Tow bar Bike rack for 3 bikes!

Does anybody actually have a tow bar mounted bike rack that doesnt involve an engineering degree to get three bikes on?!

Also one that doesnt involve having to pack the bars with random bits of cloth because the outter two bikes end up with the bars knocking together!

The Thule Euro Classic G6 seems fairly clever from the video in that the clamping bars come off a heck of alot easier so you can put three bikes on and then slot them through where you can see gaps. We currently use a Thule of some sort and we end up not using the third slot cos its impossible!

How about this one?

Have a look at the Roofbox company site, lots of good info.

I have the Euro Classic and its a great bit of kit easy to fit and attach bikes. It’s very well built and that might be a problem as it is heavy and if you’re a little on the week side you may struggle to lift it onto the towball to clamp it.
Stoner has an alternative rack which you may find better. Either bike rack make sure you check the nose weight for your car. Calculate the weight of the rack plus all 3 bikes and make sure it doesn’t exceed the limit

I’ve got the Thule 929 Euroclassic G6. Bought from Freeborn This is £20 cheaper than I paid 12 months ago.

Putting bikes on is simple as the arms are all re-moveable (it still takes longer than fitting bikes on the roof). I have the 4th bike adapter and have carried 4 bikes down to the Alps. It locks on the tow bar simply and packs up relatively small for storage(fits in my boot). Its rated to carry up to 60 kg of bikes with the adaptor. I have stood my 80 kg on the carrier and its not slipped.

Its a lot of money but you get what you pay for & the fuel efficiency saving compared to carrying 4 bikes on the roof is remarkable.

How about this one?

No – in my view, the fatal flaw in the Strada DL is that you can’t remove the arms at all (at least, not without dismantling half the carrier). I ended up buying the Strada Evo instead for this reason, but I’ve also used a Thule G6. When loading 3 bikes, the ability to slot the arms through the gaps is a big help.

Both the Thule and the Evo have quite clever mechanisms to allow you to detach the arms, whilst still ensuring that they’re locked when the bike is actually on. With the Thule, you have to be careful to ensure that the arm is properly seated as if it’s not, the clamp on the frame will loosen.

On both racks, getting three bikes on can be quite squeeze, but by offseting the bikes forwards and backwards a bit you can usually find a place where they don’t touch. The Thule is better in this regard as, bizarrely, the arms on the Strada Evo have a closer spacing than the wheel trays, so the bikes are actually pulled closer together at the top 🙄

One tip is to load the bikes in order of frame tube size, smallest first, as this pushes the frames further apart rather than closer together.

I wouldnt say money is no issue but we;re at the point now where we want a rack that is fit and forget. Having had a thule with cloth straps which forever came loose and now this one which as I say is impossible to fit three bikes and we end up telling people to meet us at places rather than have three people in the car. The few times we have fitted three on I would say it took over half an hour of removing bikes and trying to find places to slot the bars through.

The Atera looks good actually from the standpoint that the straps that hold the bike actually ratchet around the whole tube, having had one slip loose of the clamp and tip over (im sure he’ll join in and comment soon on how he lost several inches of his bars that day)

ahhh the DL doesnt have easily removable arms? That looked a really good idea and at a glance did look like they would remove with just a bit of unscrewing. We do tend to offset forwards and back a bit but tend to find you cant quite do it enough without not being able to clip the wheels in, maybe super narrow tyres is the way forward!

I’ve a basic Thule plus my pal has the expensive Thule, both work fine – just sometimes its easier to take out (one or more) seatposts.

Usually have a few pieces of pipe insulation in the boot, always useful if the bikes touch/rub.

Another friend has a Pendle, and he had it customised with longer arms so there are bigger gaps between the bikes.

