Rack questions

"Jeremy M. Dolan" wrote in message
om...
Hello, r.b.tech! First post here, as I've just started cycling
somewhat seriously (~100mi/week) this year.

It's come time for me to do away with wedging my bike into the
trunk/back-seat for road trips. Especially as my last attempt smashed
up a cable ferrule so bad the whole thing needed to be rerun. I was
hoping a helpful soul could steer me in the right direction for a
rack.

I'm currently driving a '98 Plymouth Breeze, but purchasing a sun-roof
equipped '04 VW Golf soon. Does a sun-roof pretty much rule out a roof
rack? I've heard varying reports.

snip

Thanks for listening, and extra thanks for any info you can provide.

/jmd

I saw this in nl.fiets (the dutch cycle newsgroup)
A very creative guy made his own mobile "in car" stand. I don't know if it
will fit, but I like it very much.
He put pictures online:

http://home.planet.nl/~holtm072/plaa...andaard001.jpg
http://home.planet.nl/~holtm072/plaa...andaard002.jpg
http://home.planet.nl/~holtm072/plaa...andaard003.jpg
http://home.planet.nl/~holtm072/plaa...andaard005.jpg



Good luck

hAr

"Jeremy M. Dolan" wrote in message
om...
Hello, r.b.tech! First post here, as I've just started cycling
somewhat seriously (~100mi/week) this year.

It's come time for me to do away with wedging my bike into the
trunk/back-seat for road trips. Especially as my last attempt smashed
up a cable ferrule so bad the whole thing needed to be rerun. I was
hoping a helpful soul could steer me in the right direction for a
rack.

I'm currently driving a '98 Plymouth Breeze, but purchasing a sun-roof
equipped '04 VW Golf soon. Does a sun-roof pretty much rule out a roof
rack? I've heard varying reports.

If a roof rack isn't practical, any recommendations on a trunk rack
that would fit on both cars securely? (Key word being securely, I
suppose). As far as my typical usage for it, a fair amount of 75-80mph
highway driving, with 90-95% of the time only a single bike on the
rack.

I know my local shop stocks the Saris Bones rack, and a quick check of
the "Fit Guide" on their web site shows that it would work for both
cars. Any opinions on this one?

My current bike is an '04 Giant Cypress LX, if that matters. I'm
wishing I'd gone with a full road bike at this point, but oh well.
Gives me an excuse to buy a brand new one next year, and something to
look forward to.

Anything else I should plan on buying? Straps and the like... I'd like
to be using it on the highway on 4th-of-July weekend, so I won't have
a whole lot of time to debug the whole mounting getup and order extra
parts.

Also, what's the deal with elements exposure? I normally try to wipe
down my bike after any ride where it gets wet or dusty. But every bike
I see attached to a car is out in the open, taking all of the rain,
snow, sleet, and hail, dust and dirt, at highway speeds. That CAN'T be
good, can it? Why don't people use some sort of dust/rain cover? Are
any available?

Thanks for listening, and extra thanks for any info you can provide.

/jmd

If I was you, I'd keep doing what your doing until you get a new car, and
then figure out the best way to transport bikes in the future. Besides
strap-on rear racks, all other methods require some investment in
specializing a rack to a particular vehicle. If your going to get a new car
fairly soon, why make that investment for such a short timeframe.

The safest way to transport a bicycle is inside the vehicle. All other
methods of carrying a bicycle have compromises. All other methods leave the
bicycle vulnerable to weather, increased risk of theft and potentially
damage.

That being said, it not always practical to stuff your bike into a car. If
it's on the roof you have the hassle of lifting it onto a roof (some
vehicles have very high roofs), you measureably decrease your fuel
efficiency and run a very real risk of accidentally smashing your bike into
a parking garage ceiling (I'll admit I've done it once in the 20+ years of
transporting bikes).

The rear strap-on racks are OK for the person who only transports bikes
occassionally. I have a neighbor who has one of the Yakima strap-on racks
and they would generally decide not to cycle rather than go through the
hassle of attaching the rack.

Last year I got a trailer hitch put on my car, and went with a hitch style
rack (Sportworks TranSport model). So far, life is good. Attaching or
removing the rack takes about 1 minute vs. 10-15 minutes for a roof rack w/
2 bikes. No more worry about parking garages. Seems to be a bit more
areodynamic for slightly better gas milage. Easy to lift bikes onto rack,
and the Sportworks rack holds pretty much any bike rock solid (they don't
shift and bang into each other). The negatives - it is possible to back
your bikes into something, or someone could hit you from the rear. The
other safety issue is that the bikes obstruct the clear vision of your tail
lights. Building an additional set of tail lights into a rack would solve
this problem, but I don't know of any racks that have this feature (atleast
in the US). It might be worth getting a cheap trailer tail light setup and
mounting them to a rack.

