IR refers to my rack. Drop me a line at pimpmasterjazz at yahoo dot com if it’s of interest. 🙂

Very good condition etc. etc. 😉

And my experience of racks is despite what anyone claims it’s never 5 minutes to fit.

My experience is that it’s usually less than five minutes to fit and drive away.

Thule Euroclassic highly recommended.

Just don’t forget to plug the electrics in!

Hi PMJ, I might be interested in that, I’ll take a look at the spec and then drop you a mail.
Thanks also IR.

Was also thinking about some form of mobile cleaner, but putting the bike in the back of the car for local rides just doesn’t work for me.
If I’m travelling longer distances then I totally agree bike in the back is good, means theres no problem with security of bike. Driving to Les Arc in July, bike is going in the back for that trip, unless the tow bar mounted carrier proves to be a revelation.

I drove from Northumberland to Limoges last summer with 3 bikes on my tow-bar rack (and an awful lot of stuff in the car). Even at French motorway speeds, I averaged just shy of 50mpg (2.0 TDCI C-Max) for the whole trip and back. Tow-bar racks are great!

Put a couple of big fat locks through all the bike frames and wheels. for service-station security. No problems at all.

I have an altera strada rack – very convenient and the sliding option means you can still access the back door (I used it on a camper van) but as an earlier poster said, salt damage in the winter is a real concern.

Owned both roof racks and a tow ball mounted rack. Despite the fact that it only took a minute to put the tow bar rack on, I still think leaving your roof racks on the car is the most convenient solution. No obstruction to your boot and the bikes are just as quick to mount.

But as Trail Rat says, racks are the work of the devil, vans are the future 8)

+1 for the Atera Strada.

Atera actually make the roof bars and roof carriers for Skoda, Seat, VW, Audi, BMW & Mini (except you pay twice as much for the car manufacturers badge if you buy the stuff from a dealer from the dealer).

I bought a Strada for my wife’s car after putting a removable tow bar on it and also bought some roof rails, roof top bike carriers and a roof box for our trips to France with 5 bikes and a tent. What can I say.. I breed, cycle and travel !

I recently bought a Mini Countryman and I bought the Mini roof rails because I can use the same roof top bike carriers I bought for the wife’s car. The rear carrier for I got for the Mini is just a Strada with a special fitting to screw it into the bumper as opposed to putting on a tow bar. I can actually get 5 MTB’s on the Mini now !

Westfalia also make all the tow bars for all the VW group of cars. Order one with a new car and you’ll pay £300 more than you would if you buy one after picking up a car up. The removable one I had fitted even fits in a foam cut out in the boot with the car jack etc !

And my experience of racks is despite what anyone claims it’s never 5 minutes to fit. If you live in the average semi-detached with a shed round the back it’ll take longger than that to get it form the shed to the car, and however quick it is it’s never going to be as quick as taking the wheels off.

[list]
[*]Get rack from shed/garage[/*]
[*]Place on Towball[/*]
[*]Attach Torque Wrench[/*]
[*]Crank it up[/*]
[*]Plug lights in[/*]
[*]Place bikes on Rack[/*]
[*]Do straps up[/*]
[*]Drive off[/*]
[/list]
Definitely less than 5 minutes, and I can then negotiate multi-storey car parks, restricted height barriers and low tree branches with impunity.

Having said that, it’s a free country, and you can transport you bikes however you want to.

I had a Witter two pronged bike rack that bikes hang from – very quick and easy to set up as the mount stayed permenantly fixed to the car. Bike hung on it – couple of bungee cords through the wheels and round the locking point on the rack – light board on and away you go. Couple of minutes tops.

A new longer car and my wife didn’t want it extending any further with a tow bar so i compromised with a Thule clip on rack. Once it’s set up it’s a matter of seconds to fit – snaps firmly into place and supports the bikes by the wheels and an arm clamping to the top bar. The top tube clamp even locks for security although if i was leaving the bikes i’d back this up.

Worth considering as an alternative to towbar racks.