[Closed] Whats more efficient - bike versus roofbox?

I'd bet that a decently designed roofbox and aerobars will be a lot nicer and cheaper to drag through the air than a bike. My experience with Thule aerobars and a Thule box vs. my Thule bike rack confirms this (subjectively) - especially at 130km/h on French motorways.

Would you leave camping gear in a locked roofbox in a car overnight? After the Bonty 24, I'll be staying in the local Premier Inn overnight. The bikes will come in with me but is my tent safe!?

Kinda depends a lot where the car is parked. I do, however, have a few large holdalls that fit a bit like a jigsaw puzzle into the box. I think Thule do some dedicated, but expensive, holdalls of a similar idea, which I how I got the idea. However, just going into a sports retailer and choosing ones with appropriate dimensions for each piece of the jigsaw it's pretty easy to do on the cheap. So if I do have to pack/unpack, it's fairly painless...

Possibly not now you've told the entire world where its going to be when you're sleeping the sleep of the dead after a 24 hour race.

I find the roofbox surprisingly efficient, while the bikes to be surprisingly inefficient. It's really stable

Would be happy to leave stuff in a roofbox, not as secure as the car but still not shockingly bad, it's out of sight too

We stayed there last year. Carpark is a no-mans land between the hotel and the mock-old attached pub/restaurant. Probably fine, but nothing is really overlooking it.

I'd just camp another night if I were you - no point uprooting when knackered for the sake of a bed.

And locked roofboxes aren't really locked are they? Just flex the sides and the lock is overcome usually.

Plymouth is rough but not that rough.

And the drive down on the first weekend of the summer madness will be slow enough that aerodynamics really won't come into it...

I doubt you'd be saving more than a fiver either way...not worth the time spent posting and checking updates on this thread I'd imagine.

I'd wager on the box being the more efficient method. I don't have anything to compare to (having never carried bikes on roof) but I recently hired a fairly un-aerodynamic looking box for my 135 and it only knocked fuel economy down by 2-3mpg (37ish to 34ish mpg) and I wasn't exactly taking it easy..