[Closed] What bike rack..

We have a Maxx Rack which can take up to five bikes ( needs a flange plate tow bar fitting ) - brilliant, also have a Saris Bones three rack which I hate. The Saris always gets great reviews , mine is three years old and they may have improved the design, but the strap and buckle system sucks - so avoid ( even if they do look pretty.

Single track did do a review of racks a few months ago - so maybe email Chipps and co and see if they have a back copy.

H

You basically have 3 choices, in (my) preferred order

Towbar mounted, need to check cost of getting one fitted though
Roof mounted
or inside the vehicle

I personally can't stand the boot mount racks never feel secure.

After that then you can't go far wrong with Thule, check roofbox.co.uk out

HTH

enjoy the new motor!

More importantly..what car you getting?

On the OT; tow bar mounted then in car, can stand the dangling off the back of the car setup. Roof is ideal.. but after driving into a garage with a brand new RM9 on a rental a few years ago I just cannot do it again :/

it wasnt my bike either...oops

Options are the following:

Nae rack, bike in car. Cheapest and safest option. No drawbacks at all if you're driving something spacious that you don't mind getting dirty. Plenty of drawbacks if you're not.

Boot rack. Cheapest of the racks, and modern designs are actually very safe. You could get one for £50 new from Halfords that is spot on. Main drawback is it will scratch the fk out of your bikes and motor. Some faff potential in sticking it on with straps etc relatively speaking.

Tow bar rack. Easiest and safest option, but can be expensive. £100 for a 3 bike thule one with lightboard, but you can probably add £200 to that if you need a tow bar fitting. No real drawbacks. Heard some folk complaining about more salt spray in the winter but that's about all I can think of.

Roofrack. Costly without the ease of use of the towbar rack. Thule one will be £200ish for rack and mount, but other brands are cheaper. Work fine but inferior to tow bar racks in a lot of small ways. Awkward to mount the bikes relatively speaking (absolutely speaking if you're a wee man / woman), takes approx 15% off the fuel economy, real potential for ploughing your bikes into something solid and immovable if you forget they're there. Safe enough, but less safe than the tow bar or modern boot racks IMO - whether this is due to fundamental issues with crosswinds etc, or just more potential not to mount the bike correctly when tired I'm not sure.

So, tldr version - Put your bikes in your car. Don't want to do that? Buy a tow-bar mounted bike rack.

Roof - Thule 591

Rear - Saris Bones

Towbar - Thule Euroclassic, best option if you already have a towbar fitted.

If you are in London you are welcome to borrow my Saris Bones and if you like it I would be happy to sell it to you

also how many bikes do you want to carry?

roof mounted is great, however gets more expensive the more bikes you carry. i used to have a 206, and got some 'factory' roof bars (new on ebay for £20) which didnt look out of place to leave on permanently, add to that a decent lock on bike carrier (£50 +) and it was a great combo.

tow bar mounted seems the most secure for the bikes and car, never owned one, however i'm guessing storeage can be an issue without a garage. although if your going to carry three bikes or more id rather have a trailer.

boot mounted racks are the most versitle and are good for folding down for storage however they have the most faults. The biggest for me is that cause issue with rear lights and number plate obsurement. technically should use a light board. also you have to be very careful about damage to teh car and or bikes from rubbing - my old car had numerous nicks to teh paint from a wayward pedal, and on a 3hr trip in the 90s two bikes rubbed together and went right through the paint.

personaly i have one bike which i take relatively short distanaces (most are less than 30mins but some are around 2hrs) and meet others at the trail so i use a Saris Solo.
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it only cost £29.99 (ebay) and is small enough to keep inthe boot of the car permanaently. If i'm doing a 2hr trip i take the wheels off so people can see my indicators / brake lights etc. this suits me fine at the moment however if i could fork out the cash for roof bars i'd go back to roof mounted.

I love my Saris Bones 3, best rack I've used and I think that the ratchet straps are the best out there. The other good thing about the bones is that it fits so many cars and if you change your car a lot as we do it is the best vfm

sorry i didnt tell you all what car it was, i guess that would help a bit, its a 1.2 corsa sxi 2006, would a roof rack fitting be ok for a corsa? stand the bike up then?

Monkeyboy, are those solos ok for blatting down the motorway? Four straps just doesnt look secure.

Doesn't the corsa have an integrated bike rack as an option? Not sure if you could get it retro-fitted.

re strap on racks, I used (Hollywood) 3 bikes, fine (4 hook points). Just make sure you do the straps properly and don't rely on the clamp holding(ie clamp as tight as you can then use the loose part of the strap to put a knot around the clamp so that it would have to slip both the knot and clamp to loosen, also check during journey etc as wet and wear (esp when new) can stretch straps). Also as it was a hatchback I always used two 1" motorbike adjustable hooked tiedowns, going from rear seatbelt mount points, thru hatch sides to the end of the rack legs, and used these to 'force' the rack onto the car and IMHO these are a lot beefier than rack straps.

