which bike rack for a car?
- Thread starter Maz
- Start date
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PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
If it's just one bike for occassional use I would go for a cheap Halfords rear mounted rack. I've used one of these for years without a problem. The one piece of advice would be to put some cloth between the hooks and the car paintwork to avoid damage to the paint. If you want to carry two or more bikes on a regular basis I'd recommend a tow bar mounted system, obviously you need a tow bar as well which ups the price if you don't have one. I would recommend Pendle Bike Racks for tow bar systems.
slugonabike
New Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
We had a cheap, hang-on carrier, used it a few times for 2 bikes. It was supposed to take 3 but broke the first time we tried that!
As we use it fairly often (and my bike is heavy) we got a towbar fitted and bought a 'ride on' carrier. This is better for me as my back problem makes lifting the bike high difficult - but it is less easy to secure the bike single handed. We got a 'Thule' carrier for a very good price from a shop we found via Ebay.
If your car is high it might make getting the bike onto a roof carrier difficult and you will have to be careful of places with height restrictions.
It's horses for courses really, you need to decide how often you will use it, for how many bikes and what your physical capability is before you make a decision.
As we use it fairly often (and my bike is heavy) we got a towbar fitted and bought a 'ride on' carrier. This is better for me as my back problem makes lifting the bike high difficult - but it is less easy to secure the bike single handed. We got a 'Thule' carrier for a very good price from a shop we found via Ebay.
If your car is high it might make getting the bike onto a roof carrier difficult and you will have to be careful of places with height restrictions.
It's horses for courses really, you need to decide how often you will use it, for how many bikes and what your physical capability is before you make a decision.
e-rider
Banned member
- Location
- South West
one that mounts to a tow bar - the strap ones are rubbish IMO and not even very safe/secure
moggsy100
New Member
- Location
- flintshire north wales
Have a look here got all my thule roof system from here.. very helpful if you ring them up for advice...
http://www.roofrackshop.co.uk/ and i found them to be the most reasonable around prices wise...
http://www.roofrackshop.co.uk/ and i found them to be the most reasonable around prices wise...
I have just invested big time in a cycle rack for the car. Looked at loads of options and decided the safest way to transport bikes was on a tow bar mounted rack so I had a tow bar fitted last week for £200 with single electrics and then ordered the Atera Strada 3 plus 4th bike adapter from Roofbox. (not sure if I am allowed to post links so havn't on this occasion).
My problem was needing to carry 2 adult bikes plus 2 childrens bikes and the weight of these combined was 56kg so with a nose limit on my car of 75kg I needed a light bike rack and the Atera comes in at 16kg for 4 bikes. It is bloomin expensive though (and dithered for weeks on this amount of money for a bike rack) so will have to make sure it gets used on a regular basis. I did consider a hang on type tow bar rack but with only one of the bikes having a proper crossbar I thought the hang on rack would have the bikes in all manner of positions which is why i went for the platform type rack.
It hopefully arrives tomorrow so will give it a test this weekend.
Still concerned at how much it has cost me though!!!
My problem was needing to carry 2 adult bikes plus 2 childrens bikes and the weight of these combined was 56kg so with a nose limit on my car of 75kg I needed a light bike rack and the Atera comes in at 16kg for 4 bikes. It is bloomin expensive though (and dithered for weeks on this amount of money for a bike rack) so will have to make sure it gets used on a regular basis. I did consider a hang on type tow bar rack but with only one of the bikes having a proper crossbar I thought the hang on rack would have the bikes in all manner of positions which is why i went for the platform type rack.
It hopefully arrives tomorrow so will give it a test this weekend.
Still concerned at how much it has cost me though!!!
