Bike on Towbar Rack – with front wheel off?

People,

I’m looking for options to carry a Turbo Levo XL on a tow-bar rack on the back of a Mercedes Sprinter Camper.

At times I can carry the whole bike inside the camper, other times it would need to be on the rack. To make is less attractive to thieves and less bulk on the back, I’m thinking remove the battery and front wheel.

Are there any known, safe methods for clamping front axle to standard Thule type rack rails? Tiny front dummy wheel maybe? I haven’t bought a tow-bar rack yet.

Tia

Watching with interest as I can no longer fit a bike on the first rail of my Atera, due to handlebar hitting window. One (admittedly crap) option was to take off the front wheel and rotate the bars.

I have a tow bar carrier – use it on the camper.

On the rail near the van the bars would hit the window

So I slacken the stem bolts and turn the bars in line. 2 min job to straighten then tighten after taking the bike off. Makes it easier with multiple bikes as well.

I have on occasion put a bike inside the camper but rarely as it’s easier to pop in on the rack

If the rails are standard ratchet fixings, I think I’d put the thru axle back in, pop some pipe lagging over the axle including the end of the forks, turn the bars and put the ratchet over the axle.

This

Hang On Bike Rack

Or if you need it to tilt then that:

https://www.thule.com/en-gb/bike-rack/towbar-bike-racks/thule-hangon-3-tilt-_-972000

Also following … Ebike on the back of my Hillman Imp looks hilarious! I was going to machine a bolt through hub mount, haven’t got around to designing it yet though.

Instead of machining if that’s not possible you could cut a bit of circular wood to 110mm (assuming boost) drill it out so the fork axle passes through snuggly, 16mm, and clamp it up. Then do as above, turn the bars and fit to bike rack with the ratchet.