Also consider a lightbar, I added one using scotchlocks and had the end of the car cable zippied to the rear tow point) *ie no towbar etc needed)

Those racks are on the new ones, and cost £500 as an extra and are apparently rubbish.

TBH, i hate saying this, but on a 1.2 corsa, you're best getting a rear mounted rack. A roof rack will act as a parachute, and it'll take ages to get going when accelerating. It will, however, be more secure.

Something like a Saris Bones would be fine. Just check the straps every say, hour of driving that they haven't come loose. The amount of times i've seen bike racks fully loaded hanging off the car (with straps loose or just dangling) is shocking.

Monkeyboy, are those solos ok for blatting down the motorway? Four straps just doesnt look secure.

yeah its fine - i dont do more than 70 any way with a bike on the back - you do need a bungee cord though to stop the wheels spinning and the bike swaying/hitting the car.

hey love that vid...nice to be local too and an orange five ! 😉
how old is the corsa chipps..?
wonder if you can have that rack fitted to the older corsa. ? would that be very expensive do you know... 😉

my car aint got that, its a 2006 corsa

+1 for towbar 😉

if you are on your own or one other rider - dust sheets and wheels off, in the back of the car, easiest and, most importantly for a new motorist, costs you nowt

Saris bones RS. I have had strap ones before but they have always failed me eventually, usually going around roundabouts! the saris with its ratchet strap attachment makes it hold onto my boot lid like a limpet! don't try to open boot though as that means paint chips and such like they are expensive but lockable and I have carried 3 bikes on it on a BMW mini, alfa brera, Volvo doesnt fit on a vectra though! all boot racks do scratch eventually but I have found cutting an old inner tube up and fitting the boot hooks over a bit of tube stops it!

yeh but sometimes ur bike can come back filthy so reason for bike rack, its got little sliders on the roof looks like its for a roofrack ill find one..

Roofrack. Costly without the ease of use of the towbar rack. Thule one will be £200ish for rack and mount, but other brands are cheaper. Work fine but inferior to tow bar racks in a lot of small ways. Awkward to mount the bikes relatively speaking (absolutely speaking if you're a wee man / woman), takes approx 15% off the fuel economy, real potential for ploughing your bikes into something solid and immovable if you forget they're there. Safe enough, but less safe than the tow bar or modern boot racks IMO - whether this is due to fundamental issues with crosswinds etc, or just more potential not to mount the bike correctly when tired I'm not sur

I use a Thule 591 - there's no way it costs 15% in fuel economy - got 58mpg on my last trip with the bike. I doubt it's much different to a rear mounted rack, economy wise.

As for mounting, it couldn't be easier. Put bike on rack, turn handle, tighten wheel straps.

I use a Thule 591 - there's no way it costs 15% in fuel economy - got 58mpg on my last trip with the bike. I doubt it's much different to a rear mounted rack, economy wise.

I use the roof rack carriers as they suit me. Standard vauxhall aero bars you will get off ebay pretty cheap and they are good. I use 2 mont Blanc barracuda racks and a thule 501, the mont blanc are miles better than the thule but they do cost a bit more. Good search on ebay and you will get a decent rack and carriers for not alot of cash. The added advantage of the roof bars is you can also use them for carrying a variety of other stuff too if need be..

That's bollox, tbf. 15% is just an approximation - will be highly variable on vehicle, speed, # of bikes etc. Drive down the motorway at 75mph for an hour with 2 bikes on the roof and you'd be dong well with 15% off IME. Do half an hour pootling round the lanes with one bike on and it would be less.

15% isn't an approximation. It's a massive, pointless exaggeration.

15% isn't an approximation. It's a massive, pointless exaggeration.

I'll add my two-peneth worth.

For the record I used to have roof mounted carriers and now I have a thule tow bar mounted rack.

The roof mounted carriers were quicker to put on and off, just lift them up and a couple of clicks and they're on and out of the way. The tow bar mounted one takes a little more care and attention.

There's also the boot thing. My tow bar rack does have the tilt facility but its still not as easy as not having them there at all.

The fuel economy thing is a problem with roof mounted carriers though, well I say problem more of an issue. At the end of the day if you're going out with a few mates then you share the fuel costs anyway. My last car (diesel Skoda Oct) did approx 50mpg combined, with the roof mounted carriers the car did 40mpg, still not bad. Tpw bar rack I haven't noticed any difference.

With my tow bar rack i've noticed that the bikes get covered in road muck, something which the roof racks didn't suffer from, not good if you don't rinse or wash them when you get back.

In somethingion I probably prefer roof mounted carriers, but to be honest they're both good and have there plus and bad points.

^^ this - i dont remember ever haveing a noticable abount of drop in mpg with a roof rack mounted bike on, motorway trip or otherwise.

For anyone interested in the realities of fuel economies and racks, some good discussion here:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/roof-carriers-vs-towbar-economies-and-thoughts

http://forums.mtbr.com/car-biker/roof-mounted-rack-mpg-421377.html