Bike racks
zxcvbob
It's a 2009 Pontiac coupe and it has a little spoiler on the rear
deck. (not sure if the spoiler is a problem or not) Any
recommendations for a good rack that will hold 2 mountain bikes or
cruisers, won't scratch all the paint off the car, and will allow
the trunk to be opened (carefully) with the rack still installed and
bikes removed?
I've been looking online at the Thule models 910 and 961XT. And
maybe a Saris Bones II, but I'm not sure I trust that one because
it's all plastic.
Thanks,
Bob
SMS
Presumably you mean a G6 Coupe. The spoiler is a problem on most trunk
mount racks.
Personally I'd not cheap out here on a new car. Install a 1.25" trailer
hitch, and then get a hitch rack. Forget about the trunk rack.
I ran into the same issue on a Toyota (though not with a spoiler). The
trunk mount racks just looked like they'd damage the vehicle, so I
ordered a hitch from "http://www.hitchesonline.com/" and installed it. I
had an old 2" hitch rack so I bought a 1.25" to 2" adapter from Harbor
Freight (and I also shortened the 2" bar on the old rack with a chop saw
and drilled a new hole for the pin (which was very difficult)).
Lot of used hitch racks on craigslist, so that offsets the cost of the
hitch somewhat, but you're still looking at at least $200.
If it were an old car where it didn't matter if the paint got damaged,
or the trunk dented a bit then I'd say go for one of the Thule racks.
I remember the days of steel bumpers on cars, where you could attach a
bumper mount bike rack with no problem on most any vehicle.
Ron Wallenfang
I agree with this post, except that I use 2" receiver hitches and
hitch racks to permit maximum strength. That's been a fixture on at
least my last 3 cars.
SMS
> I agree with this post, except that I use 2" receiver hitches and
> hitch racks to permit maximum strength. That's been a fixture on at
> least my last 3 cars.
Unfortunately, most newer cars don't have class III or IV hitches (2"
receiver) available, and you're stuck with class I or II (1.25"
receiver). I wish the hitch manufacturers would just do 2" receivers for
class I and class II with a warning that they're only to be used for
stuff like bike racks, within the limits of the vehicle.
You have to watch out for the tongue weight, but a 2 bike hitch rack on
a 1.25" receiver is no problem, and as long as you're under 150 pounds
total weight then it's okay. I wouldn't want to put my XPORT Flatbed
4-Bike Hitch Rack, which weighs a lot even without bikes, into a 1.25"
hitch with an adapter (it comes only in 2").
Leo Lichtman
"SMS" wrote: (clip) You have to watch out for the tongue weight, but a 2
> a 1.25" receiver is no problem, and as long as you're under 150 pounds
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The 1.25" receiver hitch which I just installed on my Subaru Legacy Outback
has a tongue rating of 300 lb.
D_Fru...@ndersnat.ch
> I'm shopping for a trunk-mount bicycle carrier for Daughter's car.
one that let me down, literally. This rack was supposed to be able to
carry three bikes, so I loaded three onto it, carefully, with the
lightest outermost, everything properly strapped, etc. A pin in the
pivot of the rack gave way, and had I not had the safety strap also
carefully attached, it would have dumped all three bikes onto an
Interstate, in a construction zone, at rush hour.
So I just have this to say, based on that near-disaster: whatever you
choose in a bike rack, for the love of all that is good, right,
beautiful, and holy, stay away from Byke Ryder brand racks! Or any
other cheapo brand, for that matter. Whatever type rack you get, trunk,
hitch, or roof, stick with the quality brands: Thule and Yakima. (Roof
racks are a lot more effort and expense, but also work better. Are they
an option for you?)
Bill
__o | You don't stop riding because you get old.
_`\(,_ | You get old because you stop riding.
(_)/ (_) |
zxcvbob
I think I'm stuck with a trunk/bumper carrier, or a 1-1/4" trailer
hitch plus carrier. The car will not pull a trailer (small engine and
manual transmission) but there are hitches (class II?) that will fit
it. Hitch-mounted carriers are bulky and take up a lot of room (I
have one already.)
My pastor is a bicycle enthusiast; he suggested that I go to one of
the bicycle shops in town and talk to a salesman who actually knows
something instead of going to Dick's Sporting Goods or Target and
talking to a 19-y.o. mininum wage stockboy who barely knows how to
wipe himself. (that's not quite how he put it ;-)
I may end up buying Daughter a trailer hitch and giving her my
hitch-mounted 3-bike carrier if that's what she wants -- after all, it
is her car.
