Hi,

We’re camping in France and Spain with the car in a few weeks and I’m considering taking the bikes on the boot rack since last time we did this we often missed having them.

Just wondering what other peoples experiences of this are and how you secured bikes overnight/when bumbling around towns or off walking somewhere?

Thanks.

I used to drop the back seats and throw them inside the car and cover up with a blanket. The car was parked next to the tent for peace of mind.

Maybe not an option for your car though?

Big bike lock chain through the car alloys and around the bikes.

I had a bit 15ft of wire(well metal cable actually) with clamps bolted to each end, loop thru and ends in boot

I also have from ebay a plastic coated 3 metal cable that I use

Thanks for the replies.

jp-t: Car is a VW Polo, so it could be done, albeit with a bit of faff – I’ll give it a go later today and see how everything fits.

The more I think about it, it’s unlikely we’ll go that far without the bikes – we’ll probably just use them as our main form of transport (Other than a bit of walking in some national parks in Spain) so it’s mainly overnight I’m worried about.

I’ve got a bit of metal cable in the cupboard but I’m not sure it’ll go through both bikes and a wheel – will give that a go later on as well.

don’t forget seat

Some cars have ideal wee securing points inside- like, my Focus had a wee metal loop for the seatbelt anchors or something, which a lock fitted into. Obviously racks are no security at all but a car’s a pretty good immovable object, chain around a suspension member or other convenient pokey-out bit.

Chain mine to the towing point loop

Only a deterrent though but the chances of a hardened criminal on a campsite is fairly slim IMHO

chances of a hardened criminal on a campsite is fairly slim IMHO

LOL

I use a collection of big cable locks, a tree & also one of those cable alarms.

Personally, if I was staying somewhere where I felt security was an issue, I’d be careful which part of the car I secured the bikes to.

Last thing I’d want would be an attempted theft immobilising the car in some way whilst 800 miles from home, with 2 small children.

Most big camp sites are pretty secure IME, it’s the overnight stops on the motorways which worry me more.

That’s fair enough Legoman, although I have yet to commit to producing small people.

I am a bit concerned about leaving bikes in the back and having the windows put through though.

I’m probably overthinking this though – in my experience I’ve never had any trouble when driving around France except once I drove to a boulangerie and they’d run out of croissants.

bikes in the back of car, wheels off, big obvious chain through all frames and wheels, and a securing point in the car, makes them “nearly impossible” difficult to remove from the car…

more importantly.. insurance

On campsites in Switzerland & France: 2 x 1m 13mm chains and 2 squire gold-standard locks to secure 4 bikes to tree (must be relatively thick trunk). Further 2 cables and locks snaked through wheels & forks and the Thule tow bat mounted carrier.

The campsites I stayed at tended to have perimeter fences. This said on those campsites there were numerous other bikes dotted around, not locked up, so hopefully thieves will always target other easier to thieve bikes.

lock it and hide it