I think pdw has it with the strava evo

I have an old version of the one in the link ^^ there. Can’t say I ever wanted to remove the arms tho! Had it about seven years, done 1000s of miles, managed to half-break the towbar attachment (still works just needs care) on a new towbar and one of the lights failed (so stuck some LEDs in there) but it’s been brilliant. Super secure, loads lighter than my old thule one,

Been left outside as well since I had it and it still looks pretty good. Even after I accidentally backed it into a wall!

have you got any pictures of your bikes on the Strada Evo, the support arm looks really low for some reason, could just be the car etc the picture is taken on but wondering whether the arms will even reach the top tubes in places.

we have a thule rideon and 3 bikes work fine. Sometimes remove a seat post and needs some thought as to pedal position but only takes 5mins.

having had one slip loose of the clamp and tip over (im sure he’ll join in and comment soon on how he lost several inches of his bars that day)

I’ll let the picture do the taking Gc. Lol 😛

ahhh the DL doesnt have easily removable arms? That looked a really good idea and at a glance did look like they would remove with just a bit of unscrewing.

If I remember, the DL arms have a nut and bolt on the clamp, but with a second nut welded onto the end of the bolt, so that it can’t be removed completely for “security”. You could probably butcher the second nut off so that the arms were removable.

I don’t think that there is a great answer for what you’re after: all the carriers on the market hold the bikes too close together for easy and faff-free loading of three bikes, although once you’ve figured it out once, it’s quick enough to do it again. The only time I’ve carried three bikes, it’s always two mountain bikes and a road bike. I suspect that three mountain bikes is always going to be a PITA with the handlebars.

I think pdw has it with the strava evo

I’d love to say the Evo was the ultimate rack. It’s a very nice piece of kit, and is better than the Thule in all respects except the fact that the arms are the wrong lengths, and push the bikes closer together making loading that little bit more difficult:

Thule G6:

Strada Evo (notice how close the second and third bikes are):

I’ve been in touch with Atera, but they can’t offer an explanation for this bizarre bit of design. It’s not helped by the fact that the Thule clamps compensate for the differences in frame tube sizes, but the Atera ones do not.

I stuck with the Evo for various reasons – boot access is much better:

Thule:

Atera:

The Atera fits in the boot (just):

and has some nice touches like the strap holder, and a slot to hold the electrics plug when not in use.

The arms on the Atera are a bit lower, but in both cases it’s down tubes and seat tubes rather than top tubes.

Yeah road bikes or hardtails are so much easier as the third bike mostly down to the high top tube making it easy to clamp there but three full suss is mega awkward. The Strada evo 2-3 looks best as when that third 3 attachment is on its slightly higher than the other so i imagine the matching bars would sort of just miss each other. As well as the fact its not extremely common we have to carry 3, only really generally when my friend from Darlington comes or the weather is nice and the OH comes!

I also like the space behind the boot a lot more as our dog struggles a bit to jump into the boot with the back rack on and the bikes loaded on so Id imagine she’d have a much easier job of it.

Also like the fact the ratchet straps are locking without having to buy locking clamps so people dont have to worry quite as much about their bikes getting pinched!

No – in my view, the fatal flaw in the Strada DL is that you can’t remove the arms at all (at least, not without dismantling half the carrier)

I have a Strada and don’t see why you’d need (or want) to remove the arms? If you’re not using them just put them down and tighten the butterfly screw. The whole point its they stay on there so you can add 1-3 (or 4) bikes without having to find the bit you removed 2 weeks earlier.

The Evo is designed to carry heavier bikes – e.g. electric bikes, hence the rack is quite a bit heavier, and needs a higher rated tow-bar. If you’re carrying non-electric bikes you don’t need the Evo.

Every time I’ve tried to get three bikes onto either rack, I’ve needed to change the order of the arms, which you can’t do easily on the DL.

The other reason why it’s useful to be able to take them off is because if you’re forgetful like me, it’s quite annoying when you come to put the third bike on only to discover that the last arm needed to be slotted through the main triangle of the first.

We have had a Thule one for years and carry 4 bikes at a time. Easy to fit and load up. Trips to the Alps are no problem