I know that I don't want a cheap bicycle rack.
Bob
SMS
<snip>
> I think I'm stuck with a trunk/bumper carrier, or a 1-1/4" trailer hitch
> plus carrier. The car will not pull a trailer (small engine and manual
> transmission) but there are hitches (class II?) that will fit it.
> Hitch-mounted carriers are bulky and take up a lot of room (I have one
> already.)
Hmm, I have two of them and don't find them bulky. The arms fold down.
Even my larger 4 bike XPORT rack, where the bicycles sit on their
wheels, and there's a lot of steel, folds up narrow enough to slide into
the back seat of the car if I don't want to leave it attached.
I really like the lack of funky rubber bumpers and straps and
adjustments that are needed with trunk racks, and the hitch rack seems
much sturdier and less likely to damage the bikes. It's also much faster
to put on and take off, just one bolt through the hitch pin hole. I do
use a cable lock to lock it to the vehicle to prevent casual theft of
the rack.
> My pastor is a bicycle enthusiast; he suggested that I go to one of the
> bicycle shops in town and talk to a salesman who actually knows
> something instead of going to Dick's Sporting Goods or Target and
> talking to a 19-y.o. mininum wage stockboy who barely knows how to wipe
> himself. (that's not quite how he put it ;-)
It's a good thought, but you'll find that bicycle salesman are unlikely
to know much about racks, and they'll try to sell you whatever they
happen to have in stock.
> I may end up buying Daughter a trailer hitch and giving her my
> hitch-mounted 3-bike carrier if that's what she wants -- after all, it
> is her car.
I don't think you'll regret going with the hitch rack.
I remember selling a 4 bike Thule 1.25" hitch rack to someone on
craigslist and he was going to convert it to two bikes because he didn't
like it sticking out so far.
Oh, and here's one piece of advice I learned the hard way. Don't leave a
hitch rack on the car all the time, just put it on when it's needed. On
unibody vehicles (which is essentially all cars and car-based SUVs)
there is no frame. If the car is hit from behind, even a light hit, with
the rack on, the bumper does nothing and the impact is transferred
through the rack to the hitch to the mounting points of the hitch on the
body. It will do significant damage to the vehicle. I had to have a
whole new rear floor pan welded into a Honda CR-V.
Leo Lichtman
"SMS" wrote: (clip) If the car is hit from behind, even a light hit, with
> the rack on, the bumper does nothing and the impact is transferred through
> the rack to the hitch to the mounting points of the hitch on the body. It
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This could happen even while you are backing into a parking space. If you
leave the ball hitch in place it could also transfer impact forces into the
sheet metal support points on the car body.
D_Fru...@ndersnat.ch
> zxcvbob wrote:
> <snip>
> > I think I'm stuck with a trunk/bumper carrier, or a 1-1/4" trailer hitch
> > plus carrier. The car will not pull a trailer (small engine and manual
> > transmission) but there are hitches (class II?) that will fit it.
> > Hitch-mounted carriers are bulky and take up a lot of room (I have one
> > already.)
> Hmm, I have two of them and don't find them bulky. The arms fold down.
> Even my larger 4 bike XPORT rack, where the bicycles sit on their
> wheels, and there's a lot of steel, folds up narrow enough to slide into
> the back seat of the car if I don't want to leave it attached.
> I really like the lack of funky rubber bumpers and straps and
> adjustments that are needed with trunk racks, and the hitch rack seems
> much sturdier and less likely to damage the bikes. It's also much faster
> to put on and take off, just one bolt through the hitch pin hole. I do
> use a cable lock to lock it to the vehicle to prevent casual theft of
> the rack.
I once went on a Scout camp, and allowed my bike to be transported on
a very large, homemade hitch rack. It had room for ten bikes (no
kidding!), and performed fine until we turned off the paved road onto
the bumpy dirt one, which is when it broke and dumped all ten bikes on
the ground. Fortunately, we were riding home on the bikes the next day.
This is not to say that your hitch rack will do this to you. This
one, as I said, was home-made and heavily loaded. Still, it's
instructive as a physics lesson. There are a lot of leverage forces at
work on a hitch rack, so it's all the more important to get quality.
> > My pastor is a bicycle enthusiast; he suggested that I go to one of the
> > bicycle shops in town and talk to a salesman who actually knows
> > something instead of going to Dick's Sporting Goods or Target and
> > talking to a 19-y.o. mininum wage stockboy who barely knows how to wipe
> > himself. (that's not quite how he put it ;-)
> It's a good thought, but you'll find that bicycle salesman are unlikely
> to know much about racks, and they'll try to sell you whatever they
> happen to have in stock.
