Good evening,
the last 2 cars I had were getting used all the time for bike hauling, so both had towbar mounted racks. More recently I've been using a van for bike carrying duties so everything's easy.
At the moment I'll be using a van for the vast majority of rides, however I will still have to use a (smallish) car every so often. Because it is only occasional (and also because I'll have to cut a hole in the bumper) I was thinking of going down the non-towbar route - but what is the favoured approach?
A decent strap-on rack (Saris Bones?) is fairly quick to mount but maybe a little flimsy, a roof rack would be more solid but a much bigger faff to fit (wouldn't be left on the car) and store. Add to the mix that it needs to be DH bike compatible (2 max, reasonably normal frame shapes at the moment though) and things might get even more complicated.
So what's the general concencus on STW for this sort of thing? Main question being boot vs. roof I suppose.
Cheers,
Mark
saris bones 2 is the best (non towbar) bike rack ive used;
solid, adjustable for awkward frames, easy to mount on the car
35lbs per bike is a little short on capacity of the dh bikes though. Any reason that I couldn't just get the 3 to get the extra capacity?
I use the Thule roof bars and got a Volvo bike rack (it's just the same as the Thule tho) it's a good solid rack it's the 591 rapid had two full sus bikes on at the wkend and was fine (my car is a Toyota starlet) small car looks mad with the bikes on the roof but saves a lot of fading about taking front wheels off etc i just leave the bars on all the time and the rack just slides on to the bars takes about 5miniutes!don't forget if the boot one covers the lights and number plate you'll need a lighting bord as the coppers can pull you over!
I've got a Thule bootrack on my mini and it mounts in 30 secs, carries 3 bikes comfortably. Really solid and simple to use.
Richard