so I would prefer not to take any chances. Finally, quick google took me to roofbox.co.uk and it says not possible to fit rear bootlid bike carriers. I guess roof rack or tow hitch rack are the only option. Both need to buy for the car first then the rack themselves.
This would be my choice too if I didn't have a towbar already fitted. Keep the muck out of the car, no faffing around with the bikes etc. The only limitation is you can't leave it with bikes attached in dodgy areas I suppose. Not all, but if they are it doesn't mean you can't use one. You might also consider the sucker-mounted ones.
I was using in Bedgebury Forest , not happy paying the ridiculous £14 to park so i park in a layby nearby. I do take the rack off the car but once you get used to the process takes around 2 minutes.
I would offer that it depends on age/proficiency and terrain. If you're on road bikes, then the obvious answer is to just go for a ride, as it's rare to find dedicated parks for this (of course!). But if mountain biking, Hadleigh Castle where the Olympics were based is a good site. Something like one of these should also suit if just the three of you - when the four of us all went, we actually needed three on the rack and the smaller one in the boot with one half of the seats folded and the kids squidged together in the other two back seats (side and middle). Never had any issues with the rack either. Those ones don't need a tow bar and are pretty secure over smaller, non-motorway speed distances. Probably alright on the motorway but I'd double-secure them. Folding bikes are just a No in my book unless you're riding a short distance to the station in the morning, although others would disagree. My mate and I used to chuck ours in the boot when we raced (can fit two full size road bikes in the back of an A3), backed up coincidentally by an interview we read that said carbon frames aren't designed to be on car roofs at motorway speeds. Then the next weekend, the Sky team car overtook us on the motorway down to the race with all their spare bikes on the roof, so who knows!
The amazon page had an advert for suction cup roof mounts: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...&pd_rd_r=9bec9859-cb77-4f15-bda5-7e50b3522143 Seems good idea for a car with glass roof? For boot/trunk mounted racks: How do those ropes attach? Does it put a lot of pressure around where the cable goes into the boot? The top edge of my hatchback boot is..... glass. I see for most of the weight is on the license plate. This is very good.
I have a skoda superb estate; but still stumped for thule roof bars when the wife was goign through a cycling kick. They're super solid, only issue is the lumping the bike onto the top of the car - which is ok for me (6'4"), but becomes increasingly problematic for shorter people (i.e. SWMBO ~5'4" cant get the bike high enough).
Just my take, but I would not be entrusting my bike(s) to those. Mine was metal clips, I think they might have been padded but I got rid of it a while back and can't remember. I'd check though if yours is glass, that doesn't sound very load-bearing.
It's nice and easy for a F-type coupe. But getting 15kg bike on top of a 1.6m high SUV might be different story. Although an step stool from the boot should solve it, I think? TBH, my main concern is don't damage the car. The bike will one of cheap bikes (eg, mojo's price check range, wink wink) I'm not serious enough to spend mega bucks on bikes.
That certainly does seem to be - point taken. I think I would be okay with it (maybe) over short distances, but if that mount lost pressure seemingly from doing nothing and needed pumping up, then I don't think I'd trust it over a lengthy (or motorway) journey. It is also north of £300 (but then that guy had an F-type, so he's probably got that in the ashtray).