Of course the best solution is to just ride your bike, and not use the car
at all.

In the Golf you can fold down the back seat and put two bikes in the
back. No rack worries and you don't risk a rack failure at highway
speeds.
-------------
Alex

I've got the Saris 2 bike carrier. I agree with Russ, though, get the 3
bike carrier. The single arm puts a lot of pressure on my trunk lid. The
extra upper arm would make a big difference I think.

As some of the other guys said, however, it is best to keep your bike in
your car. No matter where I take my bike, I am always a little nervous
leaving it for any length of time. A quick cut of the straps and someone
has got themselves a new ride.

- Noel

Russell Seaton wrote:

Saris Bones 3 bike rack. Not the 2 bike rack. The 3 bike rack has
two legs for the bumper and two legs for the trunk lid. The 2 bike
rack has just one leg for the trunk lid. This rack adjusts to fit
almost any car or truck or van. Front or back.

http://www.greenfishsports.com/index...PROD&ProdID=86

$99.95 at Greenfish Adventure Sports.


(Jeremy M. Dolan) wrote in message . com...

Hello, r.b.tech! First post here, as I've just started cycling
somewhat seriously (~100mi/week) this year.

It's come time for me to do away with wedging my bike into the
trunk/back-seat for road trips. Especially as my last attempt smashed
up a cable ferrule so bad the whole thing needed to be rerun. I was
hoping a helpful soul could steer me in the right direction for a
rack.

I'm currently driving a '98 Plymouth Breeze, but purchasing a sun-roof
equipped '04 VW Golf soon. Does a sun-roof pretty much rule out a roof
rack? I've heard varying reports.

If a roof rack isn't practical, any recommendations on a trunk rack
that would fit on both cars securely? (Key word being securely, I
suppose). As far as my typical usage for it, a fair amount of 75-80mph
highway driving, with 90-95% of the time only a single bike on the
rack.

I know my local shop stocks the Saris Bones rack, and a quick check of
the "Fit Guide" on their web site shows that it would work for both
cars. Any opinions on this one?

My current bike is an '04 Giant Cypress LX, if that matters. I'm
wishing I'd gone with a full road bike at this point, but oh well.
Gives me an excuse to buy a brand new one next year, and something to
look forward to.

Anything else I should plan on buying? Straps and the like... I'd like
to be using it on the highway on 4th-of-July weekend, so I won't have
a whole lot of time to debug the whole mounting getup and order extra
parts.

Also, what's the deal with elements exposure? I normally try to wipe
down my bike after any ride where it gets wet or dusty. But every bike
I see attached to a car is out in the open, taking all of the rain,
snow, sleet, and hail, dust and dirt, at highway speeds. That CAN'T be
good, can it? Why don't people use some sort of dust/rain cover? Are
any available?

Thanks for listening, and extra thanks for any info you can provide.

/jmd

Here's another vote for the hitch rack...

I got a rack that has a 1.24" foot, and an adapter for the 2" foot, so I can
put it on my car (Honda Civic) or the family truckster (Nissan Pathfinder).
Sure, I would not leave the bike on there for any duration while not in
sight of it (I have been known to take it off the rack, and bring it into
restaurants and the like, and leave it at the coat rack.) but if there are
situations where you can't keep it inside the car, this, INHO is the best
bet. No big lifting onto the roof (or forgetting it when you pull into the
garage) and trunk racks tend to screw up the paint on the car, whether from
the rack, straps/hooks, the bike itself, or just you being clumsy. Plus
multiple bike hitch racks are really handy (did an endurance race with a
friend, and between the two of us, we had 3 bikes and a driver for us - none
of this change a tire if you flat, just grab a new bike (thankfully we
didn't need it, but it felt nice knowing it was there ;-)



"rosco" wrote in message
hlink.net...
"Jeremy M. Dolan" wrote in message
om...
Hello, r.b.tech! First post here, as I've just started cycling
somewhat seriously (~100mi/week) this year.

