Bike rack style?

672 Views 22 Replies 10 Participants Last post by ericksaint, May 24, 2004

mrjackson2000

Discussion Starter · Sep 22, 2003

what style should i buy?

Roof Mount	3	33.33%
hitch mount	1	11.11%
trunk mount	5	55.56%

1 - 20 of 23 Posts

mrjackson2000

Discussion Starter · #2 · Sep 22, 2003

i've been looking around for a bike rack for my car. it needs to be for at least 2 bikes and i don't want to spend a fortune on it.
gmpartsdirect has the roof mount one for $150+$80+$80 but i'm not sure if it's sunroof compatible. there are a few other makers too.
hitch racks range from $80-$160 but would require a 1.25" or 2" receiver hitch (is my car capable of a hitch?)
Dicks has trunk racks for $30-$100. stability and scratching the paint are concerns with this style.

tnd27

· #3 · Sep 22, 2003

bike rack.....

speedemon

· #4 · Sep 22, 2003

hitch mounts are good, but you just have to get a hitch installed. which costs extra. as far as trunk mounts, if you tie them down nice and tight so they dont move, dont worry about your paint. if your going to go on a long trip, from time to time stop and check that the straps arent getting looe. i'd personally prefer a roof mount, but that does get expensive for a good one, but at least you can use if for many other things, like skis, snowboard, canoes, kayaks, ..... etc. if you have a heavy bike, then this route might be a little more of a pain.

i like thule and sportracks, they make really good quality stuff, not to mention that i can get them for cost price

jakerooni

· #5 · Sep 22, 2003

my trunk rack caved my trunk in I tightened it down too much. But their are defiantly the easiest to use. I don;t think a roof rack is feesable because of the sunroof.

tiny1877

· #6 · Sep 22, 2003

Grab some felt pads and get a trunk-mount rack. Roof rack won't work with the sunroof. Receiver-mount requires a receiver, which will cost you probably $100 - $150 to buy and install yourself with no wiring since I'm sure you won't be towing anything with it that will require brake lights or turn signals or anything of that sort.

speedemon

· #7 · Sep 22, 2003

tiny1877 said:
Grab some felt pads and get a trunk-mount rack. Roof rack won't work with the sunroof. Receiver-mount requires a receiver, which will cost you probably $100 - $150 to buy and install yourself with no wiring since I'm sure you won't be towing anything with it that will require brake lights or turn signals or anything of that sort.

you dont even need that, good racks today have some big pads on them

ericksaint

· #8 · Sep 22, 2003

I have a Saris roof rack but never bought the correct load bars for my cav. I think the nicer racks look better than the cheap ones. I didnt buy mine for looks however. It works very well and I always had great customer service from them. The rack comes off as one unit in about 5 mins if you have another person to help and a place to store something that big. Mine was a permanent fixture of my car and never came off till I sold the car.

Unfortunately I dont think it falls in your price range I got everything close to cost and it I think it still cost me somewhere around $550-600 for a 3 bike setup. I will say this however, in my experience you get what you pay for.

For trunk mounts look at the Saris Bones. I tried this and it worked well but as stated above on long trip make sure to check the straps along the way.

gearhead_85

· #9 · Sep 22, 2003

i have a trunk mount one because i bought it used for 20$ cdn. but annyways i have had no problems with it scratching the paint. I too was worried anout that. I have put over 5000 kms with 2 bikes and no scraches.

mrjackson2000

Discussion Starter · #10 · Sep 22, 2003

after looking at trunk racks for a while this morning it came to me that i have an irregular frame

could this be a problem?

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tiny1877

· #11 · Sep 22, 2003

mrjackson2000 said:
after looking at trunk racks for a while this morning it came to me that i have an irregular frame
http://mrjackson.no-ip.com/pictures/random/mongoose.jpg
could this be a problem?

Possibly. Most of the racks hold the crossbar. But there's got to be some way to figure it out. How do they hold the 'female' bikes? You know, the ones with the lowered crossbar. Seems like that wouldn't be that much different than the shape of your bike, at least in the rack-mounting sense...

mrjackson2000

Discussion Starter · #12 · Sep 22, 2003

tiny1877 said:
How do they hold the 'female' bikes?

there's gona be one of them on there too 8)

ericksaint

· #13 · Sep 22, 2003

Another of the racks I had tried was made by either Graber or Rhode Gear. It mounted like a trunk mount but held the bikes by the tires, similar to an upright roof rack. Kinda looked like the bikes were riding up the back window.

Actually I think I still have it in the garage rafters at my parents house, it's a few years old but would be willing to give ya a decent deal on it, if it's still in working order. It was when I stopped using it. I'll look around and see if I can find a pic of it on the web.

Not a good pic, I'm still looking though. It is called the Cradle Shuttle, it holds 2 bikes.

<LINK_TEXT text="http://www.cambriabike.com/SALE/accesso ... huttle.htm">http://www.cambriabike.com/SALE/accessory/rhode_gear_cradle_shuttle.htm</LINK_TEXT>

Best pics so far that show it installed on a car.
http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/user.php?wasions|8066

ridgerunner

· #14 · Sep 22, 2003

I have a Yakima roof rack and their Steelhead bike mount, and I don't see why it matters if you've got a sunroof as long as you check clearances after installation... if it gets in the way, just don't open the sunroof while the rack is on the car. Of course if you accidently drop the bike onto the roof while unloading it, you'd run a risk of breaking the sunroof, instead of just scratching paint and denting metal.

My only real gripe with it is that the "pads" under the front edge of the wind deflector aren't very nice to the paint, so I've got a dull spot under each pad now. But this wind deflector is totally optional. It's just noisy without it.

Overall, the Yakima rack seems to be very nice quality unit that is very secure (locks to the roof and locks the bike to the rack). Here's the breakdown on cost for what mine was:

Towers: (ebay, retail is about $150 incl. locks tho) (Yours will need a slightly more expensive tower since you don't have the "raingutters" exposed)
Crossbars: $40-$50
Wind deflector: $40
Bike mounts: $60 and up, mine was $100. The 48" crossbars (suitable for a J) can hold up to four bikes. Plus there's so much other stuff you can carry.

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speedemon

· #15 · Sep 22, 2003

mrjackson2000 said:
after looking at trunk racks for a while this morning it came to me that i have an irregular frame

could this be a problem?

yes it will be problem. some companies have have this "arm" that clamps on the stem, and onto the seatpost, then the "arm" goes into the rack. this is pretty much the only way to carry such a bike. i couldnt find pics for ya, but ive seem them, so they do exist.

skiporn41080

· #16 · Sep 22, 2003

yes that is going to be a huge problem...you're going to have to order a special bike rack that will fit that...otherwise your bike will fall off....but in choosing bike racks, i have trunk mount and have never had any prob. with it caving or anything like that

ericksaint

· #17 · Sep 22, 2003

Thats why I originally bought the cradle shuttle, it hold the wheels rather than the frame, it's very sturdy. I'm just not sure if it's available anymore. I think it was around $100 when I bought it about 3-4 years ago.

dougall

· #18 · Sep 22, 2003

why would you make a nice cavalier look bad with bike racks? you should get an SUV or something.

mrjackson2000

Discussion Starter · #19 · Sep 22, 2003

dougall said:
why would you make a nice cavalier look bad with bike racks? you should get an SUV or something.

cuz i can't afford a SUV or gas for it, and they can come off

mrjackson2000

Discussion Starter · #20 · Sep 22, 2003

skiporn41080 said:
yes that is going to be a huge problem...you're going to have to order a special bike rack that will fit that

thats one reason i'm leaning tword a roof rack

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