Anyone use MkII Skoda Fabia for biking duties?

Bike in car?
Roof?

Anyone use MkII Skoda Fabia for biking duties?

They make the trails come alive.

Struggle with step downs though. A bit nose heavy.

On the roof, or tow bar.

wheels off in car but a pita.

I can get two bikes inside with wheels off, it’s a pain but doable.

I can fit a medium road bike in the back, intact, but two bikes of any sort involves the wheels off.

Depends how often you need to carry the bike(s) as to whether it is worth getting a rack for the roof or towbar

I have roof carriers but will need some bars.

Going from a BMW 3 series touring (potentially).

We have two. Usually I stick one bike inside with the front wheel off. Fully loaded we have had four people, three day’s of touring gear, two wheels inside with a tandem and two road bikes on the back.

We can fit our tandem and both riders inside, in fact we drove round Ireland with it and a week of holiday gear with it in the car last year in total comfort.

I have a three bike towbar carrier for our Monte Carlo and a roof rack for our VRS. Both work well, though the towbar is much better.

It’s as big a car as I hope I will ever need.

Its fine. I take the wheels off but I also did in my last car which was an medium sized estate.
MTB’s go on the roof to avoid dirt in the car.

I’ve got a monte Carlo estate and my bird zero will fit upright if I drop the saddle and remove the front wheel with the back seat down. I reckon I could fit three or four in at a squeeze.
I keep a massive tarp in the boot for post ride muddy bike duties. I’m considering a roof rack though as it would be alot less hassle.

The estate is a good car and the rear seats come out and the seat backs fold flat.
This makes them useful inside!.

Hatchback or estate?

Estate is great – road bike gets swallowed whole, or two mountain bikes with just front wheels removed (Orange Five and Banshee Prime, both Large, so not tiny bikes). No need to drop droppers, slide front seats forward or anything. Three people and three bikes is a bit more tetris-like and I always end out taking back wheels out too, but it’ll go.

Of course you can never admit to driving a Fabia if you want any kudos with the T5 / Defender / Audi S-Line brigade…

I reckon I could fit my 29er in the back of my monte estate but instead I’ve gone for whispbars and a Thule 598 roof carrier.

Looking at a hatchback VRS. One of the last made.

Test drove a 90BHp 1.2TSi hatch a couple of years back. Loved it.
Contemplating a change to small light and fun motoring and the 105 Fabia (prob estate) is on the list. Towbar and roof bars would get used as they do now on my BMW.

Just beware The 1.4 TFSi units can drink copious amounts of oil.

I have the 1.2TSI 105. You’d have to watch the nose weight with a towbar rack, there’s no weight at the front.

Had a vRS hatch for a couple of years. MTBs needed both wheels off (found it was just a bit too short with rear wheel on), and I was riding a 26″ wheeled hardtail at the time. Estate is much better, rare though in vRS form.

Good cars though, we could do with a smaller automatic again and finding it hard to find much else for the money that I like.

MCTD

Thanks-interesting info

It’s impossible to use anything other than the VRS for bike duties. 😉

Oh – and I still have my old roof rack, if you want it.

Avoid engines numbers stating CAVE like the plague. CTHE ones are fine.

Rachel

I’ve just swapped from a mk1 fabia hatchback to the mk2 fabia estate Monte Carlo 1.2 tsi 105. Highly recommend the whispbar roof rails as they’re so subtle looking. Can’t comment on the inside space though as not long had it and still need to use it for trips away.

Is having bikes on the back a big problem then on the estate?

No you just have to watch the nose weight.
I have been told that some places do not like fitting tow bars to the vrs and the monte carlo versions, how true this is I am not sure.

I also read the same on briskoda, I had no choice on the mk1 as it was a vrs and you can’t legally fit a towbar. I already had half the kit and am used to doing it, I also prefer the fact I don’t worry about the bike rubbing together constantly on journeys like I’ve always found with towbar racks.

We’ve had two, the 1.4 3 pot tdi and currently on a 1.9 tdi as our second car, 1.4 was more economical on paper but in real world you have to work it so hard that the 1.9 is cheaper to run, much faster too.