It's come time for me to do away with wedging my bike into the
trunk/back-seat for road trips. Especially as my last attempt smashed
up a cable ferrule so bad the whole thing needed to be rerun. I was
hoping a helpful soul could steer me in the right direction for a
rack.

I'm currently driving a '98 Plymouth Breeze, but purchasing a sun-roof
equipped '04 VW Golf soon. Does a sun-roof pretty much rule out a roof
rack? I've heard varying reports.

If a roof rack isn't practical, any recommendations on a trunk rack
that would fit on both cars securely? (Key word being securely, I
suppose). As far as my typical usage for it, a fair amount of 75-80mph
highway driving, with 90-95% of the time only a single bike on the
rack.

I know my local shop stocks the Saris Bones rack, and a quick check of
the "Fit Guide" on their web site shows that it would work for both
cars. Any opinions on this one?

My current bike is an '04 Giant Cypress LX, if that matters. I'm
wishing I'd gone with a full road bike at this point, but oh well.
Gives me an excuse to buy a brand new one next year, and something to
look forward to.

Anything else I should plan on buying? Straps and the like... I'd like
to be using it on the highway on 4th-of-July weekend, so I won't have
a whole lot of time to debug the whole mounting getup and order extra
parts.

Also, what's the deal with elements exposure? I normally try to wipe
down my bike after any ride where it gets wet or dusty. But every bike
I see attached to a car is out in the open, taking all of the rain,
snow, sleet, and hail, dust and dirt, at highway speeds. That CAN'T be
good, can it? Why don't people use some sort of dust/rain cover? Are
any available?

Thanks for listening, and extra thanks for any info you can provide.

/jmd

If I was you, I'd keep doing what your doing until you get a new car, and
then figure out the best way to transport bikes in the future. Besides
strap-on rear racks, all other methods require some investment in
specializing a rack to a particular vehicle. If your going to get a new
car
fairly soon, why make that investment for such a short timeframe.

The safest way to transport a bicycle is inside the vehicle. All other
methods of carrying a bicycle have compromises. All other methods leave
the
bicycle vulnerable to weather, increased risk of theft and potentially
damage.

That being said, it not always practical to stuff your bike into a car.
If
it's on the roof you have the hassle of lifting it onto a roof (some
vehicles have very high roofs), you measureably decrease your fuel
efficiency and run a very real risk of accidentally smashing your bike
into
a parking garage ceiling (I'll admit I've done it once in the 20+ years of
transporting bikes).

The rear strap-on racks are OK for the person who only transports bikes
occassionally. I have a neighbor who has one of the Yakima strap-on racks
and they would generally decide not to cycle rather than go through the
hassle of attaching the rack.

Last year I got a trailer hitch put on my car, and went with a hitch style
rack (Sportworks TranSport model). So far, life is good. Attaching or
removing the rack takes about 1 minute vs. 10-15 minutes for a roof rack
w/
2 bikes. No more worry about parking garages. Seems to be a bit more
areodynamic for slightly better gas milage. Easy to lift bikes onto rack,
and the Sportworks rack holds pretty much any bike rock solid (they don't
shift and bang into each other). The negatives - it is possible to back
your bikes into something, or someone could hit you from the rear. The
other safety issue is that the bikes obstruct the clear vision of your
tail
lights. Building an additional set of tail lights into a rack would solve
this problem, but I don't know of any racks that have this feature
(atleast
in the US). It might be worth getting a cheap trailer tail light setup
and
mounting them to a rack.

Of course the best solution is to just ride your bike, and not use the car
at all.

Roof racks look cool but you risk serious damage if you drive into your
garage with bike still on. It happens. People I know make sure they put the
garage door opener in the back seat or trunk whenever they have the bikes on
top.

Trunk racks, where they contact your car's paint will eventually leave a
mark no matter what kind of pads they have.

Hitch mounts are a good alternative if your car is amenable to installation
of a hitch.

I have a license plate mount http://www.bdiracks.com/bdiplate.html rack
which works pretty well but I only use it with one bike. Its best features
are easy mounting and removal of rack and lack of contact with you car's
finish except for the rubber-coated hook that attaches to the lip of your
trunk. It does have a receiver (like a mini-hitch) that always remains
attached to your license plate backing plate. I use a velcro strap to tie
the front wheel to the downtube to immobilize the front wheel.

"Ian S" wrote in message
news:yQGCc.20$Dp.10@fed1read04...
Roof racks look cool but you risk serious damage if you drive into your
garage with bike still on. It happens. People I know make sure they put
the
garage door opener in the back seat or trunk whenever they have the bikes
on
top.


