After advice from the singletrackworld cerebral pool

I’m looking to get a tow bar fitted solely for adding a two/three bike rack to for when more than just me going out for a bike ride (normally just drop back seat and put my bike in the back )

Not sure if it’s realistic though as car is a …… Honda Jazz

Any suggestions on where to get tow bar and what would be the best bike rack ?

Don’t see why not. A mate has a single bike rack on a tow bar on the back of his Fiesta and my wife has just bought a used Skoda 1.2 Fabia which happens to have a tow bar fitted which will fit a bike rack.

There are usually tow bar fitting places advertised in Yellow Pages. Gooseneck tow bars restrict the range of racks you can fit – I think.

Have you got rear parking sensors? If you have you’ll be wanting to get either a removable tow bar or have the prober ‘factory’ electrics fitted. Otherwise you run the risk of the parking sensors engaging overtime you put the car in reverse, rendering them annoying and useless!

http://www.hedley-towbars.co.uk/products.asp?cat=173
For diy they offer good price and service.
Brink are OEM quality and fit well.

The Skoda Fabia we’ve bought has rear parking sensors and they work fine with the towbar. Just need to make sure she doesn’t reverse until the solid tone I guess.

We have a Jazz and were chatting to the dealer about this. Other than saying it would be cheaper to go down the road to an indy garage to get a hitch fitted he had no issues whatsoever with it and had seen other do exactly this.

Unfortunately we haven’t got any further than this so have no idea which towbar or rack to use. If you find a good solution I would appreciate any pointers!

You need to know he acceptable nose weight for towing with that car and make sure the bikes plus the bike rack doesn’t exceed that.

The nose weight is car specific because pushing down on the back lifts the front slightly and affects the handling (and traction on FWD cars).

Apart from that no problem.

I used to have a link to a good pdf of nose weights, cant fnid it, here is another site:
http://www.gocaravanning.com/towcars/

Thanks all,
So it seems that size don’t matter but how heavy your nose is does
No parking sensors, so no problem there
Buy for DIY or garage fit looks to be an option

Any suggestions on what the best two or three bike ball mount rack would be?
(Thinking likely two bike to reduce rear weight as third bike will be my lads which can still fit in car with split rear seat down )

I’ve never really understood the whole nose weight thing. I searched for ages for my mazda but it all seems to refer to actual towing which in the case of a bike rack you’re not actually doing. Caravans are pretty much balanced as you can move them round via hand when on the flat. With a bike rack the weight is literally suspended over the back of the car much like chucking a load of slabs in the boot. Discuss.

Have you thought about a Thule Clip-on? These mount to the rear door and are a cinch to fit & remove, but very solidly attached.
Can’t help thinking that’d be a cheaper and easier solution all round rather than fitting a tow bar just for a bike rack.
I have a little hatchback (Corolla) and despite it having a tow bar already, I prefer to use the clip-on style rack to a tow bar mounted one – four points of attachment rather than one!

It also means I can use the towbar for a trailer and have the bikes on the back when I do a camping trip with the family.

From the Thule website it seems both their 9103 and 9105 clip-on models will fit the Jazz.

You should be able to get a tow bar for just about any car, I remember looking at kits for my old corsa and there being lots available for pretty much any car.

If you’re really worried about nose weight try adding some mass in front of the rear axle to counterbalance the rack and bike, take your fattest friend or relative on all your biking trip? maybe a bag of cement in the passenger footwell?

With a bike rack the weight is literally suspended over the back of the car much like chucking a load of slabs in the boot. Discuss.

Except you’re not, it’s a load that is held out away from the Tow Bar and pivoting round the tow bar. Try holding a bike at arms length for an example.

The 4 bike rack on the Forrester we had lifted the nose enough that it was only used for shorter trips.

I put the rack on a detachable tow bar on our Skoda Fabia 2. Road bikes are fine for nose weight. 2 dirty mountain bikes and a boot full of wet kit is pushing it a bit. But as we can only carry 2 it’s not usual to carry 4 people.

I used a pendle ball tow bar fitting bike rack with great success on my mini without any problems, good for 85mph (allegedly),

It’s for sale if your in the North West if you’re interested.
Email in profile

Three bike rack on a Peugeot 206. Though I use for two adults or one adult and two kids bikes.

Whilst it is easy to exceed the stated weights I have been very careful to avoid this. However a friend with a similar set up told me exceeding this had limited impact on the driving experience even when going round the lakes and up steep hills. Apparently he once put on three adult bikes and a kids bike and drove to grizedale without any problem

Three bike rack would be pushing your luck IMO, better sticking to a two as that’s enough to put a decent load on the back end.

Why not a clip on? Well if you care about your paintwork a towbar is far superior, if it drops you can still get into the boot and you don’t have your bikes grinding against each other the whole way (no matter how secure you think it is you can guarantee it’ll be rubbing against something.

Obviously if you want to tow a trailer that eliminates most tow racks (but not all) but then you could just get a bigger trailer and put your bikes in that as well 😉

squirrelking – Member
Three bike rack would be pushing your luck IMO, better sticking to a two as that’s enough to put a decent load on the back end.

Potentially this.

Mate of mine wanted a 3 bike rack, but the nose weight of the car (Fabia estate) meant that 3 bikes and the rack would be over the limit…

I’m not precious about car paintwork as have got a clip on from previous but it’s a nightmare with girlfriends bike and neither sit right

I’m thinking that tow bar rack allow for level wheel mount, plus tow bar can then be used for trailer , or trailer rack, in the future

Thanks to john climber re pendle, but I’m based way down south , just outside London (so no mountains but i do have broxbourne and Epping on the doorstep:)

So deffo no more than a two bike, and possibly need extra ballast in front of car

Starting to sound like a plan

Was considering a Jazz when I bought my last car (went for a Fabia) and one of the considerations was whether a towbar could be fitted.

Boiled down to the following cars: Jazz, Fabia, C1/107/Aygo, IQ, Polo and a 500 (didn’t like the Panda). All capable of taking a towbar rack for two bikes easily. This is my first car with a towbar rack (had towbars before but on bangers, so just filled the boot!) and it’s miles better than the ‘sling it in the boot option’! Takes two bikes without any problems with weight, wouldn’t do 3 though as the front will get light.
The other thing is that it will make you less prone to changing your car as getting a towbar fitted costs a bit, could save you a fortune if you are prone to ‘new car’ whims.

The Jazz would be perfect for it, get it done 🙂

Doubt you would need ballast, I’m guessing you’re not gonna be rocking a pair of 40+lb DH monsters…

We fitted a towbar to our y plate Yaris

Was £125 , worked great with the Thule ride on
Rack, in fact the rack has survived nearly 12+ years

Makes a big difference to space & fuel economy vs a
Rack that straps on to the boot lid

I’ve seen a 2 bike tow bar mounted rack on a Smart Car!

Mate of mine uses a 2 bike one with his A1. Must be pushing 30kg,s plus rack by the time he’s got two full suss AM bikes on there, so 40 kg’s nose Weight maybe?. Has’nt fallen off yet.

So I took 4 bikes and all the gear for two weeks holiday, one week Cornwall bodyboarding and one week cotswolds/forest of Dean. I reckon the rack and the bikes must be 100kg combined then all the other shit in the boot. It drove fine.

I have a Honda Jazz and a Thule G2 293 – 3 bike rack.
I have only ever used it for 2 bikes (several times) so far but no problems at all.

It also means I can keep the car clean and lift up the rear “magic seats” and have a changing area if required.

100% realistic.

Late response from me, but thanks all for the advice

Tow bar and bike rack about to be put on order 🙂