Disadvantages of platform tow bar cycle carriers...

[APK]

Salad dodger, I agree with your comment about weight, I used a thule 4 bike one on my last car an MG ZT-t (basically a boy racers Rover 75 estate) used with the car fully loaded, and made the handling very interesting whilst racing "fast" touring on holiday up the Alps, the added weight was tending to push the back end of the car out, making the handling interesting, not dangerous but quite entertaining.

 

[Norm]

Loaded with 2 bikes it must be quite a substantial weight.

This is no problem for my campervan, which doesnt notice the extra load on the back, but if you had a small car you might end up with the front wheels of the car pawing the air and the back of the car scraping the road....

I used a thule 4 bike one on my last car an MG ZT-t (basically a boy racers Rover 75 estate) used with the car fully loaded...

The nose weight of a Rover 75 is 100kg, it's very unlikely that a 4-bike carrier would get near that. Even something like a Ford Fiesta has a nose weight of 50kgs, which should cover two or three bikes with ease.

You don't, after all, hear many complaining that filling their car with fuel causes handling issues and 50kgs is about the same as a tank of fuel and sits in a pretty similar position.

 

[jethro10]

Well this has been done to death, but I got a Thule one cheap off the inlaws :-) and it's fantastic.
Took a while to learn how to load up quickly, but it's fantastic.
Keeps the bikes low and behind the car and is the best option for fuel economy.
Unless I'm being daft in the car, you can almost forget it's there.

Jeff

 

[APK]

The nose weight of a Rover 75 is 100kg, it's very unlikely that a 4-bike carrier would get near that. Even something like a Ford Fiesta has a nose weight of 50kgs, which should cover two or three bikes with ease.

You don't, after all, hear many complaining that filling their car with fuel causes handling issues and 50kgs is about the same as a tank of fuel and sits in a pretty similar position.

Nose weight is fine, but with 4 mtbs @ about 15kg each thats 60kg, + about 10kg for the carrier = 70 kg, but its hung out right over the back of the car like a pendulum, along with about 200kg of luggage and 4 passengers, that's what makes it fun!

 

[Norm]

Nose weight is fine, but with 4 mtbs @ about 15kg each thats 60kg, + about 10kg for the carrier = 70 kg, but its hung out right over the back of the car like a pendulum, along with about 200kg of luggage and 4 passengers, that's what makes it fun!

That's what the nose weight is all about, the car is certified for towing up to a nose weight of 100kgs, so 70kgs of bikes is well within the limit and is only slightly more than 75l of fuel would weigh.

I don't doubt that, filled with passengers and luggage, the handling would be affected but the comment was that the carrier itself would have the front wheels pawing the air and I was merely suggesting that, given a 2-bike carrier would be within the nose weight limit of a Fiesta, that any impact on handling should be negligible.