If we have them on top, we put the door opener in the glove compartment.
The problem with us wasn't with our own garage. I bashed them into a
parking garage, and my wife did the same on another occasion. Luckily, the
racks took the brunt of the impacts, and the bikes weren't fatally damaged
(new headset on one bike and a new front wheel on the other).

We have a close friend who also wacked her bike into a parking garage on two
different occasions. In her case the bike didn't fare so well. She doesn't
put them on the roof anymore.

Yakima use to have an accessory called a Load Alert which was a magnetic
backed spring loaded sign that would pop-up when you slowed down to about 5
mph. You could place it on your hood and have it serve as a reminder that
you had stuff on your roof. Don't think they make it anymore.

On Fri, 25 Jun 2004 03:36:41 GMT, "rosco"
wrote:


"Ian S" wrote in message
news:yQGCc.20$Dp.10@fed1read04...
Roof racks look cool but you risk serious damage if you drive into your
garage with bike still on. It happens. People I know make sure they put
the
garage door opener in the back seat or trunk whenever they have the bikes
on
top.


If we have them on top, we put the door opener in the glove compartment.
The problem with us wasn't with our own garage. I bashed them into a
parking garage, and my wife did the same on another occasion. Luckily, the
racks took the brunt of the impacts, and the bikes weren't fatally damaged
(new headset on one bike and a new front wheel on the other).

We have a close friend who also wacked her bike into a parking garage on two
different occasions. In her case the bike didn't fare so well. She doesn't
put them on the roof anymore.

Yakima use to have an accessory called a Load Alert which was a magnetic
backed spring loaded sign that would pop-up when you slowed down to about 5
mph. You could place it on your hood and have it serve as a reminder that
you had stuff on your roof. Don't think they make it anymore.


Dear Rosco,

Yakima may not make the Load Alert any more, but these guys
still claim to sell it:

http://www.usoutdoorstore.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=31874!328&csurl=%2Fistar.asp%3Fa% 3D3%26dept%3D05%26class%3D07

Carl Fogel

On Fri, 25 Jun 2004, rosco wrote:
"Ian S" wrote in message
Roof racks look cool but you risk serious damage if you drive into your
garage with bike still on. It happens.

If we have them on top, we put the door opener in the glove compartment.
The problem with us wasn't with our own garage. I bashed them into a
parking garage, and my wife did the same on another occasion.

After risking the same fate, once, I devised a wholly different concept.

After removing the front wheel, I lay the bike horizontally onto two
wooden slabs tied to the roof rack and I secure it with a couple of
elastic straps. The slabs have indentations just where the seat post, the
stem and the left crank arm lean on it; to prevent any scratching at
points of contact, three chuncks of rubber hose cut lengthwise and placed
around the aluminum parts do the job.

A tandem bike? You need only arrange an extra indentation at the correct
spot.

Two bicycles? You need to have three slabs and to place the bikes 180
degrees out of phase.

Front wheels? Anywhere you like.

Sergio
Pisa

Looks pretty scary to me.

Why not make your own, for $30 in parts (if you have a Class II receiver).
One-inch square tube fits perfectly in the receiver.

All the benefits of a rear hitch: on-off in seconds, no overhead worries,
bike in the low-pressure area behind vehicle, etc.

.... but absolutely no contact with the car's bodywork. This hitch FIELD
TESTED to well in excess of posted speed limit, and the bike
mounts/dismounts with one click.

http://home.mindspring.com/~pennstar/

Bernie
(remove numerals to Reply)


"Ian S" wrote in message
news:yQGCc.20$Dp.10@fed1read04...
Roof racks look cool but you risk serious damage if you drive into your
garage with bike still on. It happens. People I know make sure they put
the
garage door opener in the back seat or trunk whenever they have the bikes
on
top.

Trunk racks, where they contact your car's paint will eventually leave a
mark no matter what kind of pads they have.

Hitch mounts are a good alternative if your car is amenable to
installation
of a hitch.

I have a license plate mount http://www.bdiracks.com/bdiplate.html rack
which works pretty well but I only use it with one bike. Its best features
are easy mounting and removal of rack and lack of contact with you car's
finish except for the rubber-coated hook that attaches to the lip of your
trunk. It does have a receiver (like a mini-hitch) that always remains
attached to your license plate backing plate. I use a velcro strap to tie
the front wheel to the downtube to immobilize the front wheel.