My wife tested our first one to destruction, multiple rolls and an impact with a telegraph pole. She walked away relatively unscathed and after pushing it over with a fork lift I started and drove it onto the low loader despite it having a fair amount of its engine components missing.

Tough little car.

I have the 1.2TSI 105. You’d have to watch the nose weight with a towbar rack, there’s no weight at the front.

Strange, I’ve got a 1.2 60PS (the 3 cylinder one) with a towbar and I’ve never had a problem with front end wander. But then I do stick to the weight limits of the ball and rack unlike some I see!

Be aware that the Vrs and some Monte Carlo’s (depends upon which rear crash structure it has) are not type approved for towbars, I was dithering between a Monte and mine and the towbar issue made the choice for me.

Great little cars for bike duties 😀

The VRS is a fun little car for the money. In a perfect world I would have had the current Fiesta ST but they were twice the price. The auto gearbox is great.

As above avoid CAVE engined cars, these are mostly pre 2013. CTHE engines like I have are fine.

While I prefer our towball rack note that you cannot get a towbar fitted to a VRS, they aren’t type approved.

Just a note, they seem sensitive to having good quality tyres on them. Mine was easier to drive quickly on twisty country lanes with Dunlop Sport Maxx tyres than the Hankook V12 evos that I replaced them with.

What is the nose weight limit for the MkIII?

Interesting debate on type approval for a tow bar.

They aren’t type approved for towing, hence any tow bar fitter would be reluctant.

I never heard you need type approval for a bike rack.

Surely you can just bolt one up yourself and will be legal if you only use it for a bike rack, never for towing?

50Kgs for a Mk3 estate-should easily be enough for 2-3 bikes

Wzzzzzz- that might be the case but absolutely everyone I asked when getting my Monte Carlo done wanted to make sure it was not a VRS and made it clear they wouldn’t fit one.

The Roomster is like a slightly bigger Fabia, but is much better for bikes – even better than the estate due to the extra head height. The rear seats can be completely removed and a bike rack fitted instead – still requires the removal of the front wheel.

Truly ugly car but then you’re inside and can’t see it! This also makes them cheap second hand.

We love ours and are slightly despondent that they don’t make them anymore.

I’ve a Roomster too – love it, front end of a Fabia on an Octavia floorpan with the back end of the popemobile, the rear seats fold up independently or can be removed completely – if you remove the middle, the outers also can slide sideways to give you more loading options, got my road bike in ours upright with both wheels on & the saddle up – although now it has a dog guard fitted & a baby seat so I’ll have to do some head scratching to work round that lot 😆

So – Fabia owners. Hypothetical question, is it possible to fit three humans (one XL, two M-L) and one bicycle (hardtail, M, 26″ wheels) in the hatchback version? And how uncomfortable / dismantled are we talking?

I would get something bigger. I test drove one and it didn’t look very big in the back at all. I ended up getting a golf estate which is massive inside considering the size of the car. Otherwise I would probably go for either a van or something with a sliding side door that you can just put a bike or two in without even taking a wheel off (imagine the joy). I’ve considered a Peugeot Partner but we have them at work and I know how unreliable they are.

I’m specifically asking (I realise I’ve hijacked the thread!) ‘cos I’m off to the Lakes in my dad’s car, I wouldn’t buy one specifically for bike duties…

Mk1 fabia or mk2? Not that it makes huge difference mind. Which of the humans will be driving? I reckon you’ll do it with the front wheel off and seat fully slammed. Or is that on top of a driver so four people in total?

MK1.

Three people total, the XL one will likely be doing most of the driving. TBH I’m happy to dismantle as much as I need so I’m confident I can do it, but some reassurance is always good!

you’ll easily do it, used to get my roadie or mtb in the back of my mk1 with the rear seats tilted forwards with only front wheel off. You’ll easily do it whether its both wheels or not.

It’s not that clear but here’s two medium and one small person in various states of happiness in a Fabia with a tandem in it with the wheels off.

You’ll be fine- drop the smaller of the rear seats, both wheels off and bike upright in the slot where the seat was will allow comfortable room for three, plus three holdalls one on top of the other in the boot for a weekend’s worth of gear.

Awesome. Cheers guys!