I've got one of those strappy bike racks you hang off the back of the car (it's to take 2 bikes) and find it really fiddly to attach - not to mention all the scratches on the back of the car! Does anyone use the racks that go on the top of the car? Is it hard to get the bikes up (without weight training)? Would you recommend them - or can anyone recommend any other type of rack? Thanks.
0 ·
Comments
i looked at the kind where you take the front wheel off & QR the forks onto the rack, but then you need somewhere to stick the wheel.
so i got the one with the grabby bit the holds onto the down tube. all nice & lockable and not had a problem with it.
putting the bike up is easy enough (depends how heavy it is i guess); lift it onto the rack and steady it while you lift the downtube bit into place.
there are similar cheaper.. undbarnded ones available (halfords etc) but the thule one looks most sturdy to me.
other tips:
i) anything that can fly off probably will so i take it off! (bottles, pumps, bags, tri-bar pads)
ii) sometimes i have to put a post it on the steering wheel that says 'BIKE' ! just to remind me in case i'm tempted to nip into any multi-storeys!
I've also got the kind of car not really designed for lugging bikes around, but the 'bones' work fine and take 5 minutes to attach
If you have a 4x4 like me you need to get a side step fitted to the car or you'll never reach high enough to get the bike on the rack.
Ditto about removing tri pads - as I found to my cost at last race.
I've got the ones where you remove the front wheel. I put the wheel in the boot - 4x4 so lots of boot space. Alternatively, so can buy another attachment to store the wheel on the roof next to the bike. I'm not sure that the other version where you leave the front wheel on is lockable.
Not cheap though - I think that I paid £80 for roof bars and the same again for each rack.
for similar reasons it's fairly low which makes putting the bike on top fairly easy... and the boot isnt big enough for a wheel!
the downtube clamp is lockable.. but i still run a padlock round the wheels when i leave it (which is as little as possible).
I'll add that I didn't lock my bike once, or the car and further, quite often left the windows open in the supermarket carpark as it was so hot. I don't suppose I'd get away with doing that over here!
Anyone want to swap a boot rack for a roof rack?