Other than me, has anyone on this thread got a particular *brand* to
recommend? (I've already mentioned Thule and Yakima.) Or one to avoid?
Bill
__o |
_`\(,_ | Subvert the fuel-based-transportation paradigm!
(_)/ (_) |
Leo Lichtman
<D_Fru...@ndersnat.ch> wrote: I once went on a Scout camp, and allowed my
> a very large, homemade hitch rack. It had room for ten bikes (no
> kidding!), and performed fine until we turned off the paved road onto
> the bumpy dirt one, which is when it broke and dumped all ten bikes on
> the ground. Fortunately, we were riding home on the bikes the next day.
> This is not to say that your hitch rack will do this to you. This
> one, as I said, was home-made and heavily loaded. Still, it's
> instructive as a physics lesson. There are a lot of leverage forces at
> (_) |
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Evidently the bikes were rideable for the return trip. Could have been a
lot worse. Not only were the bikes hung out where they had a lot of
leverage--it's possible that they were hitting on the ground as the car
bounced. You would have been better off using the trailer hitch as a
trailer hitch, and hauling the bikes on a trailer.
SMS
> I once went on a Scout camp, and allowed my bike to be transported on
> a very large, homemade hitch rack. It had room for ten bikes (no
> kidding!), and performed fine until we turned off the paved road onto
> the bumpy dirt one, which is when it broke and dumped all ten bikes on
> the ground. Fortunately, we were riding home on the bikes the next day.
> This is not to say that your hitch rack will do this to you. This
> one, as I said, was home-made and heavily loaded. Still, it's
> instructive as a physics lesson. There are a lot of leverage forces at
> work on a hitch rack, so it's all the more important to get quality.
No doubt ten bikes exceeded the tongue weight limit of the hitch, but it
sounds like the hitch was made out of the wrong materials. The hitch
racks I have are all made of heavy gauge steel that I doubt anyone
making a home made rack would have the tools to work with. When I
shortened the length of the piece that goes into the hitch receiver on
one hitch rack it was quite a chore to drill a hole through it, wrecking
several drill bits in the process. Sawing it wasn't that hard with a
chop saw, but the chop saw blade wore down quite a bit from it.
Frank Krygowski
> You would have been better off using the trailer hitch as a
> trailer hitch, and hauling the bikes on a trailer.
Which brings up a shortcoming of trailer hitch racks: Some of us use
those things to haul trailers! Do hitch racks exist that still allow
towing? If so, the tongue weight limitations would be worrisome.
In the past, I've gone with a roof rack and/or a strap-on tailgate
rack. Then I found these http://tinyurl.com/yhq3gp4 work inside our
Pontiac Vibe if I remove the bike seatposts and saddles.
My current solution is to carry folding bikes when traveling with a
trailer.
- Frank Krygowski
Leo Lichtman
"Frank Krygowski" wrote (clip) Do hitch racks exist that still allow
towing? If so, the tongue weight limitations would be worrisome. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A typical hitch rack plugs into a square socket that is mounted to the
chassis. If you want to tow a trailer, you would have a separate plug-in,
with a hitch ball on it. I don't think any commercial setup exists which
allows the simultaneous use of a hitch call and a bike rack, but such a
thing could certainly be fabricated. It would bring up issues like
allowable tongue weight, but more importantly: how are the bikes going to
mesh with the trailer tongue, and with the trailer itself during sharp
turns?
Bikes on a hitch rack put more than their actual weight on the "hitch," due
to the fact that they are hung out there on a cantilever support. Ten bikes
on a hitch rack probably weigh close to 300 lb, but due to the cantilever
physics, they apply considerably more than that to the hitch. If you tried
to pull a loaded trailer together with a rack full of bikes, it's asking for
several kinds of trouble.
I <LOVE> the ease of carrying folding bikes inside the car. When I'm going
someplace where I know parking is going to be difficult or expensive, I put
one of my folders in the car and park a mile or two down the road.
SMS
> A typical hitch rack plugs into a square socket that is mounted to the
> chassis. If you want to tow a trailer, you would have a separate plug-in,
> with a hitch ball on it. I don't think any commercial setup exists which
> allows the simultaneous use of a hitch call and a bike rack,
There are such bike racks on the market, i.e.
"http://www.rvstuffusa.com/4biketowingcarrierbyswagman.html"
"http://www.premiermotoring.net/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?p_catid=1597"