On Monday, September 10, 2018 at 11:49:20 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-09-09 08:33, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 9/9/2018 10:44 AM, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-09-08 17:27, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, September 8, 2018 at 9:25:57 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-09-08 09:00, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 9/8/2018 10:12 AM, Joerg wrote:
I have a small SUV but that only holds one bike so if a friend
comes along we either need a truck or two cars.

Why on earth can you not carry more than one bike with a small
SUV?


You need a receiver plus an outside bike rack, neither of which I
have. I can get one bike inside but laying another on top of it is
out because the lifting aggravates my back pain and it can smash
stuff on the bikes, such as derailers.



In 1985 we bought a new Honda Civic station wagon. That's a very
tiny car. Yet a year later we drove that car to California and
back, towing a tiny camping trailer and carrying three bikes. Two
(including the tandem) were on the roof and one was on the rear
rack.


Don't have a roof or rear rack, and no receiver.

FYI, those things can be purchased on the open market.


Sure.

Receiver assy ... $200 (and only for the clone version)
Cable kit ... $ 50
Light bar ... $ 50
Bike rack ... $150

Oh for Pete's sake, you're quoting the most expensive possibility.


For my SUV those are EBay prices. Name-brand you could probably multiply
everything by three.


... If
you can't afford that your business must not be as successful as you
pretend.


I am winding it down, on purpose, because I'd like to retire early.
Also, a good businessman calculates everything and when another solution
(pickup truck) is less expensive overall then that is the preferable
solution.


So go to a garage sale and get a simple bike rack that straps on the
rear tailgate. I have two I acquired that way, and I rarely go near a
garage sale. Alternately you could buy a roof rack. I have two
inexpensive ones that have worked fine.


I do not trust trunk mount racks with heavy bikes on there.


I can install that myself to save another $200 or so for a shop but a
pickup truck is way more practical.

I've installed four hitches on our various cars over the years,
completely fabricating the first. Even you should not have to pay for
installation.


That's why it isn't listed in my cost tally.


But "A pickup truck is way more practical" is the typical American
solution to everything. "Gosh, what if I have to haul two tons of rocks?
That might happen some time in the next ten years, so I'd better buy a
vehicle that gets 15 miles per gallon when I get my groceries. Or hey, a
diesel! I can roll coal!"


Easy to say for an urban dweller. I am using my SUV like a pickup truck
a lot. Loads of firewood across rutted roads, half a ton of fuel pellets
at a time, schlepping gear to a client, and so on.

You are an urban dweller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv9_39dTggU

I bet I haul more stuff out of my yard on a more regular basis than you haul wood pellets and fire wood. I hauled off an entire 40' blue spruce and an equally tall fir, both of which I cut with a chainsaw here in suburbia. I hauled that off with a Subaru wagon and a utility trailer. Another good part about having a utility trailer is that you can fill it up and leave it, unlike a pick-up. I filled mine up again this weekend.



[Jay Beattie wrote:] I put two
bikes and a rack in the back of a VW bug.


Of course I have done stuff like that before. The results were often
unpleasant, such as bent derailer hangers and out of shape brake rotors.

It's all about competence.


Nope, it happens.

The most that has happened to me is that I got grease on the back of the seats. I've been stuffing bikes in cars for decades.


The main issue though is a lower back problem because a lot of lifting
while bent is required, something that can really ruin my day.

You have to pick up a bike to put it in a pick-up truck, unless you have a ramp, and then you have to pick up the ramp.

And how is it that you're hauling loads of fire wood with a bad back? Are you bringing it in one stick at a time? One pellet at a time? If you need a big bad pick-up truck for all the gnarly stuff you do in Cameron Park (way out in the country, five minutes from the nearest SuperCuts), you must be awesome rugged, a big strong bear of a man -- certainly manly enough to pick up a bike. How do you put your bike on the inadequate municipal bus racks?

Cars are far superior to pick-ups unless you use your pick-up to pick-up things every day. As actually used, pick-ups are just passenger cars with ****ty interior storage capacity and bad gas mileage. I see the suburban cowboys out in Clackamas County with the spotless, giant, chrome festooned F-five-zillion trucks with duals and naked lady mud flaps -- driving around and puking diesel smoke for nothing but show. They're driving to the local supermarket. And with mini trucks, you don't have any interior room for anything. The cargo goes into the bed to get blown around, rained on, bounced around, etc. And when it snows, you end up hauling snow.

-- Jay Beattie.