Humour my folly!

Anybody else built a false floor in the back of their estate? I was thinking of knocking something removable up out of battons and ply to stow my bike on trips away. We’ve got a baby now and I was thinking of how I could squeeze my bike in (early morning rides). I’ve never used racks as I’ve always thought it easier to remove wheels etc… rather than fit the rack and then spend the journey worrying about the bike falling off/getting stolen. This is going to be more challenging now with all the baby parephernalia. Previously I’d just chuck the bike on top of all the bags (or put bags in rear footwells) I can’t really do that anymore.

I’m thinking If I pop the cranks and rear mech off my bike would be pretty slim, if I had something boarded out above I could chuck pram & bags on top.

The logical part of my head says:
– get a bike rack instead
– it’s a waste of time, you wont get to ride now you’ve a wee one, take up running…

Sounds like a lot of hassle tbh.I can fit camping equipment and my bike in ours with half the rear seat folded .
Wheels off,seat post out. Just stick it in last and remember to cover up the cranks/chain .
To be fair ,Li’l J only got oily fingers once 🙂 .

Get a rack or a bigger car.

By the time you get a pass to ride and assemble/ride/clean/disassemble and pack the bike……. You’ll be in the bad books 🙂

Just get a van.

Seriously, a bog-standard Thule rear rack takes about 5secs to fit and 20secs to mount and strap down the bike.

That said, get a CX or similar and just ride anything and everything from your front door. That’s what I did the first year or so after our little one appeared.

If I had to fit and remove my cranks and rear mech every time I wanted to ride I’d basically quit riding.

Just succumb…

One baby? 😯 Either you’ve got too much baby junk or you’ve got a very small car. Admittedly I’ve run large estates since before I had children, but only very recently got a bike rack now kids are older and I need to carry around their bikes too. When they were smaller it was still just pop wheels off and bike on top of bags in boot (actually even when they had smaller bikes I still got those in the car as well). When we had just one baby I’d half fold the rear seat to fit in two adult bikes and a baby trailer to one side with all bags and baby junk on the other.

My method is this.
Lift up rear seat base.
Remove front wheel and spin bars through 180′ .
Place bike in car where the back seat was. Chuck front wheel in shut door and go.
You can leave your boot full of crap.

I built a false-floor in the boot of my Picasso using plywood with rubber matting glued on top – to make the floor level so the dogs could jump in and out! If your estate has a boot cover, can’t it just sit under that?

Ok so I should qualify this some more! This is for trips away, things like Aberdeen to Torquay at Christmas, I know I can technically fit everything in the boot but getting baby stuff out if it has an oil muddy bike on top will be a PITA. Want to keep things out of the rear passenger compartment so don’t really want to go putting seats down with LO in there too. Can ride from home or just throw bike in the car normally, this is just when all 3 of us are away.

One baby? Flip down other seats, bike upright with old blanket over.

Job jobbed.

Roof bars and Thule 968

I was talking about proper trips away. Haven’t found it’s a big hassle with bike on top of bags, simply use a tarp if it’s muddy, and not that hard to extract bags or buggy from underneath. Though with one baby, half folded rear seat and bike down one side is clearly optimum – not sure why you think that’s intruding on baby’s space in the passenger compartment, baby will still be surrounded by lots of empty back seat.

We used to go away with TWO kids and until they were considerably older there was always stacks of room for their kit in the rear footwells.
Remember – their feet will take years to touch the floor.
All their stuff you might want is right in front of them.
Your kit is in the back where you don’t need to go until you stop.
You’re overthinking things – as most first timers do tbh.

For that level of effort how about a bike box you can chuck stuff on top of?

As trail rat said though, don’t waste time when a rack is so quick and easy (and secure – in terms of carrying the load).

Also for anyone suggesting a vw camper – from experience I have yet to find a way to not take my bike to bits to fit it inside (road or mountain)

matt_outandabout – Member
One baby? Wheels off, flip down other seats, bike upright with old blanket over.

This. I managed this on a weeks holiday to the Lakes with my wife, my 5 year old, my mahoosive Trek Stache 29+, my sons Beinn 20 and all the gear needed for a week away including a wedding, swimming fell-walking and biking gear.

Tight in a 3 series, and I did bring the roof bars in case my Tetris skills weren’t up to the return journey, but we managed 350 miles each way quite comfortably.

Yeah the passenger compartment thing is safety rather than comfort, it just doesn’t seem great having a tiny baby mixing in with a load of pointy and or heavy luggage.

That’s what a tie down strap is for. Most estates have them, if not use seatbelt mount etc.

Though even if you don’t do that (I never did) how do you imagine your heavy pointy bike getting from part in the boot alongside the rear seat to where your baby is? More chance of a bike on top of luggage causing an issue.

aracer, not too sure really guess depends how I pack it. Tying down on points sounds like a good plan. I do have points in the boot but a lot of them are obscured by the boot liner,I could get them on the isofix/belt points though.

I’ve put bikes in there, and it’s really not an issue, especially if you have as much baby stuff filling the rest of the boot as you suggest! In fact in my car I can get 2 kids on the back seat with part folded, so have done it a lot more recently with several bikes including theirs.

T5/T6 for the win! 😉 You can fit a bike between the front and middle seats of a Multivan (I think they’re called something else in the UK), with the front wheel removed. It’s secured there are no need for straps plus you have 4 more seats for your future endeavours! 😉

Don’t forget that most cars have a fixed handle on the door too – useful to tie down.

Just as a counterpoint to all the “quart into a pint pot stories” that these threads inevitably produce I’ll put up this little set. 4 adults; 2 toddlers and enough equipment for a week in Whistler…

False floor in boot. Put the baby under that – loads of space for bike etc on top.

Or just buy a bike rack or van. Babys come with a LOT of stuff. Can’t think of possibly getting a bike in amongst all the baby stuff we used to cart around with us when we went away.

Similar to DaveyBoy :D, ive always considered a false floor, set at the right height for storage boxes/bags underneath and put bike/more crap on top. I guess the only real hassle would be accessing the boxes right at the back

One baby? Flip down other seats, bike upright with old blanket over.

Is the correct answer: it’s what I used to do before baby no.2 arrived. I use a towbar rack now.

Sounds like a lot of faff. Would rather put the bikes on top or at the back.

But I have dogs so need to keep the (estate) boot fairly clear. Bike would have been fine if I’d dismantled it a bit. I’ve had a dog longer than I’ve had kids though so I’ve never had this situation come up!

Alternatively, get a Brompton, they go in no bother!

I cant see how it would work.

Solved this with a very practical (but am aware uncool) Citreon Berlingo car variant, unbolted and took the single of the three seats in the back. Still leaves a double seat in the back and i can fit in bike upright without taking taking anything off.

Never going to win any style points, but they are so easy to live with, can unbolt and take out double seat and fit three people and three bikes, all complete and bags easily, plus insurance is cheap as the average age of a berlingo driver is 84

Big estate, teenage boys, bikes on the roof on Thule 591’s. No faff, no mess, no jaggy metal inside in event of the unthinkable big smash. Bike carriers in use 2 or 3 times every week.

Security wise wouldn’t leave unattended anywhere, but have no need to.

Roof box. Baby in box. Jobs a goodun